Antônio Arnaud Rodrigues, or simply Arnaud Rodrigues (pronounced: ahr-NOW-dy ho-DREE-geese) was a Brazilian actor, singer, composer, writer, and comedian. In the 1984 Brazilian parody film Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz, Rodrigues played the character Soró.
Biography[]
Born in the municipality of Serra Talhada, Pernambuco, Arnaud Rodrigues worked on Chico Anysio's programs on TV Globo and on several other humorous programs, both as an actor and as a writer. In the 1970s, with Chico Anysio and instrumentalist Renato Piau, he formed the musical group Baiano & os Novos Caetanos, in which he played the singer Paulinho Cabeça de Profeta. The initiative yielded four studio albums, Bahiano & Os Novos Caetanos I and II, A volta e Sudameris, also boosting Arnaud's career as a musician, who would end up releasing a few more solo albums.
In 1978, Arnaud Rodrigues recorded the track “A Carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha”, integrated into the disk Redescobrimento, the first roots reggae recorded in Brazil.
Arnaud Rodrigues is also credited as one of the precursors of Brazilian rap. His track “Melô do Tagarela”, which was released as a compact by RCA in 1979 and sung and spoken by Luiz Carlos Miéle, under a sample of Rapper’s Delight, by the American group Sugarhill Gang, was the first version of a rap recorded in Brazil.
Arnaud Rodrigues as Soró in Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz
In teledramaturgy he had some notable works, such as Cego Jeremias, a walking singer from the 1985 version of the telenovela “Roque Santeiro”, in addition to the northeastern immigrant Soró, a naive and good-humored character created by writer Walther Luís for the telenovela “Pão Pão, Beijo Beijo”. Soró was so successful among the public that Arnaud would return to play him in the film Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz.
In the 1980s, he joined the group of comedians on the TV show “A Praça é Nossa” under the command of veteran Carlos Alberto de Nóbrega, where he played characters like “O Povo Brasileiro” (always poor and tired), the womanizer Coronel Totonho, and the sertanejo singer Chitãoró (a satire on the sertanejo duo Chitãozinho e Xororó), in the sketch “Chitãoró e Xorãozinho” where he acted alongside the comedian (and later director of Praça) Marcelo de Nóbrega.
In 1999, after performing two shows in the city of Palmas, he decided to move with his family to Tocantins, where he took on the role of director of Palmas Futebol e Regatas. In 2004 he left Praça to dedicate himself to his solo shows and football, but in 2010 he planned his return to the cast of the comedy, in addition to producing a variety program on a Tocantins television channel.
On February 16, 2010, Arnaud was with ten other people on a boat on the lake at Usina de Lajeado, 26 kilometers from Palmas, when, at around 5:30 pm, the boat capsized due to heavy rain and winds typical of the region at this time of year. Nine occupants of the boat, including the comedian's wife and two of his grandchildren, were rescued by local residents, but Arnaud's body would only be found by firefighters hours later, while the boat's pilot remained missing. Despite knowing how to swim, the long time spent in the water probably made the incident fatal.