Antônio Viana Gomes, better known as Tony Tornado (pronounced: TOE-knee tor-NAH-doo), is a Brazilian actor and singer. In the 1984 Brazilian parody film Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz, Tony Tornado played the Carcará leader.
Biography[]
Born in the municipality of Mirante do Paranapanema, São Paulo, to a Guyanese father and Brazilian mother, Antônio Viana Gomes ran away from home at the age of 12 and ended up in Rio de Janeiro where he became a street child and made a living selling peanuts and shining shoes.
Tony began his artistic career in the 1960s with the stage name Tony Checker, dubbing and dancing on the program "Hoje é Dia de Rock" by Jair de Taumaturgo, at that time Tony imitated singers Chubby Checker and Little Richard. Still in the 1960s, Tony traveled to the United States where he lived for five years in New York. In New York, Tony worked as a drug dealer and pimp. To fool the immigration department, he pretended to be a car wash employee. At that time, Tony met another Brazilian who also lived in New York, singer Tim Maia.
Back in Brazil in 1969, he worked with Ed Lincoln and, under the pseudonym Johnny Bradfort, he sang in a nightclub whose owner forced him to pretend to be a foreigner. Singer Emílio Santiago replaced Tony Tornado in the musical group, when he left to compete for the V Festival Internacional da Canção, in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1970, he adopted the name by which he became known "Tony Tornado". Influenced by James Brown, Tony was one of the artists who introduced soul music and funk to Brazilian music.
That same year, alongside Trio Ternura, he defended the song BR-3, which took first place at the festival. He debuted on television in 1972 with the telenovela "Jerônimo", on TV Tupi.
He frequently participates in several telenovelas and miniseries. The biggest role of his career on TV was Gregório Fortunato, the “Black Angel”, head of personal security for president and statesman Getúlio Vargas, in the 1993 miniseries "Agosto" based on the work of Rubem Fonseca. Another notable role in his career was the foreman Rodésio, who worked for the widow Porcina (Regina Duarte), in "Roque Santeiro" – so notable that, in one of the recorded endings, it was Rodésio who finished alongside Porcina, however that ending was vetoed by Globo for fear of the public's reaction.
Tony returned to performing on stages across the country singing his biggest hits, accompanied by the band Funkessência and his son, singer and actor Lincoln Tornado.
In 2016, Tony participated in a video for the song "Mandamentos Black" by Gerson King Combo in a marketing campaign for the streaming platform Netflix to promote the series "The Get Down" about the emergence of hip hop in the 1970s.