Brazilian entertaining legend Silvio Santos dies at 93

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Silvio Santos, a Brazilian television executive and presenter known for his beaming smile and catchphrase “Who wants money?” has died after a decades-long career in the spotlight. He was 93.

Santos owned the television network SBT and created several variety shows. The most famous of them carried his name, which he hosted since 1963, and in recent years had aired on Sunday nights. It is one of Brazil’s longest-running television programs. Santos brought several other successful programs to his network, such as “Show of the Million” and the reality show “Artists’ House.”

“Today heaven is happy with the arrival of our beloved Silvio Santos. He lived 93 years to bring happiness and love to all Brazilians. … That wide smile and familiar voice will forever be remembered with much gratitude,” the SBT network said in a statement Saturday on social media.

The Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo said that he died of bronchopneumonia resulting from an H1N1 infection, for which he had been admitted in recent weeks.

His passing will change weekends in millions of Brazilian homes that have tuned in to the “Silvio Santos Program” and were welcomed by its opening jingle: “Here comes Silvio Santos!” He folded airplanes of cash and tossed them over the crowd during his show, some episodes of which extended for as long as 10 hours. He constantly interacted with audience members and — with a custom microphone attached to his collar -- was free to wave his hands in the air.

Even into his 90s, he continued dying his hair brown, adding to the agelessness he exuded. His well-groomed hair became another of his trademarks.

In 2013, Forbes magazine compared him to Oprah Winfrey and movie directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

“Silvio Santos was the greatest personality in the history of Brazilian television, and one of the country’s greatest communicators,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on X. “His departure leaves a void on Brazilian television and marks the end of an era,” he added.

Santos was known universally by his stage name, though he was born Senor Abravanel in the raucous Lapa neighborhood of downtown Rio de Janeiro. As an adolescent, he sold pens and plastic sleeves for electoral identification cards and did tricks with coins and playing cards.

So engaging were his sales pitches that they led to an offer to audition to be a radio host. He bounced from station to station in Rio and after a stint in the military finally found media success in Sao Paulo. His first television job came in the early 1960s with the Globo network, called at that time TV Paulista, where the “Silvio Santos Program” was later born.

About a decade later, he acquired his first television concession and set out to build an empire. He founded SBT, which by 2021 was the third most-watched network among the country’s 214 million people.

Not all of his quips landed well. He was repeatedly accused of misogyny for comments about women’s appearances or that caused discomfort. On at least two occasions, he declined to embrace female starlets on his show, saying he didn’t want to get “excited.” In 2016, he asked a 5-year-old girl on air whether she preferred sex, drugs or money. But, as the owner of his network, he never faced any punishment.

Santos also had ventures in cosmetics, hotels and even a bank. Forbes estimated Santos’ net worth from 30 companies to be 2 billion reais (about $380 million) in 2020.

His broad appeal — not to mention his control over airwaves — at times drew the attention of political parties that proposed putting him up as a candidate for office. He tested the waters in 1989, with the launch of a presidential campaign, but the electoral authority barred his candidacy due to his ownership of a television network.

Still, he remained close to politicians, and kept a program on air for 15 years titled “The President’s Week.” It exhibited positive things the leader had accomplished and was set to a soundtrack of trumpets and drums. It lauded the achievements of the last general who commanded Brazil during the dictatorship, João Figueiredo, up to Fernando Henrique Cardoso toward the turn of the century.

Later, Presidents Lula and Dilma Rousseff participated in a documentary about Santos shown in 2021, in honor of SBT’s 40th anniversary.

One of his sons-in-law, Fabio Faria, became the minister of communications under President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration.

In January 2022, Faria posted on Instagram a black-and-white video showing Santos’ career that was narrated by the presenter himself.

“I’m just a street peddler in a suit and tie selling my products, selling the ads, the programs,” the presenter said in the video. “I also believe that it’s the voice, that there is something inexplicable about it. Because it’s the voice that touches the viewer, touches you who are on the other side.”

Santos is survived by his wife, Iris Abravanel, and six daughters.

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AP writer David Biller contributed from Rio de Janeiro