‘Pixote’ Actor Killed in Police Shoot-Out

The youthful protagonist in the film “Pixote,” a dark tale of children reduced to theft and prostitution in order to survive on the streets of Brazil, has been killed in a shoot-out with police, it was reported Wednesday.

Fernando Ramos da Silva was 12 when he appeared in Brazilian director Hector Babenco’s poignantly repulsive tale of desperation, and was 19 when he was killed Tuesday.

Sao Paulo Police Chief Milton Matuck said Ramos da Silva and two other people were killed when police foiled a robbery attempt on a highway in Diadema, an industrial suburb of Brazil’s largest city. He said he had no further details.

In “Pixote” (pronounced “pee-shoat-ee,” which translates as Peewee), Ramos da Silva played the title role--a member of a group of abandoned Sao Paulo youths. In the introduction to the picture Babenco stands in front of the camera in a seedy area of the city and explains that there are 3 million homeless children in Brazil. There follows his tale of a handful of them, particularly Pixote.

The picture (which many critics said would have won an Academy Award for best foreign film of 1981 had not a technicality prevented its nomination) was praised for its foreboding sense of passion. And Ramos da Silva came in for special attention for bringing vibrancy to what could have been a lifeless role.

But the $320 and the glory he received for the role was to prove the apex of his brief career.

By 1984 he had returned to the streets after failing to find other parts. Like his film counterpart, he had been arrested. He confessed to theft charges after stolen goods were found in the home he shared with his mother and four brothers.

“My son has been looking for work for more than a year,” said his mother who was then selling lottery tickets for a living.