orig. Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha
born Feb. 9, 1909, Lisbon, Port.
died Aug. 5, 1955, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.
Brazilian singer and actress.
In the 1930s she was the most popular recording artist in Brazil, where she appeared in five films. Recruited by a Broadway producer, she starred in The Streets of Paris (1939), then made her U.S. film debut in Down Argentine Way (1940). Typecast as the "Brazilian Bombshell" and given such caricatural roles as "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat" in The Gang's All Here (1943), she became the highest-paid female performer in the U.S. during World War II. Her final U.S. film was Scared Stiff (1953).