Laura Cardoso, Brazilian TV and Theater Legend, Dies at 98 in São Paulo

Laura Cardoso, one of Brazil’s most enduring television and theater actresses, died at age 98 on the night of Monday, August 17, 2026, at her home in the Sumaré neighborhood of São Paulo. Her family confirmed the death in the early hours of Tuesday, August 18 through her official Instagram account, managed by her great-grandson Fernando Faria.

The family said she died of natural causes. No further medical details were released.

Editor’s note: This article draws on family statements via Instagram, reporting from Folha de S.Paulo, G1, Quem, and TV Pop, and career records from Brazilian media, August 17–18, 2026.

How the family announced her death

On the actress’s official Instagram page, the family posted:

“Our great star has said goodbye to us. Laura Cardoso will forever be in our hearts. Thank you for everything, our beloved and eternal Laura Cardoso.”

Faria shared the same message on his personal account. The post did not specify a cause beyond what family members later described as natural causes at home.

Cardoso is survived by two daughters, Fernanda and Fátima Cardoso, three grandchildren, and her great-grandson Fernando Faria.

Funeral arrangements

A private wake for Cardoso is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18, at the Funeral Home in the Bela Vista district of São Paulo, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. local time.

Faria told Quem that the ceremony will be closed to the public, though the family said tributes outside the venue would be welcome. Brazilian outlets reported that colleagues and longtime friends from across the industry were expected to attend the closed service.

A career spanning more than eight decades

Born Laurinda de Jesus Cardoso on July 13, 1927, in São Paulo, Cardoso was the daughter of Portuguese immigrants from Trás-os-Montes. She grew up in a working-class Bexiga neighborhood household; her father, a merchant who loved theater, supported her ambitions while her mother initially resisted the idea of a daughter on stage.

Cardoso began performing at age 15, starting in radio in the 1940s before becoming a pioneer of Brazilian television drama. Over more than 80 years, she played an estimated 150 characters across radio, theater, film, and television — including more than 100 telenovela roles at networks such as TV Tupi, Record, Band, and, from 1983, TV Globo, where she held a lifetime contract.

Era	Highlights
1940s–1960s	Radio and early TV; TV Tupi’s first daily soap, Quando o Amor É Mais Forte (1964)
1968–1973	Record productions including As Pupilas do Senhor Reitor
1980s–1990s	Globo staples: Fera Radical, Felicidade, Mulheres de Areia, A Viagem, Irmãos Coragem
2010s–2020s	Outro Lado do Paraíso, final telenovela A Dona do Pedaço (2019), short film Dona Rosinha (2025)

Among her most remembered characters were Dona Isaura in Mulheres de Areia (1993), Dona Guiomar in A Viagem (1994), and Dona Cândida in Felicidade (1991–1992). In her final telenovela, A Dona do Pedaço, she played Matilde Azevedo, a grandmother in a nursing home cared for by her granddaughter — a role that echoed themes of aging and abandonment she returned to in later work.

Recent appearances and honors

Although Cardoso stepped back from regular telenovela work after 2019, she remained a visible figure at Globo:

• In October 2025, she received a star on the Globo Studios Walk of Fame and attended the inauguration ceremony.
• She participated in Globo’s 2025 year-end vignette, reuniting on camera with veterans including Tony Ramos and Susana Vieira.
• In 2024, she appeared in the Globoplay series Tributo, in an episode honoring her career.
• Her last film role was in the 2025 short Dona Rosinha, about an elderly woman abandoned at a bus stop by her daughter.
• On stage, she narrated the play E o Zé, Quem É? in 2023.

Her official Instagram account, with more than one million followers, often shared family moments, reading habits, and memories from her long career.

On mortality — in her own words

In a 2019 cover interview with Quem — the same year she starred in A Dona do Pedaço — Cardoso spoke openly about death:

“I joke with my daughters that I’m only afraid of ghosts. But I have no fears, not even of death. It’s silly to fear death! It is unpredictable, but inevitable. We don’t know when it comes, but it is certain for everyone — it just doesn’t say when. I love life, I thank God for reaching this age, but one day we go.”

She was widowed from Fernando Ballerini and had spoken in past interviews about the loss of a third child, José, who died at three days old.

Tributes from colleagues

News of Cardoso’s death drew immediate reaction across Brazilian entertainment.

• Miguel Falabella, actor and director, wrote on Instagram that he met her in the late 1980s and shared decades of theater, television, and friendship: “Laura was gigantic, compulsive, and had a talent that did not fit in her small body.”
• Comedian Marcelo Adnet posted: “Eternal.”
• Erick Marmo, who worked with her on Gabriela (2012), called her a “wonderful artist” and “a source of inspiration with all her wisdom and generosity.”
• Actress Fabiana Karla wrote that she had not been prepared for such a farewell.

Brazilian media widely described Cardoso as one of the defining faces of the country’s dramaturgy — an artist who bridged radio, the golden age of telenovelas, and contemporary streaming-era retrospectives.

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Discussion

Cardoso’s death closes a chapter in Brazilian television history that began before most current viewers were born.

1. Which Laura Cardoso role or moment stays with you — and why?

Was it Mulheres de Areia, A Dona do Pedaço, a theater performance, or something you saw only in clips and reruns? What did her screen presence mean in your household?

2. As Brazilian telenovelas evolve for streaming and shorter formats, what is lost — and what is preserved — when a pioneer like Cardoso leaves the stage?

Do lifetime contracts, studio walk-of-fame honors, and reunion vignettes keep that history alive, or does the industry move on too quickly?

Share the character, scene, or memory that comes to mind when you hear her name.