The Final Years

Her personal life also had its ups and downs during this time, including a rumour that she was expecting Sebastians' baby in 1948. But at 39 years old, she miscarried and was told that was her last chance to have a baby, which she wanted desperately. Then the couple spent two months apart in 1949, but reunited with a second honeymoon in San Francisco. Moreover, throughout her career in Hollywood, her countrymen of Brazil (which they resented her heritage as "not Brazilian," but Portuguese) decried her fame, fortune and her "Americanization." Many Brazilians thought she made of mockery of their heritage by making them looking like over-sexed savages or ridiculous, happy fools. This added fuel to her already unstable mental and emotional state, to the point where she herself believed that she somehow betrayed the Brazilian ethos. Late in 1954 she made the trip to Brazil that she had longed for. Her doctor had ordered her rest and her fans and friends became worried about her condition. She was weak, frail, and unable to control her emotions and admittedly very tired. The two day trip was soothing. They stopped over in Lima where the star dressed as "Carmen" and put on makeup in preparation for her landing in Rio. When she arrived she was pleased to be greeted by fans and commented, "My people, I'm happy! I can't say anything else. How good it's to be home." She began singing her hit song, "Boneca de Pixe (Tar Doll)," to her fans and then fainted. Under the care of Dr. Aluizio Sales, she was ordered to solitary confinement and over the course of several months, her condition improved. In April 1955, she returned to Hollywood feeling healthy, looking better than she had in years and willing to go back to the stage.

On August 5 while taping a strenuous dance number for the Jimmy Durante Show, Carmen slipped and collapsed in the final sequence and said, "I'm all out of breath." She left the club where Durantes' show was being taped and joined friends and family members at home for a party. She was in high spirits and despite her delicate health still she laughed and danced and toasted and sang. At two thirty in the morning she retired to her room, put on her pajamas and when walking to the bathroom, she collapsed and died. David Sebastian found her the next morning when he found her lying in her room. People who were in attendance of the party reflected later that as Carmen was dying upstairs, they were downstairs still celebrating, unaware of what was going on above them.

Services were held in California and then Sebastian and Carmen's mother brought her body to Rio for final burial. Nearly one million people lined the streets to bid her a last farewell. She wore a simple red suit and held red rosary beads. Her family insisted the Durante Show be aired and the producer substituted a long shot and omitted her final words. However, what the public saw was a tragic image of a befallen idol on the eve of her death.

Her costumes were donated to Brazil for a "Carmen Miranda Museum."

She overcame odds that few could, and became one of the most popular celebrities around the world. Her celebrity status happened, not because of her wild image of a English impaired Latino," but because of her spirit and willingness to make people happy through entertainment. Those flashing eyes, her dazzling smile and her innate uniqueness that has yet to be paralleled.

Original biography written by Dawn Marie, Bombshells.Com, © 2001.
Sources: IMDB Biography of Carmen Miranda, the mini-biography on the paper doll book by Tom Tierney, The Fox Girls by James Robert Parish and Brazilian Bombshell by Martha Gil-Montero.