Fernando Ramos da Silva
Brazilian actor

Fernando Ramos da Silva (29 November 1967 – 25 August 1987) was a Brazilian actor who became known for his role in Hector Babenco's 1980 film Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco, a documentary-style account of the street children of Brazil. Da Silva became a controversial figure after the film's release and found it hard to separate himself from his depiction as the street assailant Pixote.
On 25 August 1987, da Silva was fatally wounded in an alleged shootout with police. Police reports claim that da Silva was resisting arrest, but there are conflicting reports from eyewitnesses who claim da Silva was unarmed.
Early life
Born on 29 November 1967 in São Paulo, da Silva was the sixth of ten children. When he was eight years old, his father died, leaving him with his widowed mother and the rest of his siblings. They lived in a poor city called Diadema on the outskirts of São Paulo.
As the opening of Pixote states, his upbringing was similar to that of the role he would end up portraying. His mother received a pension of less than $10 a month. The family sold lottery tickets to generate a livable income.
The public source identifies “Fernando Ramos da Silva” as brazilian actor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fernando, Ramos and Silva.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10281499. VIAF identifies the subject as 44039435. The Library of Congress control number is n88235407. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967, 1987 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fernando Ramos da Silva” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.