Grandes Figuras Portuguesas #26 Mouzinho de Albuquerque

João Villaret was born in Lisbon in 1913, the son of doctor Frederico Villaret and Josefina Gouveia da Silva Pereira. He attended the English school on Rua Marquês de Abrantes and then the Liceu de Passos Manuel, where he was a good student. Early showed interest in the arts. At the age of 15 he joined the National Conservatory of Lisbon. Amélia Rey Colaço and Robles Monteiro played a leading role in their theatrical initiation. In 1930 he completed the course and on October 16, 1931 he debuted playing a role in the play Leonor Teles, by Marcelino Mesquita.

He worked in theater, cinema and was a great reciter of poetry, his greatest passion. He was an eclectic actor, because in addition to classical theater he also dedicated himself to magazine theater. He made several tours to Africa and Brazil, where he was seven times. In recent years, on Sundays, he had a program on RTP, where he recited poetry and told curious stories from the cultural world. In one of these episodes, he mentioned that his friend António Botto introduced him to Fernando Pessoa, a meeting that impressed him a lot.

Villaret was diabetic, but he was averse to treatments and diets. In 1958, when he was in Nova Lisboa, he consulted a calista who, by extracting a callus, caused a wound on his foot, which would have dire consequences. He died of renal failure in 1961, at the age of 47.

Part of a collection of 60 medals issued by the newspaper Diário de Noticias in a campaign to increase sales.