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Son of Laurindo Dionísio and Maria Assunção Martins Viana. His parents separated when he was 3, and his sister 2. His father settled in Angola; his mother worked as a dressmaker in Lisbon, raising the family with financial help from his grandmother. He studied at Machado de Castro Industrial School.
From the age of 13, his drawings were published in "O Senhor Doutor", "Pim Pam Pum" (children's supplements in both leading national dailies "O Século" and "Diário de Notícias") and the only weekly paper for children at that time, "O Papagaio". He was then offered an apprenticeship as a photo-offset printer at Casa Bertrand e Irmãos, a bookshop and printing house. Before finishing the mandatory one-year training, his draughtsman skills were so well developed that he was paid a proper salary, and was offered extra drawing jobs for press advertising.
From the window of his bedroom in a working class district, he witnessed brutal knife-attacks by members of Legião Portuguesa (a Nazi-like pro-government organization) on leftist demonstrators, and started reading the clandestine communist newspaper "Avante!" in secret. His uncle, José Viana, a viola player, and Tavares Belo, then a young musician and composer, were lodgers at his grandmother's pension; they encouraged his love of music, and he began playing the viola himself. His talent was such that he was able to compose by ear, and had some success (with a friend) in one of many nightclub bands "Os Loucos do Ritmo". Later he joined various amateur bands as a singer, including the Orquestra Ibérica, with whom he toured Lisbon night-clubs. Even though he was paid much more for a one-night cabaret stint than in one month as a printer, he always considered his day job his real work. Constantly aware of social and political problems, he expressed his awareness in humorous drawings and dark, neo-realistic paintings.
In 1947, he was one of many neo-realists present at the II General Exhibit of Plastic Arts, promoted by MUD (Democratic Unitarian Movement) at the prestigious Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, when the secret police raided the gallery, confiscating his and seventeen other works. His first composition, an oil painting, was bought later by the Callouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and now has a place in its contemporaneous art collection.
He was a publicist for Sonoro Films, a production and distribution company in Lisbon, and became head of Gong, and two other advertising agencies, while still creating artwork for the humorous newspaper, "Os Ridículos". After World War II, he became a scenic artist for a number of review companies, and also played small parts in amateur dramatic groups under his real name, Viana Dionísio; António Pedro and Jacinto Ramos were two of the prestigious actors with whom he worked.
In 1947, he becomes a professional actor, having studied at the Lisbon Conservatorium, but after his first acting work (at Labiche's Parapluie d'Italie), the critics were so harsh that he changed his artistic name to José Viana, the name of his uncle. In December 1951, he replaced Estevão Amarante who died in the middle of a successful company tour, and later joined several theatrical companies with which he toured Brazil {where he married vaudeville actress Juju Batista} and Portugal African colonies, later settling in Angola, where he also worked as an artist, exhibiting work in Luanda, Lobito and Benguela.
In 1957, he returned to Portugal to work in television, where he gained success as an artist in the program "Riscos e Gatafunhos" by creating instant charcoal sketches. In addition, the national television broadcasting company RTP often called on him to recreate some of his best stage characters. In the program "TV Clube", he sang "Fado de uma nota só" (a parody on the Brazilean "Samba de uma nota só", in which he says goodbye to his last, small banknote), as a homeless character in "Vagabundo de Lisboa" and as a popular ferryboat-sailor in "Zé Cacilheiro". In the program "Melodias de Sempre", he played mostly humorous characters, such as a simpleton soldier in "Fado do 31"; a romantic hard-working mountain farmer in "Romance na Serra" (an operetta); a traditional catholic in "Senhora de Matosinhos"; and a railway-station guard in "Quem tem boca vai a Roma". His many talents included writing for the theatre (1959, "Mulheres à Vista") and stage directing (1963, "Elas São o Espectáculo"). In the latter production he met, and later married Dora Leal, then a young starlet. From then until the democratic revolution of 1974, he worked actively in the theatre, mainly concentrating on tongue-in-cheek political jokes and vaudeville sketches, all the time scrutinized by the official censor. After 1974, with other politically aware comedians, he wrote and acted in a number of comedies and vaudeville shows but as the political struggle became more acute in Portugal, it became harder to please the public with the same jokes, and by 1987 he had returned to painting.
His appearances in movies are notable, ranging from roles in O Recado (1972), A Fuga (1978), A Ilha (1990), to short dramatic works such as_Relojoeiro, O (1998) (TV)_. He had one daughter, Maria Viana, who became a blues singer, with his first wife, and with his second wife he had two daughters, Raquel Maria, and Madalena Leal, both now involved in the theatre.
José Viana was awarded the Ordem do Infante D. Henrique (the highest national honour) for Cultural Merit, by the President of the Republic for his 50 year long career in the arts on June 10 1997. (José Viana, 50 anos de carreira, 1998)
