Ivone Silva

Silva was the daughter of José António da Silva and Ermelinda Rosa Nunes Dias, both of whom worked as tailors. She was born on 24 April 1936 in Paio Mendes, a village located in the municipality of Ferreira do Zêzere in Portugal's Santarém District. From a very early age she was exposed to the performing arts, as her father was also an actor, having participated prominently in several Portuguese films. Her sister Linda Silva also became an actress. Their father died when she was 10. Silva left school at 13 and began working as a seamstress and, later, in a shop. At the age of 16, Silva moved to Paris, where she worked for a decade, returning to Portugal in 1963. Following the advice of close friends, who insisted that the theatre was her natural vocation, she decided to stay in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, making her debut at the Teatro ABC in the play Vamos à Festa (Let's go to the party).