Tony Tornado
Antonio Viana Gomes, better known as Tony Tornado or Toni Tornado (Mirante do Paranapanema, May 26, 1930), is a Brazilian actor and singer. In 1970 he won the Brazilian stage of the V International Song Festival with the soul song "BR-3". Biography Son of a Guyanese father and a Brazilian mother, at 11 years old Tony ran away from home and ended up in Rio de Janeiro where he became a street kid and made a living selling peanuts and shining shoes. At 18 he served in the Deodoro School of Parachuting along with the future TV presenter and entrepreneur Silvio Santos. In 1957, he fought in the Suez Canal. Tony began his artistic career in the '60s with the stage name Tony Checker, lip-synching and dancing on Jair Taumaturgo's show Hoje é dia de rock. That time Tony imitated singers Chubby Checker and Little Richard. After that, he traveled to the United States, where he lived for five years in New York. In New York, Tony worked as a drug dealer and pimp, to deceive the immigration department, pretending to be an employee of a car wash. At that time, Tony met Tim Maia, another Brazilian singer who was