Roberta Close was born on December 12, 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as Luíz Roberto Gambine Moreira. She is an actress, known for O Escorpião Escarlate (1990), Si tu vas à Rio... tu meurs (1987) and Mandacaru (1997). She has been married to Roland Granacher since 1993.
She and Swiss businessman husband Roland Granacher separated after seven years of marriage, reportedly as a result of Close's highly publicized romantic exploits with other celebrities.
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Lives in Switzerland (1997)
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In 1985, she had her first major film role in the comedy "Si tu vas a Rio . . . tu muers," which launched her to celebrity status in Brazil.
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Challenged the Brazilian legal statutes that prevented her from using her preferred name, Luíza Bambine Moreira, or declaring her sex as female on official documents. She took her case to the Brazilian Supreme Court, which, in 1997, ruled against her. In 1999, she was arrested for using a passport with her proscribed identity.
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Became the first pre-operative transsexual model to pose nude for the Brazilian edition of Playboy.
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At eighteen, Moreira reported for military conscription wearing a dress. She was exempted, but her father, an officer in the army, disowned her as a result.
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Although content being transgendered, she was pressured by her agency and others to become a transsexual, and her reassignment surgery was performed in London at Charing Cross Clinic in 1989. After her recovery, she appeared in an extensive photo spread in the Brazilian men's magazine "Sexy", and was subsequently voted by readers "Most Beautiful Woman in Brazil."
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Acquired the pseudonym Roberta Close after having gained talent agency representation.