Jorge Guinle dies, went from playboy to pauper
Mr. Guinle died at the Copacabana Palace Hotel, which his family once owned, after refusing to undergo surgery to remove an aneurysm in his aorta, officials from Ipanema Hospital said.
A scion of one of Brazil's wealthiest families, Mr. Guinle squandered his fortune and spent his final years scraping by on a government pension and with the help of friends.
"The secret of living well is to die without a cent in your pocket," he once said. "But I miscalculated, and the money ran out too early."
Mr. Guinle's family fortune dated back to the late 1800s, when his father won a 90-year concession to build and operate the port of Santos, which became Brazil's largest.
In the 1940s, Mr. Guinle, using his family connections, took one of his rare jobs, reviewing Hollywood scripts to make sure they did not mistakenly place the Brazilian capital in Buenos Aires or have Brazilians speaking Spanish, rather than Portuguese.
During his time in Hollywood, he was friendly with such stars as Orson Welles, Ronald Reagan and Errol Flynn, whom he roomed with for a time.
Known popularly as "Jorginho," or little Jorge, Mr. Guinle was 5 feet 5 inches tall. In interviews and in his memoirs, he claimed to have romanced some of the world's most glamorous women, including Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr, Veronica Lake, Jane Russell and Kim Novak.
Mr. Guinle, who married three times, was often referred to as the "last real playboy" for his lavish lifestyle and determination to spend every cent of his fortune. But his lavish champagne parties fizzled out after the port concession ended in 1972.
When asked to compare himself to most modern-day playboys, Mr. Guinle told Istoé magazine last year: "They make a huge mistake, they work. ... And my curriculum of women is much better."
Material from Reuters is included in this report.