[Deathwatch] Jorge Guinle, Brazilian playboy, 88

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

How much can one loyal reader provide? - Ed.

Once Wealthy Playboy Jorge Guinle Dies	
Fri Mar 5

By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Jorge Guinle, a once wealthy playboy who
claimed to have romanced Jayne Mansfield, Lana Turner and Rita
Hayworth, died Friday, doctors said. He was 88.

Guinle died at the Copacabana Palace Hotel, which his family once
owned, after refusing to undergo surgery to remove an aneurism in his
aorta, said officials from Ipanema Hospital.

A scion of one of Brazil's wealthiest families, 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."

Guinle's family fortune dated back to the 1890s, when his father
Eduardo won a 90-year concession to build and operate the port of
Santos, which became Brazil's largest.

When Guinle was 16, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stayed at his
family home at the request of Brazilian President Getulio Vargas.

In the 1940s, Guinle took one of his rare jobs, working for his friend
Nelson Rockefeller. Guinle reviewed 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, Guinle was friendly with such stars as
Orson Welles, Ronald Reagan and Errol Flynn, who he roomed with for a
time.

Known popularly as "Jorginho," or little Jorge, 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.

Guinle married three times, once with an American nurse and twice with
Brazilian women.

He is survived by his daughter Georgiana and a son Gabriel. His son
Jorge Jr. died of AIDS in 1987.

Guinle was to be buried Friday in Rio de Janeiro.