Dan Stulbach

Dan Stulbach, the actor, was born in Brazil in 1969.  He graduated in Social Communication at the Higher School of Advertising and Marketing in Sao Paulo.  There, Dan created a theater group from which he directed shows.  

Later, he lived in San Diego and New York studying English and taking advantage of opportunities to see movies and plays.  Dan bears a resemblance to the American actor Tom Hanks.

I first saw him in the Brazilian telenovela, Mulheres Apaixonades (Women in Love), where Dan portrayed Marcos, a man who occasionally beat his wife with a tennis racquet.

Several months ago, we learned that Dan had rented an apartment in our building in Sao Paulo.  Cristina and I were anxious see the celebrity in our midst.  I saw him a couple of times.

Last month I was standing by the elevator in the building's garage waiting for Cristina to park the car when a man approached me.  I told him in Portuguese that I was waiting for my wife.  He noticed my foreign accent and asked me where I was from.  I asked him where he thought I was from.  He guessed Germany.  I corrected him.  

When Cristina arrived, she engaged the man in an extended conversation.  When she finally entered the elevator with me, I asked whom she was talking to.  Dan Stulbach.  I had not recognized him in the somewhat darkened garage.

The very next day, Cristina and I were on our way to our local cinema to see the film, Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here) starring Fernanda Torres.  On the steps in front of our building, we ran into Dan again.  

This time we engaged in a conversation with him in both Portuguese and English.  It turns out all three of us saw Tom Hanks in his Broadway play, Lucky Guy.  Dan got a chance to briefly meet Tom backstage.

Very soon after the movie started we were shocked to see our new friend Dan was in Ainda Estou Aqui as a family friend (Baby) of the protagonist (Eunice).  When does that ever happen...to see a person on the street...and then in a movie on the same day?

Very recently at the Golden Globe's award show, Fernanda Torres won the Best Actress Award in a Drama.  I thought of the scene she had, one on one, with our friend, Dan Stulbach.