Actor, director, and producer. He was considered by many one of the greatest Portuguese actors of all time. After growing up in Serpa, he came to Lisbon with his family, having attended the Camões Lyceum and the Faculty of Law. In his free time he studied singing, joining the choir of the Juventude Musical Portuguesa ("Portuguese Musical Youth"). He quickly dropped out of college, ending up graduating in Theatre at the National Conservatory of Lisbon, in 1960. He debuted as an actor in the play "Leonor Telles," at the Trindade Theatre, on April 20, 1960. Shortly after, he became very popular in comedy and became a regular presence in Lisbon theatres, paving the way to a career that spanned more than fifty years. After the April 25, 1974 Revolution, which ended the Censorship, he conceived his first television program: "Nicolau no País das Maravilhas" (1975). This program had a sketch called "Senhor Feliz e Senhor Contente," which would launch a young aspiring talent, Herman José, who would become the country's first name in comedy. In the early 1980s, he emerged as a leading television and film actor and, simultaneously, as director and co-author of the script for the first Portuguese soap opera: "Vila Faia" (1982). This was followed by the founding of NBP Produções (today Plural Entertainment), his own television production company, where he would be administrator, director and producer. These activities made him a true precursor of the television fiction industry in Portugal. Without ever leaving his acting career, he conceived other television productions, such as the sitcoms "Eu Show Nico" (1980) and "Euronico" (1990), and participated as an actor in many others: "Gente Fina é Outra Coisa" (1982), "Nico D'Obra" (1993-96), "Reformado e Mal Pago" (1996), "Santos da Casa" (2003) or "Aqui Não Há Quem Viva" (2006-08), to name a few. He participated in several television series like "O Espelho dos Acácios" (1978), "Conde D'Abranhos" (2000), "A Ferreirinha" (2004), "Pedro e Inês" (2005), "Quando os Lobos Uivam" (2006), "Equador" (2008), "Morangos com Açúcar" (2009), etc. He also participated in numerous soap operas: "Origens" (1983), "Cinzas" (1992-93), "Verão Quente" (1993), "Primeiro Amor" (1995-96), "Vidas de Sal" (1996), "Fúria de Viver" (2001-02), "Vingança" (2007), "Flor do Mar" (2008), "Meu Amor" (2009), "Louco Amor" (2012-13), "O Beijo do Escorpião" (2014), or "Jardins Proibidos" (2015). Throughout his career, he participated in almost fifty films, by Portuguese filmmakers from different generations, such as Augusto Fraga, Perdigão Queiroga, Henrique Campos, José Ernesto de Souza, Herlander Peyroteo, Artur Semedo, Luís Galvão Teles, Fernando Lopes, Jorge Paixão da Costa, António Pedro Vasconcelos, Roberto Faenza, Joaquim Leitão, Leonel Vieira, Mário Barroso, João Botelho and Bille August. One of his most recent appearances was in the film "Night Train to Lisbon," adapted from the book of the same name by Pascal Mercier, which premiered in 2013. For his performances on the big screen, he received three Portuguese Golden Globes for Best Actor, with "Kiss Me" (2004), "O Milagre Segundo Salomé" (2004) and "Os Imortais" (2003). In 2005, 25 years after his absence from theatre, he returned to the stage to perform the monologue "Esta Noite Choveu Prata." This was followed by his last stage performance, with the play "O efeito laranja," in 2006. Both were also directed by him. He voiced the character Gru, in the Portuguese dubbing of the film "Despicable Me" (2013), in the sequel "Despicable Me 2" (2015) and in the film "Minions" (2015). His last participation on television was in the soap opera "A Impostora" (2016), having died before the end of the recordings, and, in cinema, in the film "A Ilha dos Cães" (2017), which premiered after his death. On June 9, 2005, he was awarded by the President of the Republic, Jorge Sampaio, with the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Merit and, on April 22, 2016, by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, with the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Prince Henry, posthumously. His funeral gathered large crowds and was televised by all Portuguese news channels. He was cremated at Alto de São João Cemetery in Lisbon.