One of the most famous actresses of Portuguese theatre and cinema of her generation, Beatriz Costa was also a popular icon. She débuted as a chorister at a young age but found the height of her career in the 1930s, in the movies “A Canção de Lisboa” and “Aldeia da Roupa Branca”. Beatriz Costa was often to be found at A Brasileira do Chiado, where she made friends with Almada Negreiros, Fernando Pessoa, and Stuart Carvalhais, at a time when “ladies did not frequent places where men stayed”, in her own words. It was at the tables of A Brasileira that she learned to write Beatriz with a “z”, with her coffee companions; until she was in her teens, she could barely write at all.