Brazil's 'last playboy' bows out

Guinle: Once a fixture on Rio's social scene

The man regarded as Brazil's last playboy, famous for dating a string of film stars, has died at the age of 88.

Jorginho Guinle checked out of hospital to spend his last night in the luxury Rio de Janeiro hotel he once owned.

Guinle in his heyday was linked with screen goddesses including Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Anita Ekberg.

"The secret of a happy life is to die without a cent in your pocket," he once said, "but I think I miscalculated" - a reference to his exhausted fortune.

Sin of working

Guinle was renowned for throwing lavish champagne parties attended by the international jet-set that made Rio a hot destination in the 1950s and 1960s.

The dapper socialite was often shorter than his dates, standing 1.65m (5ft 5in), but with his deep blue eyes he oozed charm. He was married three times.

Guinle squandered a family fortune dating back to the 1890s

Asked to compare himself with modern-day playboys, Guinle last year told a Brazilian magazine, Istoe: " They commit the sin of working... And my curriculum of women is much better."

His family's fortune, put at some $2bn in today's money, was made by his father.

The Guinle family, as wealthy Rio socialites, built the Copacabana Palace, Rio's most glamorous hotel where Jorginho lived almost his entire life.

But the money fizzled out and the hotel was sold. For the past 15 years, Guinle lived off an allowance paid by friends and was a welcome guest at the hotel.

Refusing surgery on an aortic aneurysm, Guinle left hospital on Thursday.

"He was treated as a prince. He died as he wished to. Coming here was his last wish," hotel spokeswoman Claudia Fialho told Reuters news agency.

Guinle died on Friday morning.