The heir to the Santos docks fortune spent it all and died on a state pension in the Rio hotel his family built and sold

In the late 1800s Eduardo Guinle won a 90-year concession to build and operate the docks of Santos, which became Brazil's largest port. Octávio Guinle and Francisco Castro Silva built the Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio de Janeiro from 1919 to 1923, and it opened on 13 August 1923. Jorge Guinle, called Jorginho, attended the opening at seven. He was heir to one of Brazil's largest fortunes and chose not to work. In the 1940s he reviewed Hollywood scripts for accuracy about Brazil and roomed with Errol Flynn; he claimed romances with Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth. He married three times. He spent his inheritance on travel, parties and women. The port concession ended in 1972, and his parties stopped. In 1989 the family sold the hotel to James Sherwood of Sea Containers. Guinle spent his last years on a government pension and help from friends, living in the hotel. He said, "The secret of living well is to die without a cent in your pocket," and added that he had miscalculated and run out too early. He entered hospital on 1 March 2004 with an aortic aneurysm, refused surgery and signed himself out on 4 March. He died in his sleep at the Copacabana Palace at 4:30 a.m. on 5 March, aged 88, and was buried without a wake in the family vault at São João Batista cemetery. LVMH bought the hotel's owner, Belmond, in 2018.