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Gastão Gracie Filho

Third of the five Gracie brothers, Gastão Jr. is one of five pioneers the IBJJF lists as 10th-degree red belts, though by one account he never fought.

Biography

Gastão Gracie Filho, also known as Gastão Jr., was the third of the five Gracie brothers, born in 1906 after Carlos and Oswaldo and before George and Hélio. According to the researcher Roberto Pedreira, he was the brother who never fought. He also kept largely out of the Brazilian newspapers, which still counted him among the "Gracie Brothers" when the situation called for it. The graduation system of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) nonetheless names him, with Carlos, Oswaldo, George and Hélio, as one of the five pioneers of Brazilian jiu-jitsu to whom the 10th-degree red belt was given. In that system the red belt is the grand master's belt of the 9th and 10th degrees, and the 10th is kept for those five alone. His parents were living in Belém do Pará when he was born, and his father, also named Gastão Gracie, had gone into business there importing dynamite. BJJ Heroes repeats a story, told as hearsay, that the father kept his dynamite in the boy's room and that young Gastão often slept on top of it. In 1921, after financial setbacks and the death of the boy's grandfather, the family returned to Rio de Janeiro. BJJ Heroes also says that Gastão learned to read and write only at 16, after which he went to Juiz de Fora to help run a bar the family owned there. Accounts of how he came to jiu-jitsu differ. BJJ Heroes, which traces his lineage from Mitsuyo Maeda through Carlos, says that Gastão, like Oswaldo, learned from his eldest brother, who had begun holding classes so that what he had picked up from Maeda would stay sharp while Maeda was away. The Wikipedia article on the family instead has Maeda's teaching reach Carlos and his brothers through local coaches in Rio de Janeiro. In the BJJ Heroes account, Carlos opened his first academy in 1925, and Oswaldo and Gastão, who already knew the art, were the first to help him teach while George and Hélio watched and learned. The profile says Gastão taught there for five years, taking on part-time work to cover the gym's costs through lean periods. It describes him as the brother least driven to compete but the most amiable, and a favorite with the students. Citing Reila Gracie's biography of Carlos, it also calls him a mystic who thought he could see the auras around people and heal them by hypnosis. The 1925 date is contested. The family's own account in Gracies in Action (1988) goes further: all five brothers, it says, opened Brazil's first jiu-jitsu academy that year. Pedreira disputes the 1925 founding. He cites Hélio's statement in 1951 that none of the family knew anything of jiu-jitsu before 1929 or 1930, and reports that Reila Gracie describes the 1925 "academy" as a spare room in the house the family rented. By his account, Rio's first proper academy opened in 1930 under Donato Pires dos Reis, with Carlos and George as monitors. Pedreira does name Gastão when he writes about how the early Gracies taught: in his view, the method for which Hélio was much praised was the one George, Oswaldo, Gastão and Takeo Yano also used, the Japanese habit of teaching material in small, simple steps, one after another. BJJ Heroes has Gastão leaving for São Paulo in 1930 and staying four years. In 1934 he was back in Rio de Janeiro, coaching at the Gracie academy again while also working as head of security at the Copacabana Palace hotel. The return was short: he went back to São Paulo for good, where, according to the profile, he taught mainly as a private instructor to people in positions of influence, among them Congressman Ademar Barros, as well as at the Officers' School. In a profile of another São Paulo teacher, Octavio de Almeida, BJJ Heroes names a Gastão Gracie academy, alongside Almeida's own and Pedro Hemetério's, as one of the very few in the area in the 1950s and 1960s, and one that charged considerably more than Almeida did. A user-contributed family tree on FamilySearch records his death in São Paulo in 2001.

Sources for this profile

  • BJJ Heroes, "Gastao Gracie" (fighter profile, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • BJJ Heroes profiles him as Gastão Gracie Filho ('Filho' meaning Junior), a brother of Carlos, Oswaldo, George and Hélio Gracie, and gives his lineage as Mitsuyo Maeda, then Carlos Gracie, then Gastão Gracie.

      Where in the source: Profile fields below the introduction: the Full Name and Lineage lines.

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes says Gastão was born in 1906, which made him the middle one of the five Gracie brothers.

      Where in the source: Biography section, opening sentence.

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes repeats a story, introduced with 'it is said', that his father kept his stock of dynamite in young Gastão's room, so that the boy often slept on top of it.

      Where in the source: Biography, first paragraph, second sentence — "bed of dynamite"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes says that Gastão, like Oswaldo, learned jiu-jitsu from his eldest brother Carlos, who began giving classes to keep sharp the techniques he had learned from Mitsuyo Maeda while Maeda was away.

      Where in the source: Biography, first paragraph, closing sentences — "through his brother Carlos"

      Accessed:

    • Citing Reila Gracie's biography of Carlos Gracie, BJJ Heroes describes Gastão as a mystic who thought he could perceive the auras around people and cure them by hypnosis.

      Where in the source: Biography, second paragraph, citing Reila Gracie's book — "people's auras"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes says Gastão only learned to read and write at 16, after which he was sent to join his father in Juiz de Fora to help run a bar the family owned there.

      Where in the source: Biography, second paragraph, last sentence (Juiz de Fora).

      Accessed:

    • Conflicting accounts

      BJJ Heroes says that when Carlos opened his first Gracie academy, which it dates to 1925, Oswaldo and Gastão already knew jiu-jitsu and were the first of the brothers to assist him in teaching, while George and Hélio looked on and learned.

      Where in the source: Biography, third paragraph, first sentence — "first to help"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes describes Gastão as the brother least interested in competing but the friendliest of the five, which made the students fond of him, and says he taught at the academy for five years while holding part-time jobs to cover the gym's costs when money was short.

      Where in the source: Biography, third paragraph, middle sentences — "least competitive"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes says Gastão moved to São Paulo in 1930 and lived there for four years, then returned to Rio de Janeiro in 1934 to coach again at the Gracie academy while also working as head of security at the Copacabana Palace hotel.

      Where in the source: Biography, third paragraph end and fourth paragraph — "Copacabana Palace"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes says Gastão did not stay long in Rio and moved back to São Paulo for good, where he kept teaching mainly as a personal martial-arts instructor to people in important positions, naming Congressman Ademar Barros, and at the Officers' School.

      Where in the source: Biography, final paragraph — "for good"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes lists his team or association as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

      Where in the source: Profile fields below the introduction: the Team/Association line.

      Accessed:

  • José Cairus, "The Gracie Clan and the Making of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu: National Identity, Performance and Culture, 1801-1993" (dissertation draft, LASA 2009 congress paper), Internet Archive copy of 30 March 2012.(opens in a new tab)

    • José Cairus's 2009 conference draft on the Gracie family, citing a genealogical archive, lists Gastão Gracie Filho as born in 1906, the third son after Carlos and Oswaldo and before George and Hélio.

      Where in the source: Section II, footnote 19 (PDF p. 15), birth order of the children — "Gastão Gracie Filho"

      Accessed:

    • Cairus writes that, once married and settled in Belém, the father, Gastão Gracie, became a dynamite importer there.

      Where in the source: Section II, PDF p. 14, first full paragraph — "dynamite importer"

      Accessed:

  • FamilySearch Family Tree, "Grão-Mestre Gastão Gracie Filho (about 1906–2001)", person ID 2CBB-GTC.(opens in a new tab)

    • FamilySearch's public family-tree page lists Gastão Gracie Filho, born about 1906 in Brazil, as the son of Gastão Gracie (1872–1956) and Cezarina de Vasconcellos Pessoa, with Carlos Gracie (1902–1994) and Oswaldo Gracie (1904–1943) among his siblings.

      Where in the source: Brief Life History, first sentence, and the Parents and Siblings panel.

      Accessed:

    • FamilySearch's family-tree page records that Gastão Gracie Filho died in São Paulo, Brazil, on 16 July 2001, at the age of 96.

      Where in the source: Page header dates and Brief Life History, last sentence — "16 July 2001"

      Accessed:

  • Wikipedia, "Gracie family" (English), revision read 29 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)

    • Wikipedia's Gracie family article says the father, Gastão Gracie, married Cesarina Pessoa Vasconcellos in 1901 and settled in Belém do Pará, and that in 1921, after money troubles and the death of his own father, he moved back to Rio de Janeiro with the family.

      Where in the source: Section 'Jiu-jitsu', first paragraph.

      Accessed:

    • The same article says Maeda's teaching reached Carlos and his brothers Oswaldo, Gastão Jr., George and Hélio by way of local coaches in Rio de Janeiro, and its family tree lists Gastão Jr. among the father's children.

      Where in the source: Section 'Jiu-jitsu', second paragraph, and the family-tree chart — "Gastão Jr."

      Accessed:

  • Roberto Pedreira, "Top 30 Myths and Misconceptions about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu", Global Training Report, 16 March 2016 (Internet Archive copy of 7 April 2016).(opens in a new tab)

    • Researcher Roberto Pedreira, describing how the early Gracie brothers fought, writes that Gastão Jr. never fought.

      Where in the source: Myth 18, closing parenthesis on the brothers' fighting positions — "Gastão Jr. never fought"

      Accessed:

    • Pedreira disputes that the Gracie Academy dates from 1925, citing Hélio Gracie's statement in 1951 that nobody in the family knew of jiu-jitsu before 1929 or 1930.

      Where in the source: Myth 8 — "established in 1925"

      Accessed:

  • Roberto Pedreira, "Top 18 Myths and Misconceptions about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from Gracies in Action 1", Global Training Report, 19 April 2016, updated 3 November 2018 (Internet Archive copy of 11 April 2021).(opens in a new tab)

    • Pedreira cites the family's 1988 Gracies in Action claim that Carlos and his four brothers founded Brazil's first jiu-jitsu academy in 1925, and counters that, according to Reila Gracie, the 1925 'academy' was a spare room in the house the family rented, while the first proper academy in Rio opened in 1930 under Donato Pires dos Reis, with Carlos and George Gracie as monitors.

      Where in the source: Myth 2 and its 'Reality' paragraph — "an extra room"

      Accessed:

    • Pedreira writes that the teaching method treated as Hélio's special contribution was the same one used by George, Oswaldo, Gastão Jr. and Takeo Yano: the Japanese way of teaching material step by step, keeping each step simple.

      Where in the source: Myth 3, 'Reality' paragraph, last sentences — "Gastão Jr., and Takeo Yano"

      Accessed:

  • Roberto Pedreira, "Four Questions and Answers about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu History", Global Training Report, 18 June 2016 (Internet Archive copy of 10 May 2021).(opens in a new tab)

    • Pedreira writes that when the Brazilian press wrote of the 'Gracie Brothers' it could mean any of the five, but that Gastão Jr. mostly stayed out of the newspapers' view, though he was counted among the brothers when circumstances called for it.

      Where in the source: Answer to the reader's comment on who 'the Gracies' were — "out of sight of the press"

      Accessed:

  • International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, "Graduation System" page and its downloadable General Graduation System, version 3.1.(opens in a new tab)

    • The IBJJF graduation system states that the 10th-degree red belt was awarded solely to the pioneers of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, whom it names as Carlos, Oswaldo, George, Gastão and Hélio.

      Where in the source: Linked PDF 'IBJJF General Graduation System' (version 3.1, 2025; file dated 11 June 2026), Article 4.1.5, item X — "10th (Tenth) Degree (Red Belt)"

      Accessed:

    • Under the same IBJJF system the red belt is the grand master's belt for the 9th and 10th degrees, and the 10th degree is the one reserved for those five pioneers.

      Where in the source: Same PDF, Article 1.3.5 'Red Belt' — "Grand Master's Belt" — read with Article 4.1.5, item X.

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Heroes, "Octavio de Almeida" (fighter profile, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • BJJ Heroes' profile of Octavio de Almeida says that in São Paulo in the 1950s and 1960s his academy was one of very few in the area, the others being Pedro Hemetério's and Gastão Gracie's, whose fees were considerably higher than Almeida's.

      Where in the source: Octavio de Almeida Biography, paragraph on his importance in São Paulo — "considerably higher"

      Accessed:

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