Ken Doll Look-A-Like Passes Away

Photo: Instagram 

Celso Santebañes, born Celso Borges Pereira, a Brazillian man known around the world as the “human Ken doll” lost his fight to leukemia at age 20.

Feted for his beauty, his perfect features, Santebañes, at age 15, started entering — and winning — modeling competitions. Eventually, his good looks and personality caught the eye of a Sao Paulo talk show talent scout. It was around that time people begun to tell him that he looked like a real-life Ken doll. The then-teen sensation was fixated on the toy, lining his bedroom shelves with dozens of plastic figurines, as he attempted to recreate himself as a “human puppet.”

Santebañes believed that his nose was too wide and his philtrum — the crease of the upper lip — was simply too natural. His changes made him a celebrity of sorts, who commanded up to $20,000 for public appearances, and even released his own line of Celso dolls in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, doctors found an unexpected cancer detected during blood tests.

A rare and aggressive form of leukemia had taken hold on Santebañes’ body while he was in preparation for surgery to repair a leaky filler in one of Santebañes legs.

Back in January, Santebañes was optimistic about his life when he spoke with Los Angeles Times reporters about it, saying, “Today, I start a new cycle in my life.” He also, according to the Latin Times, was interested in creating a film with Valeria Lukyanova, known around the world as the Ukrainian “Human Barbie.” In his five-month battle with cancer, Santebañes had to immediately confront his own mortality, as dark spots began to appear on his skin and his gums began to bleed. As the symptom of blood cancer took hold of his body, Santebañes admitted that his concerns had changed, saying, “I am starting chemotherapy, but I am no longer concerned with the issues of aesthetics. For me that doesn’t matter. What matters is my health now, and I will fight for it.”

Fight is exactly what he did, as Celso Santebañes experienced hair loss, the end of his personal identity and national image, and was confined to a wheelchair. If he survived, Santebañes said that he wouldn’t do any more surgeries, which is a nice thought, but ultimately in the end that fact is that cancer sucks.

[via Latin Times]

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