One notable role with Babenco was that alongside William Hurt and Raul Julia as a police chief in Kiss of the Spider Woman.

As he moved to a professional group, he met Augusto Boal, who was looking for an actor to play an old black man.

Joining Boal's Teatro de Arena, Milton Gonçalves found an open environment for political, philosophical, and artistic discussion, where he was not discriminated against on the baseless basis of his race.

A Black Movement activist, Milton Gonçalves tried a political career, in the 1990s, as a candidate to Rio de Janeiro state governorship.

Gonçalves died in Rio de Janeiro on 30 May 2022, at the age of 88, from complications of a stroke he had suffered two years earlier.