Radu Beligan

Radu Beligan (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈradu beliˈɡan]; 14 December 1918 – 20 July 2016) was a Romanian actor, director, and essayist, with an activity of over 70 years in theater, film, television, and radio. On 15 December 2013, confirmed by Guinness World Records, the actor received the title of "The oldest active theatre actor" on the planet. He was elected honorary member of the Romanian Academy in 2004.
One of the disciples of actress Lucia Sturdza-Bulandra and writer Eugène Ionesco, Radu Beligan is generally regarded as one of the major names of the Romanian theater with a complex repertoire, classic and modern. He played alongside important actors, with performances both in the country and abroad.

Radu Beligan cultural center in Filipești, his native commune

Beligan receiving a star on Walk of Fame Bucharest, 28 March 2011

Beligan was born in Galbeni, a village in the commune of Filipești, Bacău County, to a Romanian father and a mother of Greek origins.

In an interview for toateartele.com in 2011, Radu Beligan declared that his paternal grandmother, Ecaterina Beligan, is the cousin of writer Ion Creangă. His mother, Eufrosina Moscopol, comes from the Greek family Moscopol, relating with famous interwar singer Jean Moscopol.

After graduating from the Costache Negruzzi High School in Iași in 1937, he made his artistic studies at the Royal Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in Bucharest, where he was the student of Lucia Sturdza-Bulandra, one of the great figures of Romanian scene. Between 1937 and 1938 he also studied law and philosophy at the University of Bucharest, using college scholarship offered to pay his taxes at the Conservatory.

His first wife was Nineta Gusti, an actress, with whom he was married for fifteen years. His second wife was Dana Crivăț (1933–2012), with whom he has a daughter, Ana Maria, a writer; both mother and daughter defected to Germany in 1982 and emigrated to Australia the same year. His third wife was Marica Beligan (d. 1993), a writer, with whom he has three children: Lamia (b. 1966), an actress, Raluca and Alexandru, employee of the National Bank of Romania.

Radu Beligan was a member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party between 1969 and 1989 and deputy of the Great National Assembly between 1961–1975.

He debuted in theater at the age of 20 years, in the play Crime and Punishment after Fyodor Dostoyevsky, directed by Mihai Zirra, on the stage of Muncă și Lumină Theatre in Bucharest. His first role in a film was that of A Stormy Night (Romanian: O noapte furtunoasă), directed by Jean Georgescu (1943), and the last one The Afternoon of a Torturer (Romanian: După-amiaza unui torționar), directed by Lucian Pintilie (2001).

He was professor at the Institute of Theatre and Film in Bucharest, director of the Comedy Theatre between 1961–1969 and director of the National Theatre between 1969–1990.