Dina Cocea

Dina Cocea (; 27 November 1912 – 28 October 2008 ) was a Romanian stage actress and occasional movie star with a career that spanned 70 years. Among other activities, Cocea was an actor in residence at the National Theatre Bucharest for 17 years, a professor and Dean at the University of Bucharest, writer and columnist, playwright, political activist, and representative to UNESCO.

Biography Cocea was born on 27 November 1912 in Bucharest to father N. D. Cocea, a well-known writer and journalist, and mother Florica Mille, who was the daughter of another prominent journalist and writer, the socialist politico Constantin Mille, At 14 years of age, Cocea went to Paris, where she attended a Roman Catholic boarding school for a time. She later moved in with her aunt, Alice Cocéa, a film actress and star of the Parisian theatre, who introduced and encouraged Cocea to take up the acting profession. Cocea returned to Romania where she debuted as an actress in 1934. In 1935, Cocea landed a role at Bucharest's Comedia ("Comedy"), a basement theater, (today the site of the Odeon Theater) alongside actor G. Timică She initially appeared using the stage name, "Dina Cerna" but she quickly dropped the pseudonym. Cocea founded an acting troupe, ("Our Theater") and took as partners, Fory Etterle, Eugenia Zaharia, and Peter Niro. The partnership lasted for 8 years but was dissolved by circumstance when the Comedia theater was nationalized by the communist authorities in 1948–1949. Cocea quickly became an actress in residence at the Bucharest National Theater, where she remained for 17 years until retiring in 1966.

Despite acting in over 100 stage productions, a dozen films, being a regular television and radio guest, and being well known as a writer in Romania with a career spanning more than 50 years, Cocea was little known outside of Romania. She was married to composer Mihai Brediceanu.

Cocea died on 28 October 2008 of a heart attack, about a month shy of her 96th birthday, having entered Floreasca Hospital just days before suffering from a pulmonary infection. Following her death, former Romanian President, Ion Iliescu and Culture Minister Adrian Iorgulescu, among other dignitaries, expressed sorrow. On 30 October 2008, Cocea's body was laid in repose in the foyer of Bucharest's National Theatre where last respects were paid by dignitaries, actors such as Gheorghe Dinică, Marin Moraru, and Ion Caramitru, many of her former students, friends, and relatives, as well as students of the Caragiale Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography

Filmography Night in May (1934) O noapte de pomină (1939) (1964) (1964), as Elisabeta Movilă (1972), as pastor Gorgon's sister Stephen the Great - Vaslui 1475 (1974), as Sultana Mara (Mara Branković) (1975) (1977) (1980) (1980) (1992), as Magda Comnoiu, Mihaela's mother Băieți buni (2005), as Aglaia (2007), as Agripina Dumbravă, Gigi Dumbravă's mother (Telenovela)