Florian Pittiș

Florian Pittiș (; 4 October 1943– 5 August 2007) was a Romanian stage and television actor, theatre director, folk music singer, and radio producer.

Biography Born in Bucharest, Florian Pittis attended the Gheorghe Lazăr High School in his native city. He then studied at Politehnica University and graduated in 1966 from the Institute of Theatre and Film, class of Radu Beligan. As a young actor he was hired at one of the best theatres in Bucharest, the Bulandra Theatre, where he worked with directors such as Andrei Șerban, Liviu Ciulei, and Alexandru Tocilescu. In the early 1970s, he studied in Paris with the well-known mime artist, Marcel Marceau.

In 1992, Pittiș was one of the founding members of the band Pasărea Colibri. In 1998, he became the director of Radio Romania Tineret, known as Radio3Net since 2004, the only Romanian radio station that broadcasts exclusively on the Internet.

A great admirer of Bob Dylan, he had translated and adapted some of Dylan's songs: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Death is Not the End, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, Mr. Tambourine Man, Rainy Day Women#12 & 35, She Belongs to Me, Silvio.

Emblematic for his long hair, informal wear, and habit of smoking "Carpați", a brand of filterless cigarettes. Pittis was appreciated for his very particular voice, as a singer, on stage, and as a voice-over in television programs. He was called "the prophet of the blue-jeans generation".

In the Benelux and Norway he is remembered for his role as the Parrot in the 1976 Romanian-Soviet-French co-production children musical movie Ma-ma, The English title of the movie was called Rock'n Roll Wolf, it aired on Dutch television in 1980, and it is known as Med Grimm og Gru in Norway, where the film first aired in 1983. For being popular in his own country he received an offer from Walt Disney Pictures in 1993, and provides the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh for the Romanian version of the series, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, being among the first actors in the country to dub a Disney series in Romanian.

On 30 July 2007, Pittiș was admitted in serious condition at the Fundeni Oncology Institute in Bucharest, where he died a week later on 5 August. He was buried by the Actor's Alley in the city's Bellu Cemetery.

Stage activity Lucius – Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, director Andrei Șerban, 1968 Fleance – Macbeth by William Shakespeare, director Liviu Ciulei, 1968 Aurel – The End of the World by Victor Eftimiu, director , 1968 Camille – A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau, director Emil Mandric, 1969 Collin Talbo – The Grass Harp by Truman Capote, director Crin Teodorescu, 1970 Jeremy – Love for Love by William Congreve, director Emil Mandric, 1970 Arlechino – The Liar by Carlo Goldoni, director Sanda Manu, 1971 Valentin – Valentin and Valentina by Aleksei Arbuzov, director Adrian Georgescu, 1972 Feste – Twelfth Night, Or What You Will by William Shakespeare; director Liviu Ciulei, 1973 Count d'Aubigny – Elizabeth I by Paul Foster, director Liviu Ciulei, 1974 Alioska – The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky, director Liviu Ciulei, 1975 Traian – Titanic Waltz by Tudor Mușatescu, director Toma Caragiu, 1975 Edmund – Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill, director Liviu Ciulei, 1976 Parrot – Ma-ma, director Elisabeta Bostan, 1976 Cricket – Veronica se întoarce, director Elisabeta Bostan, 1973 King Radu The Handsome – The Cold by Marin Sorescu, director Dan Micu, 1977 Piotr – The Philistines by Maxim Gorky, director Ioan Taub, 1978 Ariel – The Tempest by William Shakespeare, director Liviu Ciulei, 1978 Leonard Brazil – City Sugar by Stephen Poliakoff, director Florian Pittiș, 1980 Patriciu – Investigation on a Young Man by Adrian Dohotaru, director Petre Popescu, 1980 King Louis XIV – The Cabal of Hypocrites by Mihail Bulgakov, director Alexandru Tocilescu, 1982 M. Loyal – Tartuffe by Molière, director Alexandru Tocilescu, 1982 Laertes – Hamlet by William Shakespeare, director Alexandru Tocilescu, 1985 Teodoro – The Dog in the Manger by Lope de Vega, director Florian Pittiș, 1988 Philinte – The Misanthrope by Molière, director , 1989 Dr. Frank Bryant – Educating Rita by Willy Russell, director Florian Pittiș, 1989 Mortimer Brewster – Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, director Grigore Gonta, 1991 Sonnenstich – Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, director Liviu Ciulei, 1991 Tiresias – Antigone by Sophocles, director Alexandru Tocilescu, 1993 Jack – Everything in the Garden by Edward Albee, director , 1997

As a director Facing the World (with Mircea Vintilă), 1979; City Sugar – by Stephen Poliakoff, 1980; The Dog in the Manger by Lope de Vega, 1988; Black and White by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, 1997; Educating Rita by Willy Russel, 1989; Poezia muzicii tinere – 1981; Song of Myself – music show on the poetry of Walt Whitman, 1985.

Music Sunt tânăr, Doamnă... (2008); Cântece de bivuac (1999); Ciripituri (1998); În căutarea cuibului pierdut (1996); Nu trântiți ușa (Mircea Vintilă and Florian Pittiș), 1992.