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 theatre, 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 theatre with a complex repertoire, classic and modern. He played alongside important actors, with performances both in the country and abroad. 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.