Victor Rebengiuc

Victor Rebengiuc (known in full as Victor-George Rebengiuc; born February 10, 1933) is an award-winning Romanian film and stage actor, also known as a civil society activist. Since 1957, he has been a member of the Bulandra Theater company, acting in more than 200 roles on that stage alone. Having had his breakthrough performance with Liviu Ciulei's The Forest of the Hanged, Rebengiuc became a major figure in Romanian cinema, and became especially known for his 1986 appearance in Stere Gulea's Moromeţii. He also starred in films by Dan Piţa (Tănase Scatiu; Dreptate în lanţuri; Faleze de nisip; The Man of the Day) and Lucian Pintilie (De ce trag clopotele, Mitică?; Balanţa; Too Late; Last Stop Paradise; Niki and Flo; Tertium non datur). Rebengiuc was celebrated for his stage performances, appearing in plays directed by, among others, Ciulei, Radu Penciulescu, Andrei Şerban, Cătălina Buzoianu, Yuri Kordonsky, Gábor Tompa and Alexandru Dabija. The former husband of actress Anca Vereşti, he is married to Mariana Mihuţ, his Bulandra colleague. Rebengiuc's life under the communist regime provided him an anti-communist perspective, and some of his 1980s films were censored or banned by the country's officials. In 1989, he took part in the Romanian Revolution, when he was among the people who stormed into the Romanian Television building and broadcast the downfall of Nicolae Ceauşescu and an end to communist rule. Rebengiuc subsequently spoke out against political forces he believes stand for the regime's legacy in modern society, and called for the retrospective condemnation of communism. As a public figure, he has had a brief career in politics, and, since the mid-1990s, endorses non-governmental organizations.