Romanian star Dinica dead at 75

Gheorghe Dinica died from pneumonia at a Bucharest hospital on Tuesday (10Nov09).

Dinica’s movie career began in the early 1960s and he went on to star in top soaps and TV dramas in his native Romania.

He often played gypsies on TV and in films, and was a castmember in Francis Ford Coppola’s 2007 movie Youth Without Youth.

In a tribute to Dinica, Romania’s President Traian Basescu, who awarded the actor with the nation’s Faithful Service Order in 2008, called him “a model of humanity, modesty and generosity”.