Gheorghe Dinica | Romanian actor, 75

Gheorghe Dinica, 75, a Romanian actor who delighted his country by portraying characters such as villainous politicians and defiant Gypsies in dozens of plays and movies, died of pneumonia Tuesday at a Bucharest hospital.

Mr. Dinica began his long career with a role in a Romanian film version of Albert Camus' The Stranger in 1963. He went on to perform in many Romanian and foreign movies, soap operas, and plays until his death.

In 2007, he acted in Francis Ford Coppola's movie Youth Without Youth. He also joined French actor Anthony Delon in the film L'Homme Press in 2005.

He said he was never tempted to act in movies produced in the United States. "I am not Robert De Niro," he said. "I am from Romania."

Still, some called Mr. Dinica "the Robert De Niro of Romania," given his resemblance to the American actor.

Romanians admired him for his wide repertoire and his singing but also because of his modesty, humor, and refusal to praise the country's late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, as some artists had done. - AP