Lucian was hospitalized three weeks ago on suspicion of bronchopneumonia and anemia. The actor’s death was confirmed by his wife, Aura Lucian.
Director and founder of the Excelsior Theater, Lucian was born on April 22, 1924, in Bucharest, and graduated from the Bucharest Royal Academy of Theater and Music in 1945. At the age of 18, he performed at the Bucharest National Theater, and, between 1945 and 1947, he had worked for the Alhambra Operetta Theater.
The Bucharest Municipal Theater (currently, the Bulandra Theatre) had employed Lucian between 1947 and 1952 and between 1956 and 1960. He performed at the Nottara Theater in 1952 to later join the Comedy Theater where he had performed between 1960 and 1964 and between 1972 and 1990.
Founder and director of the “Ion Creanga” Children’s Theater between 1964 and 1972 and of the Excelsior Theater in Bucharest starting 1990, Lucian had been a professor at the Theater and Film Institute between 1952 and 1956. He had also taught at the Hyperion University in Bucharest between 1998 and 2000.
On May 4, 2011, Lucian attended the inauguration of the new headquarters of the Excelsior Theater, one of the rooms bearing the name of the actor who had long striven to found this cultural institution.