Dorel Vișan

One of Romania’s most important actors, Dorel Vișan has had a long and prestigious film career. After graduating from the Ion Luca Caragiale Institute of Theatre and Film in 1965, he joined the acting company of the National Theatre in Cluj. He has played more than forty stage rôles in works by Molière, Shakespeare, Marivaux, and Büchner, to name but a few, and he has appeared in more than fifty Romanian and international feature films. He has worked with major directors, including Geo Saizescu, Mircea Veroiu, Stere Gulea, Nicolae Corjos, Nicolae Mărgineanu, Sergiu Nicolaescu, Radu Gabrea, Mircea Danieliuc, Marius Th. Barna, and Şerban Marinescu.

He made his big-screen début in 1974, in the comedy Păcală, and four years later he won plaudits for his rôle in Between Parallel Mirrors, directed by Mircea Veroiu. In 1987, Mircea Danieliuc cast him in a memorable part in his feature film Jacob. In 1985, he played Tudor Bălosu in Stere Gulea’s The Morometes. In 1995, he famously played Senator Vîrtosu, the leading rôle in Mircea Danieliuc’s Senator of Snails. In the years that followed, Dorel Vișan appeared in The Magnate (2004) and Nervous System (2005), among other films.

In addition to his career as an actor at the Cluj National Theatre and in cinema, Dorel Vișan has also worked as a director at the Lucian Blaga Theatre in Cluj and teaches at the Cluj Babeș-Bolyai University.

He has won numerous awards throughout his career: Best Male Part at the Costinești Romanian ilm Festival (1981), the Filmmakers Association Award for Jacob (1988), the Theatre People’s Association Award for Best Actor of the Year (1987), the Union of Filmmakers Award and the Award for Male Lead at the Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival for Senator of Snails (1995), the TIFF Excellence Award for Untiring Service to the Art (2003), and the Trophy of the Eighth Romanian Film Evenings Festival (2017).

In 2002, to mark the centenary of Romanian cinema, the Romanian Presidency bestowed on him and a number of other actors the National Order of Loyal Service to the rank of Chevalier ‘for his prestigious artistic career and the exceptional talent whereby he has brought to life the characters he has played both in films and on the stage.

On his eightieth birthday, the Romanian Cultural Institute gave the famous actor its Lifetime Achievement Award.