Stela Popescu

Stela Popescu (21 December 1935 – 23 November 2017) was a Romanian actress and TV personality considered the greatest comedy actress and one of best female actresses of all time in Romania. With Ștefan Bănică and Alexandru Arșinel she was successively half of two famous romantic partnerships. In 2006, 2011, and 2017 the artist was chosen by Disney Pixar to provide the Romanian voice of Flo in the animated trilogy Cars. Early life Stela Popescu was born into a family of teachers in the village of Slobozia-Hodorogea, Orhei. Her first memory was the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia. In 1940, her father was deported to Siberia and she didn't know what happened with him for 19 years. In 1944, when the Red Army reoccupied Bessarabia, after it had been liberated by the Romanian Army in 1941, her mother fled with her daughter to Brașov in the still free Romania. In 1953, she passed the college entrance examination and was assigned to the "Maxim Gorki" Russian Language School. She abandoned the course after a year and a half when she joined the Theater of the Ministry of the Interior. In 1956, she was admitted to the Institute of Theater and Cinematography, while continuing to perform in theater. Career At the end of her studies, Popescu was assigned to the Theater in Brașov, where she gave 400 performances a year. From 1963 to 1969 she appeared at the Constantin Tănase Theater.