He made his first coat at 35: “I was assigned on a low salary”. Rodica Popescu Bitănescu, the actress with the infectious laugh

Rodica Popescu Bitănescu is one of the best-known actresses in our country. She has distinguished herself in films, but also on the theatre stage, alongside other heavy names of Romanian film and theatre.

When you say Rodica Popescu Bitănescu, you can’t help but hear the actress’s unmistakable and extremely infectious laugh, perhaps her calling card.

Rodica Popescu Bitănescu, a unique actress in our country

Rodica Popescu Bitănescu was born on August 5, 1938, in Răsuceni, Vlașca county (today Ilfov) and has distinguished herself, since the beginning, both on the theatre stages all over the country, but also in cinema.

In particular, Rodica Popescu Bitănescu is loved by the Romanian public for her comic roles, which she always performed with an extraordinary naturalness.

She made her film debut in 1975, in the film “Comedia fantastică”, written and directed by Ion Popescu-Gopo, where she shared the set with George Mihăiță and Dem Rădulescu.

Later, she could be seen in “Premiere”, “Eu, tu și… Ovidiu”, “Miezul fierbinte al pâinii”, “Rămân cu tine”, “Femeia din Ursa Mare”, “Am o idee”, “Ciocolată cu alune”, “Zborul pericolulos”, “Cucoana Chirița”, “Lacrimaului cerului”, “Harababura”, “Dumbrava minunata”, as well as in the television screenings “Commedia dell`Arte”, “Fata si caruselul”, “Escu” or “Enfernavul închipuit”.

Moreover, the actress has been a constant presence on television over the years, even to this day being a guest on the humorous shows of the moment.

She has been invited on several occasions to iUmor, our country’s most successful talk show, having been asked to be a temporary member of the jury, and also as a special guest, “put on the spot and joked around”.

In the theatre she was, in turn, Ines in Lope de Vega’s “Castiliana”, Lucetta in Carlo Goldoni’s “The Bards”, Calipsita in “Coana Chirita”, Manuela in “Travesti”, Monti in “The Death of the Last Thug”, Lina, in “Don’t Shop with a Ladder”, Argentina in “Three Venetian Twin Brothers”, Liuba in “The Cliff”, Lucy in “The Rivals”, the Cook in “The Legend of the Last Emperor” and Bonita in “Waiting for Harlequin”.

Rodica Popescu Bitănescu’s life was not always the best

Although actors are thought of as always having a good life, this statement is a very wrong one in some cases. Rodica Popescu Bitănescu, like many other Romanians, has faced difficulties.

“When I became an actress, slowly, slowly things began to straighten out. I was assigned to Iași on a small salary. To make ends meet from one month to the next, I paid a neighbour to make us the same meal: oriental salad.

When I met my husband, Bitănescu, at almost 35, I made my first coat of my life. I drove Bucharest crazy with it. I had a fox fur around my neck”, Rodica Popescu Bitănescu once said.

Moreover, despite the fact that she was generally liked by the public and her colleagues, there were conflicts.

One of these involved the actress Aimee Iacobescu. “I heard about their grievances, that I was discriminating against them, favoring others, etc. Aimee had been retired for 15 years. In the play she plays a femme fatale. Doesn’t she realize she’s getting old? She wants to be a femme fatale at 68! Cezara, too, is retired.

She was imposed on me in a play by the theatre management. She auditioned for it, because she’d never been anywhere else. The theatre also employs actors, who have to act,” the great actress said.

Despite her dissatisfactions and minor disagreements, Rodica Popescu Bitănescu says she holds no grudges. “I wish them rest and peace. God forgive her worldly sins.

I can tell you that we colleagues who knew her understood her pain. We knew of the illness she had had for some years. She performed until the illness made it impossible for her to go on stage,” Rodica Popescu Bitănescu also said in an interview with a TV station.