Stela

Stela Popescu

  • Birth

    She was born in Slobozia-Hodorogea, raionul Orhei, județul Orhei, Romania.
  • Deportation

    Deportation
    During World War II, she fled the Russians with her mother. At that time, little Stela was only five years old and had to leave her home after Bessarabia was invaded. She was separated from her father who, unfortunately, had been deported along with other intellectuals to Siberia.
  • Entrance to the Theater

    Entrance to the Theater
    she takes the college entrance exam and is assigned to the "Maxim Gorki" Faculty of Russian Language, which she leaves after a year and a half when she joins the team of the Theater of the Ministry of the Interior.
  • Admission to the Institute of Theatrical and Cinematographic Art

    Admission to the Institute of Theatrical and Cinematographic Art
    She is admitted to the Institute of Theatrical and Cinematographic Art, and in parallel she continues to support theater performances.
  • Film debut

    Film debut
    In 1958, she made her cinematographic debut in the film Alo?... You got the wrong number!.
  • First performances

    At the end of the faculty, she is assigned to the Theater in Brașov, where she ends up performing 400 shows a year.
  • Period: to

    First marriage

    She was married to the theatre director Dan Puican, whom she divorced once she fell in love with the lyricist Mihai „Puiu“ Maximilian.
  • Period: to

    Work at the "Constantin Tănase" Magazine Theatre

    From 1963 to 1969 he played at the "Constantin Tănase" Magazine Theatre.
  • Period: to

    work with Radiotelevision

    she continued collaboration with Romanian Broadcasting (then Radiotelevision) from 1963 to 2017
  • Work at Comedy Theatre

    Work at Comedy Theatre
    In 1969, Stela leaves the Magazine and works at the Comedy Theatre
  • Period: to

    Second marriage

    She was married to the lyricist Mihai „Puiu“ Maximilian, who died in 1998 after a long battle with cancer.
  • Period: to

    Work at Comedy Theater

    She played at the Comedy Theater from 1969 until 1993.
  • Period: to

    Artistic couple with Stefan Banica

    Between 1971 and 1979, she was a couple, on stage and on television, with Ștefan Bănică
  • The comedy couple Stela - Alexandru Arșinel

    The comedy couple Stela - Alexandru Arșinel
    As for the long-lived comedy couple Stela - Alexandru Arșinel, which started in 1979, this was the guarantee of quality humor even now, but also in the past, when the texts of the skits were signed by Mihai Maximilian.
  • Period: to

    Work at "Constantin Tănase" Magazine Theater

    she returned to the "Constantin Tănase" Magazine Theater, where she worked until her death.
  • Death

    Death
    On November 23, 2017 at around 15:40, Stela Popescu was found without vital signs, with a head wound, by her adopted daughter Doina Maximilian, fallen inside the house on Alexandru Donici street in Bucharest where she lived. After the autopsy by the forensic doctors, it was determined that the actress' death occurred as a result of a massive stroke suffered long before she was found by her daughter.