Ludovic Antal | |
|---|---|
 Antal in 1968 | |
| Born | 18 February 1924 |
| Died | October 1970 (aged 46) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1945–1970 |
| Spouse |
Reli Roman (divorced) |
| Awards | Meritul Cultural |
Ludovic Antal (18 February 1924 – October 1970) was a Romanian actor, primarily noted for his voice acting and his activity as a cultural promoter. Born to Csángó parents in Western Moldavia, he was initially destined for a career as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, but left to study acting in the late 1940s, graduating from the OMEC conservatoire. After making his stage debut with a workers' theater in Bucharest, Antal attended the National Theatrical Institute in Bucharest. His break and artistic recognition occurred during a time when Romania was under a communist regime, and he took on a number of roles in ideological plays, as well as in the 1951 propaganda film In Our Village. Antal still received poor reviews for his early stage work and voice acting, and was also regarded as politically suspect by the authorities, which accounted for his relative marginalization. He remained under contract with various troupes, and was primarily associated with Nottara Theater, but was generally not cast, or only offered minor parts.
From the early 1960s, the Romanian Radio Company consecrated Antal as one of its main reciters of poems by Mihai Eminescu, a work which made him nationally famous. An occasional presenter for Romania's state television, he toured the country promoting poetry, covering the entirety of national literature—from the early staples of Romanian folklore, through the works of Eminescu and Octavian Goga, and down to modern pieces by Tudor Arghezi, Ion Minulescu, and various others; his activity also covered renditions of prose by Titu Maiorescu, as well as samples of Arghezi's children's literature. Committed to Romanian nationalism, in the mid-to-late 1960s he also provided readings from Eminescu's Doina, testing the limits of communist censorship. His second break in theater came in mid-1969, when he starred in Nottara's critically acclaimed adaptation of Garabet Ibrăileanu's Adela. In early 1970, he was diagnosed with lung cancer; despite undergoing an emergency procedure, he died in October of that year.