Dina Cocea, Romanian actress

BUCHAREST, Romania - Dina Cocea, one of this country's best known actresses, died of a heart attack on Tuesday, a director said, and one theater critic mourned the loss of "the queen of Romanian theater." She was 95.

Ms. Cocea, who performed on the stage and in movies for more than 50 years, died at Floreasca hospital, where she had been admitted several days earlier with a pulmonary infection, said Ion Caramitru, director of the National Theater.

Her career as an actress included many Romanian productions, spanning from the nation's communist past right up through the Romanian detective movie "Attack in the Library," which premiered in 1993.

Ms. Cocea - a daughter of Romanian writer N.D. Cocea and actress Alicia Cocea - began studying theater in Paris, with her debut on the French stage in 1934. A year later, she returned to Romania.

In addition to the many plays she performed in here, she also starred in a dozen films and represented Romania at UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency.

Former president Ion Iliescu, a friend of the actress, and Culture Minister Adrian Iorgulescu expressed their sorrow and praised her life and career.

Ms. Cocea was little known as an actress outside Romania, a country that began westernizing with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and that joined the European Union last year.