Ioan Gyuri Pascu (; also credited as Ioan Ghiurico Pascu, Gyuri Pascu, and Ghyuri Pascu; August 31, 1961 – September 26, 2016) was a Romanian pop music singer, producer, actor, and comedian, also known for his participation in the comedy group Divertis and for his activity in Romanian cinema and television. Moving between rock music, rhythm and blues, reggae, and jazz, the multi-instrumentalist Pascu founded a number of bands and registered success particularly during the early 1990s, when he was the lead singer of a group known as The Blue Workers. Pascu was the manager of several alternative music acts with his label Tempo Music and remained an outspoken critic of Romanian commercial radio.
Noted for his impressions and musical acts within Divertis political satire shows, Pascu was also a successful actor, appearing in film productions such as Lucian Pintilie's An Unforgettable Summer and Cristian Mungiu's Occident, and portraying known characters in Romanian theater in various stage adaptations. He also wrote sports columns and was a writer of Christian literature.
He received an offer from Walt Disney Pictures, and he provides the voice of King Louie in 2006 for the Romanian version of the film, The Jungle Book.
Biography
Early life
Pascu was a native of Agnita (at the time part of Brașov Region, now in Sibiu County), where he graduated from primary school. He was born to an ethnic Romanian father and a half-Hungarian mother; on his mother's side, he was also the descendant of Poles and Slovaks. His mother was a Roman Catholic and his father, like Gyuri, was a Romanian Orthodox. His name reflects his complex heritage: Ioan was chosen as his Romanian name; his second name was the Hungarian Gyurika, but it was recorded as Ghiurico in his birth certificate and personal documents ever since—as Pascu later indicated, this was because neither his father nor the notary were familiar with Hungarian phonology. Pascu, who was fluent in the Hungarian language, preferred the hypocoristic Gyuri.
Pascu began to study piano when he was nine years old, and sang soprano in his school choir, entertaining his friends with impressions of well-known pop singers. During fifth grade, he started playing handball with an amateur team, discarding piano lessons and contemplating a career in acting. He also taught himself guitar.
At age fourteen, Pascu's voice changed. He was still a soprano in the choir, but had to use his head voice. As a high school student, Pascu had to enlist in the Union of Communist Youth (UTC), the Romanian communist regime compulsory youth organization. In 1976, he enrolled at the Agnita High School, which later became the Agro-Industrial High School. The same year, he gave up handball and began a more formal study of guitar music, using the Maria Boeru textbook as his guide. He debuted as an amateur actor in 1977, with a school theater performance at the Agnita House of Culture.
Pascu was also interested in the Cenaclul Flacăra concerts, an outlet for American folk-inspired and folk rock, tolerated under communism. He became familiar with Western music acts such as Olivia Newton-John and Queen, and active in the UTC's cultural brigade, wrote and performed his first folk-rock numbers.
Trandafirii Negri and Fundal
In May 1978, Pascu attended an International Workers' Day celebration in Mediaș, where he befriended brothers Septimiu and Horia Moldovan, who were in the same band as pop singer Elena Cârstea. According to Pascu's official site, they played Western rock hits for him, including Deep Purple's "Child in Time" and Uriah Heep's "July Morning". Between 1978 and 1980, Pascu sang with the Moldovans' band Trandafirii Negri, and was invited to perform with them at wedding parties and similar festivities. With the money he earned, he purchased his first acoustic guitar directly from the factory in Reghin, and taught himself to play drums. He composed one of his first published songs, "Melancolie" ("Melancholy"), in 1979.
In 1980, Pascu applied for Târgu Mureș' Szentgyörgyi István Drama School, but failed the entry exam. He worked in a state-owned factory as a lathe operator, and for several months in 1980, was conscripted into the Romanian Land Forces, where he met other amateur musicians who were undergoing military training. Together they founded the rock band Fundal, with Pascu as lead singer and drummer. They performed in the nationwide Cântarea României festival.