He lived in exile in Romania, where he graduated from the Mimic Drama College of Bucharest and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. He acquired much of his celebrity by actng in cinema roles during the 1930s.

As a concert master and operetta singer, he toured Europe with a group of musicians. He returned to Albania in 1935, and started an expanded on his artistic reputation, being widely esteemed for his accomplished interpretation of classical arias and folk songs.