 However, in her home country she was a household name, having been dubbed "Mare Doamnă a Teatrului" ("Queen of the Theater").In 2001, Cocea was presented with an honorary doctorate from the Universitatea de Artă Teatrală şi Cinematografică (University of Theater and Cinematography), In 2002, she was awarded the Ordinul Naţional (Romanian National Order) or "Steaua României" (Order of the Star of Romania), Romania's highest civil order awarded only by Romania's President, and granted thereby the rank of knight.Cocea died on 28 October 2008 of a heart attack about a month shy of her 96th birthday, having entered Floreasca hospital just days before suffering from a pulmonary infection.