Grigore Vasiliu was born on 24 January 1905 into the family of a small businessman on the "Pârâul Târgului" street in Fălticeni, in the Bukovina region of Romania.

As a child he wanted to become a circus clown; however, his parents did not consider acting a serious job, and when he finished the "Nicu Gane" high school in Fălticeni in 1924, he was sent to study law at the University of Cernăuți.

He received his first role as a mute character in the comedic play "Musca spaniolă" ("The Spanish Fly") by Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach.

Grigore Vasiliu was nicknamed Breloc ("Pendant") after playing in Ion Iancovescu [ro]'s[clarification needed] Corabia lui Noe ("Noah's Ark").

[citation needed] His comeback was in 1953's Sică Alexandrescu [ro]'s adaptation of Ion Luca Caragiale's play, O scrisoare pierdută ("A Lost Letter"), in which he initially portrayed Dandanache and then Brânzovenescu.

Birlic himself said "As one of the actors who have played the most characters – 13 – from the work of our great dramatist, I recall Caragiale with affectionate gratitude for the theatrical successes that he occasioned me with.

During World War II, artistic activities in Romania were limited, but Birlic returned in 1951 in Jean Georgescu's Vizita ("The Visit"), an adaptation of Caragiale's sketch.

Following this success, he was featured in O Scrisoare Pierdută, in Gheorghe Naghi and Aurel Micheles's Două lozuri ("Two Lottery Tickets"), and in Iancovescu's D-ale carnavalului ("The Carnival").