Didier Sandre
Didier Maffre, known professionally as Didier Sandre, is a French actor and stage director born in Paris on 17 August 1946 and appointed sociétaire of the Comédie‑Française in 2020. He made his debut in 1968 in Paul Claudel’s L’Échange and, from the 1970s onward, became a prominent figure in public theatre, collaborating with major directors such as Catherine Dasté, Bernard Sobel, Jorge Lavelli, Patrice Chéreau, Giorgio Strehler, Luc Bondy, and Antoine Vitez. Alongside this, he has appeared regularly in private‑theatre productions, including works by Claudel, Anouilh, Rampal, and Margulies. His stage career includes notable performances in Bérénice (directed by Lambert Wilson), Le Laboureur de Bohême (Christian Schiaretti), and Monsieur chasse! by Feydeau. He joined the Comédie‑Française in 2013 and became a full member in 2020.
Sandre has also worked extensively in film and television, appearing in Pascale Ferran’s Petits Arrangements avec les morts, Éric Rohmer’s Autumn Tale, Abraham Segal’s Le Mystère Paul, and Mikhaël Hers’s Memory Lane. On television, he has acted in numerous dramas, including Saint‑Germain ou la Négociation, Le Sang noir, and notably portrayed Louis XIV in Nina Companeez’s L’Allée du Roi and the Baron de Charlus in her adaptation of In Search of Lost Time. A frequent narrator in concert settings, he has performed in major repertoire works by Stravinsky, Debussy, Beethoven, Honegger, Haydn, Prokofiev, Grieg, Poulenc, and others, collaborating with leading orchestras, conductors such as Pierre Boulez and Myung‑Whun Chung, and renowned soloists including Alexandre Tharaud, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, and Emmanuelle Bertrand.
Acting
Movie
An Officer and a Spy
as General Boisdeffre
2019
Movie
An Impossible Love
as Philippe's Father
2018
Movie
The Passengers of the Night
as Jean
2022
Movie
Not My Type
as Le père de Clément
2014
Movie
A Tale of Autumn
as Étienne
1998
Movie
Under the Rainbow
as Guillaume Casseul
2013
Movie
Hell
as Le père de Hell
2006
Movie
One Night
as Le procureur Lacourt
2012
Movie
The Black Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess
as Amon / Duc et Chambellan (voice)
2022
Movie
Lovers of the Café Flore
as Georges de Beauvoir
2006
Movie
The Woman of My Life
as Xavier
1986
Movie
Coming to Terms with the Dead
as Vincent
1994
Movie
Hell Train
as Dalbret
1985
TV
L'Allée du roi
as Louis XIV
1996
Movie
Origins of Life
as Narrator (voice)
2001
Movie
Memory Lane
as François
2010
Movie
A.L.F.
as Le psychiatre
2012
Movie
François Mitterrand & Anne Pingeot: Pieces of a Love Story
as Narrator (voice)
2021
TV
À la recherche du temps perdu
as Le Baron de Charlus
2011
TV
Icon of French Cinema
as Frédéric
2023
Movie
The Legend of Princess Parva
as Parva's father (voice)
2003
Movie
Saint-Germain ou La négociation
as M. de Méylines
2003
Movie
Sous un autre jour
as Martin
2009
Movie
Frank Capra, il était une fois l'Amérique
as Narrator
2020