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.
A Tale of Autumn
(Étienne)
Not My Type
(Le père de Clément)
Passion interdite
(Richard)
The Passengers of the Night
(Jean)
Hell
(Le père de Hell)
Saint-Germain ou La négociation
(M. de Méylines)
Hell Train
(Dalbret)
Coming to Terms with the Dead
(Vincent)
Memory Lane
(François)
One Night
(Le procureur Lacourt)
Under the Rainbow
(Guillaume Casseul)
Mensonge
(Charles Melville)
Photo
(Uriel)
Boulevard des hirondelles
(Pascal Capeau)
François Mitterrand & Anne Pingeot: Pieces of a Love Story
(Narrator (voice))
Électre / Oreste
(Tyndare)
L'enfant éternel
(Richard)
The Black Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess
(Amon / Duc et Chambellan (voice))
Moi, Louis enfant de la mine - Courrières 1906
(Ricq)
Lovers of the Café Flore
(Georges de Beauvoir)
Origins of Life
(Narrator (voice))
Shadow Dance
(Gérard)
Les Damnés
(Joachim von Essenbeck)
The Legend of Princess Parva
(Parva's father (voice))
Roméo et Juliette
(Capulet)
Sous un autre jour
(Martin)
Turbulences
(Julien)
Les années perdues
(Daniel Launey)
A.L.F.
(Le psychiatre)
An Impossible Love
(Philippe's Father)
The Woman of My Life
(Xavier)
Montparnasse
(Serge)
The Fabulous History of Eau de Cologne
(Narrator (voice))
An Officer and a Spy
(General Boisdeffre)
Le Petit-Maître Corrigé
(Le Comte, père d'Hortense)
Cyrano de Bergerac
(de Guiche)
Les Fourberies de Scapin
(Géronte)
Frank Capra, il était une fois l'Amérique
(Narrator)
La femme d'un seul homme
(Richard)
Le Soulier de Satin
(Don Rodrigue)
Peer Gynt
(Quatrième jeune homme / Le troll de cour / Herr Von Eberkopf / Monsieur Plume / Un homme âgé / Le maigre)
Manon Roland
(Robespierre)
Le Soulier de Satin
(Don Pélage/Le second chancelier)
Richelieu ou La journée des dupes
(Cardinal de Richelieu)
Le Cid
(Don Diègue, père de don Rodrigue)
À la recherche du temps perdu
(Le Baron de Charlus)
L'Allée du roi
(Louis XIV)
Icon of French Cinema
(Frédéric)
Les Grandes Familles
(Gabriel De Voos)