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.
