Thierry Lhermitte

Thierry Lhermitte, born on 24 November 1952 in Boulogne-Billancourt (Seine), is a French actor, screenwriter, playwright and film producer.

A founding member of the comic and satirical café-théâtre troupe Le Splendid, he became popular from the 1970s onwards for his cult role as the seductive playboy Robert 'Popeye' Lespinasse in Les Bronzés (1978) and Les Bronzés font du ski (1979) — a role he reprised in 2006 in Les Bronzés 3 — as well as for his role as Pierre Mortez in the play and film Le père Noël est une ordure (1982).

He went on to feature in various popular French comedies such as the Les Ripoux trilogy (1984–2003), Un Indien dans la ville (1994) and Le Dîner de cons (1998).

Having appeared in several TV films during the 2000s, he held the title role in the series Doc Martin between 2011 and 2015, as well as playing former police officer Paul Maisonneuve in the first season of the series Les Témoins, broadcast in 2015. In film, he was particularly noted for his role as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the political satire Quai d'Orsay (2013) by Bertrand Tavernier, and for his role as a man suffering from Alzheimer's disease in the drama La Finale (2018).

Since 2019, he has performed the one-man show Fleurs de soleil, and in 2026, in the film La Bataille de Gaulle: J'écris ton nom, a historical film (a departure from his usual register), he plays General Giraud.

Passionate about science, he has been patron of the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM) since 2002. His regular visits to the laboratories of researchers funded by the foundation are the subject of a monthly column on the programme Grand Bien Vous Fasse on France Inter.