By winning the 2009 Molière Award for his breathtaking performance in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Roland Bertin celebrated the 50th birthday of his acting career, on stage, in movies and on television. He started acting in the mid-fifties and took part in films by Renoir, Resnais, Lavelli and Chéreau.
In the early sixties, he founded his own company, a united group of artists touring in Brittany and Burgundy. In 1967, he cofounded the Centre dramatique de Bourgogne (Arts Centre for Theater in Burgundy) and experimented with many styles and with numerous masters, though oftentimes going in totally opposite directions. He thus worked on plays, straddling between the very demanding Claude Régy to the very bold Roger Planchon. He honored quality television programs, such the ones directed by Bluwal and Santelli. On the big screen, he took part in more than fifty movies directed by Corneau, Costa-Gavras, Gainsbourg, Losey and Téchiné.
He participated in the greatest moments in the history of theater, discovering contemporary playwrights such as Copi, Vinaver, Sarraute, Schehadé, Grumberg and Obaldia. Roland Bertin joined the Comédie-Française in 1982. Twenty years later, he quit having been named a sociétaire honoraire. He survived six General Administrators and explored the worlds of the greatest. In 1989, Bertin played one of his favorite roles, Galileo, under the direction of Antoine Vitez in the latest staging by the latter.

Roland Bertin a reçu plusieurs distinctions dont celles de Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, de l’Ordre national du Mérite, et Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.