Cop or Hood (1979). 1980s In 1980, Belmondo starred in another comedy, Le Guignolo. He was a secret service agent in The Professional (1981) and a pilot in Ace of Aces (1982). "What intellectuals don't like is success", said Belmondo. "Success in France is always looked down on, not by the public, but by intellectuals. If I'm nude in a film, that's fine for the intellectuals. But if I jump from a helicopter, they think it's terrible." Belmondo kept to commercial films: Le Marginal (1983) as a policeman, Les Morfalous (1984) as a sergeant in the French Foreign Legion, Hold-Up (1985) as a bank robber, and Le Solitaire (1987), again playing another policeman in the last one, the latter one was a big box office disappointment and Belmondo returned to theatre shortly afterwards. In 1987, he returned to the theatre after a 26-year absence in a production of Kean, adapted by Jean-Paul Sartre from the novel by Alexandre Dumas. "I did theatre for 10 years before going into movies and every year I planned to go back", he recalled. "I returned before I became an old man." For Claude Lelouch, Belmondo starred in and co-produced Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (1988). For his performance in the film, also titled as Itineraire d'un Enfant Gate, he won a César. Belmondo claimed there were "several reasons" why he made fewer films in the 1980s. "I'm now a producer so it takes time to organise things", he said. "But it's also difficult to find good screenplays in France. We have serious writing problems here. And I'd prefer to do theatre for a long time than take on a mediocre film." 1990s and later career In 1990, he played the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac on the stage in Paris, another highly successful production. He had a small role in One Hundred and One Nights (1995) then the lead in Lelouch's version of Les Misérables (1995). He also appeared in the comedy Désiré (1996), Une chance sur deux (1998), and in the science fiction comedy Peut-être (1999). In 2009, Belmondo starred in A Man and His Dog ("Un homme et son chien"), his final film role. Despite his difficulty in walking and speaking, he played a character who had the same disability. Following this film he was forced into retirement in 2011 having earlier suffered a stroke in 2001. Honours and awards In