Quick Facts
LeoBiography
Georges Alexis Pernoud (11 August 1947 – 10 January 2021) was a French journalist, television presenter and television producer. He is known for presenting his television documentary Thalassa (1980-2017), created in 1975 and dedicated to the sea.
Life and career
Georges Pernoud was born in a family of journalists, from his father Georges and one of his uncles René. His aunts were the historian Régine Pernoud and the literature director Laurence Pernoud.
He began his career as a camera operator at the ORTF in 1968. He participated at two expeditions of Haroun Tazieff in Congo at the volcanic crater of Nyiragongo and in Ethiopia on the plain of Dallol. In 1973, his participation at the nautic race of Whitbread between Portsmouth and Cape Town revealed his passion for the sea and the nautic world.
He proposed on 4 June 1975 the project for Thalassa, a weekly documentary dedicated to the sea, which was accepted two days later. The first episode of thirty minutes was recorded in Marseille and broadcast on 27 September 1975 on FR3 and first on voice-over. He then became the presenter of Thalassa in 1980, and since then presented the program every Friday evening on France 3. Since February 1990, he created and produced the documentary program Faut pas rêver dedicated to discovery of the world, as well as other documentaries for France 3.
