VATICAN CITY — The Incredible Hulk fulfilled a childhood dream by meeting Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday.
Lou Ferrigno, who played the Marvel character in the 1977-1982 US television broadcast, met the American pope at the end of Leo’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square and chatted briefly with him.
“I’m here because it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to meet the pope,” Ferrigno told reporters. Noting that one side of his family comes from the southern Amalfi region, Ferrigno said that he grew up hearing the name of the pope in a Catholic Italian family.
“I am very, very honored to be here to see Pope Leo, because this is my whole life, a dream come true.”
He posed for photographers and mimicked the move that made him famous in his on-screen transformation from Bruce Banner to the superhero Hulk; He raised his fists and then brought them down in a crushing motion.
Ferrigno, a retired professional bodybuilder, played the role of the Hulk on the CBS series Before moving on to other television and film roles.
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