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VATICAN CITY — The Incredible Hulk fulfilled a childhood dream by meeting Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday.
Lou Ferrigno, who starred as the Marvel character during its 1977–1982 US television run, met and spoke briefly with the American pope at the end of Leo’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
“I’m here because it’s a lifelong dream of mine to meet the pope,” Ferrigno told reporters. Noting that one side of his family is from the southern Amalfi region, Ferrigno said he grew up hearing about the pope in an Italian Catholic family.
“It’s a great honor for me to be here to see Pope Leo, because that’s my whole life, it’s a dream.
He posed for photographers, mimicking the gesture he made famous in his on-screen transformation from Bruce Banner to the superhero Hulk – raising his fists and then bringing them down in a striking gesture.
Ferrigno, a retired professional bodybuilder, starred as Hulk in the CBS series before moving on to other television and film roles.
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