He studied at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Nancy and was later instructed by Charles Dullin alongside the likes of Jean Rochefort and Jean-Pierre Marielle.

In 1961, Berthollier began working as a contributor to the television news program Cinq colonnes à la une, producing several reports on Southeast Asia.

In 1965, he began hosting other television news programs, such as Lectures pour tous and En votre âme et conscience [fr].

[3] He then produced and hosted Télé à la Une on TF1 and Les Choses du lundi from 1984 to 1985.

In 1990, he began to focus on writing, authoring a biography of Yvan Goll in the magazine Europe.