Sarah Bernhardt (1844 - 1923)

Sarah Bernhardt, perhaps the greatest actress that ever lived, as well as an accomplished sculptor and painter, was born Rosine Bernard on 23 October in Paris, the illegitimate daughter of a Dutch Jewish courtesan and an unknown Frenchman.   Raised in a convent, Rosine at first wanted to become a nun, but instead followed the advice of the Duc de Morny, half brother of Napoleon III and one of her mother's lovers, to become an actress, and with the Duke's help entered Paris' state sponsored drama school, La Conservatoire.   As is common with genius, the teachers at the school did not appreciate Rosine's talents, and she herself found their methods to be outdated and stifling.   After two years she left the school, and again with de Morny's help received a contract with the Comédie-Française theatre company, where she debuted as Sarah Bernhardt in a production of Iphigenia.   Her first three performances received little critical attention, and she was forced to leave the company after slapping one of the company members, who had insulted her younger sister.   After a brief and lackluster stint with the Théâtre du Gymnase-Dramatique, she began to question her future as an actress.   Around this same time she became the mistress of the Prince Henri de Ligne, with whom she conceived her only child, a son named Maurice.   The Prince was only the first of many male and female lovers Bernhardt would have, including writer Victor Hugo, artist Louise Abbema, actor Lou Tellegen,  and Edward, the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. Sarah Bernhardt returned to the stage in 1866 after signing with the  Odéon Theatre, and two years later received her first serious critical and popular attention playing Anna Damby in Alexander Dumas' Kean.   In 1869, she made a triumphant performance in Le Passant, receiving so much acclaim for her portrayal of the minstrel Zanetto that she was invited to make a command performance of the play for Napoleon III.  As Paris came under siege during the Franco-Prussian War, Bernhardt helped organize the Odéon Theatre into a hospital to treat France's wounded.   When the war ended,  she played Queen Maria in a production of Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas to celebrate the Odéon's grand re-opening.   Hugo himself watched the performance, and coined the phrase voix d'or  ("golden voice"),  to describe her vocal talents.  She returned to the Comédie-Française in 1872, where she achieved even greater triumphs in Voltaire's Zaïre,  Racine's Phèdre,  and Hugo's Hernani. Bernhardt made her debut on the London stage in 1879 in a production of Phèdre, overcoming an attack of stage fright on opening night.   A swelled ego from the popular acclaim she received from the London audiences led to a second departure from the Comédie-Française.   She formed her own company the following year  and made her first international tour of Europe, Canada, and the United States, debuting on the New York stage in November of 1880.  She befriended the playwright Victorien Sardou, who wrote the plays Fédora (1882), Thédora (1884), La Tosca (1887), and Cléopâtre (1890) specifically for her.   In 1891 she began a world tour, making appearances in Australia and South America.   She also met and befriended Oscar Wilde, who dubbed her "The Divine Sarah," and wrote the play Salome with her in mind.   While the play was banned in London, Bernhardt later performed the play successfully in Paris.  The plays she proved most popular in were Phèdre, La Dame aux Camélias ("The Lady of the Camellias"), and Eugène Scribe's Adrienne Lecouvreur.  She bought the Théâtre des Nations in 1898, renaming it the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt.  In 1899 she performed quite memorably in London and Paris as Hamlet.   Sarah Bernhardt also studied painting and sculpture, becoming such an accomplished artist that many of her works are still displayed in museums and galleries around the world. While performing in a South American production of La Tosca in 1905, Bernhardt severely injured her knee while leaping from the parapet.   Gangrene set in ten years later, and the leg had to be amputated.  Undaunted, Brenhardt continued to perform on both the stage and on film, albeit either sitting in a chair, lying on couches and litters, or with her body partially hidden behind a screen.  Her last tour of the US was from 1916 to 1918, after which she returned to France and insisted on visiting and performing for the troops on the front, for which she was awarded the Legion of Honor.   In 1907 she wrote her autobiography, Ma Double Vie: Mémoires de Sarah Bernhardt ("My Double Life: Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt").   By the 1920s she had developed kidney disease and actually collapsed during rehearsal for Un Sujet de roman ("A Romantic Subject").   Her kidneys finally failed during filming of La Voyante ("The Clairvoyant") at her Paris home in 1923.   Her treatise on acting, L' Art du Théâtre ("Art of the Theatre"), was published soon afterwards.  Sarah Bernhardt was interred in Le Pere Lachaise cemetary. Sarah Bernhardt's contributions to theatre can never be adequately expressed or enumerated.  She did much to pioneer modern methods of acting, and was cited as a major inspiration by such actors as Lillie Langtry, Alla Nazimova, and Sir John Gielgud, as well as director Jean Cocteau.   Nearly eighty years after her death, she is still considered one of if not the greatest performers in modern drama. Sarah Bernhardt's stage credits include Tobias Regains His Sight (1858); Les Enfants d'Edouard (1861); Les Premières Armes de Richelieu (1861); Iphigénie (1862); Valérie (1862); Les Femmes Savants (1862); L'Etourdi (1862); La Maison sans Enfants (1863); Le Père de la Débutante (1863); Un Soufflet n'est Jamais Perdu (1863); Un Mari qui Lance sa Femme (1864); La Biche au Bois (1865); Phèdre (1866); Les Femmes Savantes (1867); Britannicus (1867); Le Malade Imaginaire (1867); King Lear (1867); Athalie (1867); Le Marquis de Villemer (1867); Francois-le-Champi (1867); Kean (1868); La Loterie du Mariage (1868); La Gloire de Molière (1869); Le Passant (1869); Le Bâtard (1869); L'Autre (1870); Fais ce que dois (1871); Ruy Blas (1872); Le Cid (1872); Le Mariage de Figaro (1873); Dalila (1873); Andromaque (1873); Le Sphinx (1874); Zaïre (1874); L'Etrangère (1876); Rome Vaincue (1876); Othello (1878); Amphytrion (1878); Mithridate (1879); L'aventurière (1880); Adrienne Lecouvreur (1880); Froufrou (1880); La Dame aux Camélias(1880); La Princesse Georges (1881); Les Faux Ménages (1882); Fédora (1882); Nana-Sahib (1883); Macbeth (1884); Théodora (1884); Marion Delorme (1885); Hamlet (1886); La Tosca (1887); Francillon (1888); Thérèse Raquin (1888); Léna (1889); Jeanne d'Arc (1890); Cléopâtre (1890); La Dame de Chalant (1891); Pauline Blanchard (1892); Les Rois (1893); La Femme de Claude (1894); La Princesse Lointaine (1895); Lorenzaccio (1896); La Samaritaine (1897); Lysiane (1898); Médée (1899); Hamlet (title role, 1899); L'Aiglon (1900); L'Etincelle (1900); Cyrano de Bergerac (1900); Les Précieuses Ridicules (1901); Sapho (1902); Théroigne de Méricourt (1902); Circé (1903); La Sorcière (1903); Le Festin de la Mort (1904); Angelo (1905); Pelléas et Mélisande (1905); Adrienne Lecouvreur (revival, 1905); La Vierge d'Avila (1906); Le Vert-Galant (1907); La Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty) (Prince Charming, 1907); La Courtisane de Corinthe (1908); La Passé (1908); Le Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1909); La Femme X (1910); Judas (1910); Soeur Béatrice (1911); Lucrèce Borgia (1911); Tartuffe (1911); La Reine Elisabeth (1912); Une Nuit de Noël Sous la Terreur (co-written by her son, Maurice, 1912); Jeanne Doré (1913); Tout-à-Coup (1914); Les Cathédrales (1915); La Mort de Cléopâtre (1916); Hécube (1916); Scenes from the Merchant of Venice (1916); Athalie (1920); Régine Armand (1921); and La Mort de Molière (1922). Her film credits include Le Duel d'Hamlet (1900); La Tosca (1909); La Dame aux camélias (aka Camille, 1910); Amours de la reine Élisabeth, Les (aka Queen Elizabeth, 1912); Camille (1912); Adrienne Lecouvreur (1913); Jeanne Dore (1915); Ceux de chez nous (1915); Mères françaises (aka Mothers of France,1917); It Happened in Paris (1919); and La Voyante (aka The Clairvoyant,1923). Her written works include Dans les Nuages, Impressions d'une Chaise (1878); L'Aveu. Drame en un acte en prose (1888); Adrienne Lecouvreur (1907); Ma Double Vie (aka My Double Life, 1907, 1908); Un Coeur d'Homme (1911); Petite Idole (1920); The Idol of Paris (1921); L'Art du Théâtre (posthumous, 1923, published in English as Art of the Theater, 1924). Links: The Sarah Bernhardt Pages The Sarah Bernhardt Pages Mirror Site Sarah Bernhardt's Home Page (1844-1923) PARIS PAGES Expo: La Belle Epoque Paris Pages; Theatre de la Ville - Theatre Sarah Bernarht The Early San Francisco Stage: Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt  - The Divine Trilogy Sarah Bernhardt's Stage at Eeyore's Thistle Patch Drawing Room Antiques marble bust by Sarah Bernhardt CelebrityWonder.com: Sarah Bernhardt Profile Photos of... Sarah Bernhardt. The Photos of Sarah Bernhardt Grave of Sarah Bernhardt Desperately seeking Sarah Bernhardt WetCanvas: Virtual Museum: Masters of the Poster Sarah Bernhardt in costume photo cabinets  SARAH Bernhardt, Sarah "Sarah Bernhardt," by Andy Warhol, part of 1980 Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century Suite KeywordTitleAuthor