(October 23, 1844 - March 26, 1923)
Sarah Bernhardt was born as Henriette Rosine Bernard in Paris, France, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy Frenchman. She was sent to a convent for her upbringing. She lived in the convent until age fifteen, when she was accepted into the prestigious Conservatoire to develop her acting abilities. After three years in the Conservatoire, she made her first professional acting role with the Comedie-Francaise in Racine's play Iphigenie. 1
She became a major international celebrity after performing on tours in North and South America. Her first cross-Atlantic tour, in 1880, played in over 50 major United States cities for a total of 157 performances. 2 She quickly become a public icon and generated huge publicity during her tour. Overall, she earned over $500,000 during the first American tour. 3
Bernhardt toured the United States seven times between the years of 1880 and 1906. 4 In what was billed as her "farewell tour" of the United States, Bernhardt performed in circus tents due to her refusal to pay the Theatre Syndicate to perform. 5 She then had two more farewell tours in the United States, one of which placed her squarely in the fold of American vaudeville tours.
At the age of seventy, in 1915, Bernhardt had her right leg amputated after complications resulted from a career altering injury to her right knee in 1905. 6 She used an artificial leg for the remainder of her career. During the war years, she performed for the French soldiers on the Western front, and received the Legion of Honor for her dedication to the French military during the Great War. 7 Immediately after the war, she began to tour across Europe and North America in a variety of performance sites. She returned home to work on the 1923 film La Voyante, which was filmed on her estate in Paris. 8 During filming, Sarah Bernhardt grew seriously ill and died.
1. Menefee, 15.
2. Cullen, 102.
3. Nash, 151.
4. Cullen, 102.
5. Menefee, 27.
6. Nash, 154.
7. Nash, 157.
8. Nash, 157-158.
Resources
Bartelt, Chuck and Barbara Bergeron (ed.). Variety Obituaries. 29 Mar. 1923. New York : Garland Pub., 1988-1989.
Cullen, Frank, Florence Hackman, and Donald McNeilly. Vaudeville Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America. Volume 1. New York: Routledge, 2007.
Nash, Elizabeth. The Luminous Ones: A History of the Great Actresses. New York: Peter Lang, 1992.
Menefee, David W. Sarah Bernhardt in the Theatre of Films and Sound Recordings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003.
"Mme. Sarah Bernhardt Credits on Broadway." Internet Broadway Database. http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=9688 6 December 2007.
"Sarah Bernhardt." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bernhardt 6 December 2007.
"Sarah Bernhardt." New York Public Library Digital Gallery. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=155797 8 December 2007.
"Sarah Bernhardt (I)" IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0076800/bio 6 December 2007.