Sarah Bernhardt

Who2 Biography: Sarah Bernhardt, Actor

Born: October 1844
Birthplace: Paris, France
Died: 26 March 1923
Best Known As: Legendary French theatrical superstar of the 1800s

Name at birth: Henriette-Rosine Bernhard

French stage star Sarah Bernhardt was probably the most famous actress of the 19th century. She studied drama in Paris and began performing on the stage in the early 1860s. She soon became known for her charismatic, sensual and highly melodramatic performances in classical plays such as Ruy Blas (1872) and Phedre (1874). Bernhardt began touring internationally in 1880, travelling in special luxury railway cars and appearing for big money in cities across Europe and the United States. Although she is chiefly remembered as a star of the stage, her roles in the early days of cinema helped bring credibility to the new medium. Her most famous films are 1911's La Dame aux Camelias (better known to U.S. audiences as Camille) and 1912's Queen Elizabeth. She injured her right leg in 1905 and in 1915 the leg was amputated, but Bernhardt continued to tour and perform. She died in 1923 shortly after beginning the filming of La Voyante.

The exact day of Bernhardt's birth is unclear; many sources list October 22nd, 23rd or 25th as the correct date, but there seems to be no proof for any individual date... Bernhardt is one of the few women to play the lead role in William Shakespeare's Hamlet... She published an autobiography, My Double Life, in 1907, and wrote The Art of Theatre in 1923.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Sarah Bernhardt

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(click to enlarge)
Sarah Bernhardt, photograph by Napoleon Sarony, 1880. (credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Oct. 22/23, 1844, Paris, France — died March 26, 1923, Paris) French actress. The illegitimate child of a courtesan, she was encouraged to pursue a theatrical career by one of her mother's lovers, the duke de Morny. After a brief appearance at the Comédie-Française (1862 – 63), she joined the Odéon theatre (1866 – 72), where she acted in Kean by Alexandre Dumas père and Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, charming audiences with her "golden voice." Returning to the Comédie-Française (1872 – 80), she starred in Phèdre to great acclaim in Paris and London. She formed her own company in 1880 and toured the world in The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas fils, Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe, four plays written for her by Victorien Sardou, and The Eaglet by Edmond Rostand. After an injury to her leg forced its amputation (1915), she strapped on a wooden leg and chose roles she could play largely seated. One of the best-known figures in the history of the stage, she was made a member of France's Legion of Honour in 1914.

For more information on Sarah Bernhardt, visit Britannica.com.

American Theater Guide: Sarah Bernhardt

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Bernhardt, Sarah [née Bernard] (1844–1923), actress. The great French performer had only recently made her front‐page departure from the Comédie‐Française and embarked on a career as an independent star when she made her American debut at Booth's Theatre in 1880. Wisely, she chose for her first appearance the role many American critics came to consider her best part, the doomed actress Adrienne Lecouvreur. While she was no beauty, her frizzy red‐gold hair, her thin, pale face with its sharp eyes, and her slim, almost frail body were not unattractive. She had a voice variously described as like a “golden bell” and the “silver sound of running water.” Her notoriety was such that she had been guaranteed $1,000 per performance plus all traveling expenses, so that when her sellout tour was over, she had earned more than $156,000 for a series of performances that grossed the producer, Henry E. Abbey, $553,000. Including her first visit and her last, in 1916, she toured America nine times. The most unusual tour was the one that covered the 1905–06 season. Defying the Theatrical Syndicate, or Trust, whose terms she refused to accept, she was forced to play in tents and oddly assorted makeshift playhouses. Except on rare occasions in later years, she always performed in French. From the start most American critics considered her best in emotional roles and much weaker in truly tragic parts. The Herald observed, “In depicting human suffering she seems to absolutely control every organ of her body—her cheek blanches, tears come at her bidding . . . but where her lines call for the grand and imposing effects of concentrated passion . . . Mlle Bernhardt lacked breadth, force and passion.” Among her most celebrated vehicles were Frou‐Frou, Phèdre, Ernani, La Dame aux Camélias, Jeanne d'Arc, L'Aiglon, and La Tosca. Autobiography: Memories of My Life, 1923.

Biography: Sarah Bernhardt

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One of the first great "stars" of the world stage, Sarah Bernhardt, known as "The Divine Sarah"(1844-1923), dominated the theatrical scenes of both Europe and America for over half a century. In addition to being considered one of the greatest actors of all time, she was noted for her "larger than life personality" and extravagant lifestyle.

Sarah Bernhardt was born Henriette-Rosine Bernard into the Parisian demi-monde of courtesans and affluent gentlemen on October 23, 1844. She did not know her father, a Parisian who never married her Dutch Jewish mother, a woman who had little time or inclination to raise a young child in the social whirl of the Paris salon set. After a tumultuous childhood, Bernhardt was ready to commit herself to a religious life when a place was secured for her to study acting in the Paris Conservatoire (1859 to 1862). She debuted professionally in 1862 in Racine's Iphigenie, in which she displayed little of the talent that would propel her to stardom in just a few years.

Physically, Bernhardt was somewhat boyish in her physique; she also suffered from bouts of ill health that plagued her from childhood. Her most noted qualities as an actor were her "voice of gold" and her ability to breathe emotional life into classic roles and melodramatic heroines, lifting the former from the stultifying effects of tradition and lending nobility and depth to the latter. Bernhardt's professional career began in earnest in 1866 as a member of the theater company at the Odéon. Her first major successes came as a member of France's greatest theater company, the Comédie Française, starting in 1872. After a triumphant tour of England with members of the Comédie in 1878, she broke what was considered to be a lifetime contract with the company to pursue her own successes in 1880.

Bernhardt excelled in emotionally overwrought roles in the classical vein, such as the queen in Hugo's Ruy Blas (1879), the title role in Racine's Phèdre (1874), and Doña Sol in Hernani (1877). She also played several "breeches" roles (male parts played by women) throughout her career, such as Hamlet and the title role in Rostand's L'Aiglon (The Eaglet, about Napoleon's son), which was written especially for her. She is perhaps remembered most often for her portrayal of Marguerite Gauthier, the courtesan stricken with consumption, in Dumas' La Dame aux Camélias (Camilleto most English-speaking audiences).

Her off-stage life was often just as harrowing as that of the characters she portrayed, with frequent bouts of physical ailments, financial difficulties, and numerous love affairs. Journalists of the day frequently painted her as an eccentric, and this contributed to her fame as much as her acting talent did. It is true that she sometimes slept in a coffin; whether she was at home or traveling Bernhardt always kept a large coterie of friends and admirers about her, as well as servants and a menagerie of exotic animals. She was a visual as well as theatrical artist, and many of her paintings and sculptures were popular. To her credit, she also had a weakness for humanitarian causes. During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 she established a military hospital in the closed Odéon theater, and during World War I she contributed both money and fund-raising activities to support the war effort.

Bernhardt is best known in America for her famous "farewell tours" that she made between 1880 and 1918. The nine tours she made in America often had a financial rather than artistic motivation behind them. During one such tour she teamed with France's greatest male actor of the day, the comedian Constant-Benoît Coquelin (the only person to ever leave the Comédie Française, until Bernhardt), to perform Edmund de Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, among other plays.

Bernhardt also took a progressive approach to the new medium of film (which was looked down upon by the legitimate theater), unabashedly appearing in several films in her lifetime, including La Dame aux Camélias (1911), Queen Elizabeth (1912), and Adrienne Lecouvreur (1913). The success of Queen Elizabeth in America, one of the first dramatic silent features, enabled producer Adolph Zukor to start the Famous Players production company, which eventually became Paramount Pictures.

In 1894 she started her own resident theater company. She opened the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in 1899. Her leg was amputated in 1911 because of a chronic knee condition brought on by several injuries. However, she continued to perform, even though she was constrained to perform excerpts of her most famous roles lying in a prone position or propped up by an artfully-designed set piece. Her hotel room in Paris had been converted to a film set for La Voyante, but she died on March 26, 1923, at the age of 79 before the film was completed.

Bernhardt never performed any of her parts in anything but French, but she was hailed and revered as a great actress on both sides of the Atlantic regardless of her audiences' abilities to comprehend the language. This popularity is a testament to both her emotional and vocal power as an actress, as well as her contribution to the modern stage as a singular star rather than as a member of a company.

Biography

Illustrious French actress Sarah Bernhardt was primarily known for her theatrical work, but she also appeared in a few films. It was said that the Grande Dame of French theater loathed cinema, and yet continued to appear in films until her death. She did not make her film debut until 1900 in Hamlet's Duel. She hated her next film, Tosca (1908), so much so that she ordered the negative destroyed and it was never released. She did not appear in another film until 1911 with La Dame aux Camélias. This film was acclaimed by the public and critics alike and is credited with helping make cinema a respectable artistic medium in France. The next year she traveled to England to make Queen Elizabeth. This film was a tremendous success in the U.S. and lead the great actress to receive many offers to work with other studios. But Bernhardt was 69 and elected to stay with the studio she'd worked with from the start, Film d'art. Even after she lost her leg in 1915, Bernhardt continued to appear in the films she said she hated so much. In 1923, when the 79-year-old Bernhardt became ill, filmmakers transformed the actress's hotel room into a set to film La Voyante. Unfortunately she died before the film was finished. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Wikipedia: Sarah Bernhardt

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Sarah Bernhardt
Bernhardt in June, 1877, during a visit to Boston, Massachusetts
Born	Sara-Marie-Henriette Rosine Bernard c. October 22, 1844(1844-10-22)^[1] Paris, France
Died	March 26, 1923 (aged 78) Paris, France
Years active	1862-1923
Spouse(s)	Ambroise Aristide Damala (1882-1889)

Sarah Bernhardt (October 22, 1844 – March 26, 1923) was a legendary French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known".^[2] Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah."

1 Early life
2 Stage career
3 Visual arts and recordings
4 Personal life
5 Silent film career
6 Later career
7 Books
8 Selected roles
9 Filmography
10 Recordings
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links

Early life

She was born in Paris on October 22, 1844 as Sara-Marie-Henriette Rosine Bernardt, the illegitimate daughter of Judith Van Hard, a notorious Dutch courtesan who had established herself in Paris, and Edouard Bernard, a law student.^[3] She added the letter "H" to both her first and last name, and used the name of Édouard Bernardt, her mother's brother, as the name of her father. This was probably done to hide the fact that her father was unknown. Her grandfather, Moritz Bernardt, was a Jewish merchant in Amsterdam. Most likely, her Jewish mother was also born in Amsterdam.^{[citation needed]}

Bernhardt photographed by Nadar

As the presence of a baby interfered with her mother’s life, Sarah was brought up in a pension, and later in a convent. A difficult, willful child of delicate health, she wanted to become a nun, but one of her mother’s lovers the Duc de Morny, Napoleon III’s half-brother, decided that she should be an actress. When she was 13, he arranged for her to enter the Conservatoire, the government sponsored school of acting. She was not considered a particularly promising student, and, although she revered some of her teachers, she regarded the Conservatoire‘s methods as antiquated and too deeply steeped in tradition.^[4]^[5]

Much of the uncertainty about Bernhardt's life arises because of her tendency to exaggerate and distort. Some claim she was born in Iowa and ran away to Paris, where she assumed a new identity as a French citizen to begin a stage career. Alexandre Dumas, fils, (the author of La Dame aux camélias, in which she performed almost 3000 times) described her as a notorious liar.^[2]

Stage career

Sarah Brenhardt left the Conservatoire in 1862, and, thanks to duc de Morny‘s influence, was accepted by the national theatre company, the Comédie-Française, as a beginner on probation. During the obligatory three debuts required of probationers, the strength, beauty, and sheer virtuosity of her performance was scarcely noticed by critics. Her contract with Comédie-Française was cancelled in 1863 after she slapped the face of a senior actress who had been rude to her younger sister. For a time she found employment at the Théâtre du Gymnase-Dramtique. After playing the role of a foolish Russian princess, she entered a period of soul searching, questioning her talent for acting. During these critical months she became a mistress of Henri, Prince de Ligne, and gave birth to his only child, Maurice. In 1866 she signed a contract with Odéon theatre and during six years of intensive work with a congenial company there, gradually established her reputation. Her first resounding success was as Anna Damby in the 1868 revival of Kean (by the novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas père). Brenhardt’s greatest triumph at the Odéon, however came 1869 when she portrayed the minstrel Zanetto in the young dramatist's François Coppée one-act verse play Le Passant (“The Passerby”) – a part of which she played again in a command performance before Napoleon III.^[6]^[7]

However, she was not entirely successful at the conservatory and left to become a courtesan by 1865. It was during this time that she acquired her famous coffin, in which she often slept in lieu of a bed, claiming it helped her understand her many tragic roles. She made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand all over Europe and in New York.^[8] She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the title "The Divine Sarah;" arguably, she was the most famous actress of the 19th century.^[9]

During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, she organized a military hospital in the Odéon. After the war, the reopened Odéon paid tribute to the 19th century writer Victor Hugo with a production of his verse-play Ruy Blas. As Queen Maria, Brenhardt charmed her audiences with lyrical quality of her voice. It was then that Hugo coined the phrase “golden voice,” though her critics usually called her voice “silvery” -- as resembling the tone of a flute.^[10]

In 1872 she left the Odéon and returned to Comédie-Française. One of her remarkable success there was in the title role of Voltaire’s Zaïre (1874). She even traveled to Cuba and performed in the Sauto Theater, in Matanzas, in 1887. She coached many young women in the art of acting, including actress and courtesan Liane de Pougy.

Visual arts and recordings

Although primarily a stage actress, Bernhardt made several cylinders and discs of famous dialogues from various productions. One of the earliest was a reading from Phèdre by Jean Racine, at Thomas Edison's home on a visit to New York City in the 1880s. She was involved with the visual arts, acting, painting and sculpting herself, and modeling for Antonio de La Gandara. She also published a series of books and plays.

During her time, Bernhardt had a strong influence on grand opera, an influence that continues to this day. Tosca, for example, contains one of opera's most sensational heroines, and it was based on a play written for Bernhardt.

In 1914, Bernhardt was made a member of France's Legion of Honour.^[11]

Personal life

The Fool and Death, a bronze sculpture by Bernhardt depicting the character of Triboulet in Hugo's Le roi s'amuse.

Bernhardt had an affair with a Belgian nobleman, Charles-Joseph Eugène Henri, Prince de Ligne, with whom she had her only child, Maurice Bernhardt, in 1864. He married a Polish princess, Maria Jablonowska (see Jablonowski). Later, close friends included several artists, most notably Gustave Doré and Georges Clarin, and actors Mounet-Sully and Lou Tellegen, as well as the famous French author Victor Hugo. Alphonse Mucha based several of his iconic Art Nouveau works on her. Her friendship with Louise Abbéma (1853–1927), a French impressionist painter, 9 years her junior, was so close and passionate that the two women were rumored to be lovers. In 1990, a painting by Abbéma, depicting the two on a boat ride on the lake in the bois de Boulogne, was donated to the Comédie-Française. The accompanying letter stated that the painting was "Peint par Louise Abbéma, le jour anniversaire de leur liaison amoureuse."^[12]

She later married Greek-born actor Aristides Damala (known in France by the stage name Jacques Damala) in London in 1882, but the marriage, which legally endured until Damala's death in 1889 at age 34, quickly collapsed, largely due to Damala's dependence on morphine. During the later years of this marriage, Bernhardt was said to have been involved in an affair with the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII.^[13]

Bernhardt was not known to be a religious person, and once stated, "Me pray? Never! I'm an atheist."^[14] However, she had been baptised a Roman Catholic, and accepted the Last Rites of the Church shortly before her death.^[15]

Sarah Bernhardt as Queen in Victor Hugo’s Ruy Blas.

In 1897, Rene Lalique, the master goldsmith and glass designer, designed a corsage ornament for the actress. It was based on a dragonfly, but had griffin paws and a female torso as a body, and a portrait of the actress as a head. These feminine and animalisic ideas are characteristics from the Art Nouveau period. He made it from inexpensive materials of moonstones, enamel and chrysoprase stones.

Silent film career

Bernhardt was one of the pioneer silent movie actresses, debuting as Hamlet in the two minute long film Le Duel d'Hamlet in 1900. (Technically, this was not a silent film, as it had an accompanying Edison cylinder with sound effects.)^[16] She went on to star in eight motion pictures and two biographical films in all. The latter included Sarah Bernhardt à Belle-Isle (1912), a film about her daily life at home.

Later career

Bernhardt's grave at Père Lachaise cemetery.

In 1905, while performing in Victorien Sardou's La Tosca in Rio de Janeiro, Bernhardt injured her right knee when jumping off the parapet in the final scene. The leg never healed properly. By 1915, gangrene had set in and her entire right leg was amputated, confining her to a wheelchair for several months. Bernhardt reportedly refused a $10,000 offer by a showman to display her amputated leg as a medical curiosity (while P.T. Barnum is usually cited as the one to have made the offer, he had been dead since 1891). Nonetheless, she continued her career, and contrary to belief, without the use of a wooden prosthetic limb (she tried using one, but didn't like it). She carried out a successful tour of America in 1915, and on returning to France she played in her own productions almost continuously until her death. Her later successes included Daniel (1920), La Gloire (1921), and Régine Armand (1922). Her physical condition confined her practically to immobility on the stage, but the charm of her voice, which had altered little with age, ensured her triumphs.^[17]

Bernhardt has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street.

Books

Dans les nuages, Impressions d'une chaise (1878)
L'Aveu, drame en un acte en prose (1888)
Adrienne Lecouvreur, drame en six actes (1907)
Ma Double Vie (1907), & as My Double Life: Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt, (1907) William Heinemann
Un Coeur d'Homme, pièce en quatre actes (1911)
Petite Idole (1920; as The Idol of Paris, 1921)
L'Art du Théâtre: la voix, le geste, la prononciation, etc. (1923; as The Art of the Theatre, 1924)

Selected roles

Bernhardt as Hamlet, c. 1880-1885.

Bernhardt, in a portrait, 1890s.

1862: Racine's Iphigénie in the title rôle, her debut.
1862: Eugène Scribe's Valérie
1862: Molière's Les Femmes Savantes
1864: Labiche & Deslandes, Un Mari qui Lance sa Femme
1866: T & H Cognard's La Biche aux Bois
1866: Racine's Phèdre (as Aricie)
1866: Pierre de Marivaux's Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard (as Silvia)
1867: Molière's Les Femmes Savantes (as Armande)
1867: George Sand's Le Marquis de Villemer
1867: Georges Sand's "François le Champi" (as Mariette)
1868: Dumas père's Kean (as Anna Damby)
1869: Coppée's La Passant, as a male troubador (Zanetto); her first major stage success
1870: George Sand's L'Autre
1871: Theuriet's Jeanne-Marie
1871: Coppée's Fais ce que Dois
1871: Foussier and Edmond La Baronne
1872: Bouilhet's Mademoiselle Aïssé
1872: Hugo's Ruy Blas (as Doña Maira de Neubourg, Queen of Spain)
1872: Dumas père Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (as Gabrielle)
1872: Racine's Britannicus (as Junie)
1872: Beaumarchais's Le Mariage de Figaro
1872: Sandeau's Mademoiselle de la Seiglière
1873: Feuillet's Dalila (as Princess Falconieri)
1873: Ferrier's Chez l'Avocat
1873: Racine's Andromaque
1873: Racine's Phèdre (as Aricie)
1873: Feuillet's Le Sphinx''
1874: Voltaire's Zaire
1874: Racine's Phèdre (as Phèdre)
1875: Bornier's La Fille de Roland
- Dumas fils' L'Étrangère (as Mrs. Clarkson)
- Parodi's Rome Vaincue
1877: Hugo's Hernani (as Doña Sol)
1879: Racine's Phèdre (as Phèdre)
1880: Émile Augier's L'Aventurière
1880: Legouvé & Scribe's Adrienne Lecouvreur
1880: Meilhac & Halévy's Froufrou
1880: Dumas fils' La Dame aux Camélias (as Maguerite)
1882: Sardou's Fédora''
- Sardou's Théodora (as Theodora, Empress of Byzantium)
1887 : Victorien Sardou's La Tosca
- Dumas fils' La Princesse Georges
1890: Sardou's Cléopâtre, as Cleopatra
1893: Lemaître's Les Rois
1894: Sardou's Gismonda
1895: Molière's Amphytrion
1895: Magda(translation of Sudermann's Heimat)
1896: La Dame aux Camélias
1896: Musset's Lorenzaccio (as Lorenzino de' Medici)
1897: Sardou's Spiritisme
1897: Rostand's La Samaritaine
1898: Catulle Mendès Medée
1898: La Dame aux Camélias (as Marguerite Gautier)
- Barbier's Jeanne d'Arc (as Joan of Arc)
- Morand & Sylvestre's Izéïl (as Izéïl)
- Shakespeare's King Lear (as Cordelia)
1899: Shakespeare's Hamlet (as Hamlet)
- Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (as Cleopatra)
- Shakespeare's Macbeth (as Lady Macbeth) (in French)
- Richepin's Pierrot Assassin (as Pierrot)
1900: Rostand's L'Aiglon as L'Aiglon
1903: Sardou's La Sorcière
1904: Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande (as Pelléas)
1906: Ibsen's The Lady From the Sea
1906: Mendès' La Vierge d'Avila (as Saint Theresa)
1911: Moreau's Queen Elizabeth (as Queen Elizabeth)
1913: Bernard's Jeanne Doré (as Jeanne Doré)

Filmography

portrait by William Downey

1900: Le Duel d'Hamlet (Hamlet, as Hamlet) An excerpt from the play, featuring Bernhardt in a duel to the death with Laertes.
1908: La Tosca (Tosca, as Tosca) A one-reel condensation of the play by the same name by Victorien Sardou.
1911: La Dame aux Camélias (Lady of the Camelias - Camille, in the U.S. release, as Camille) A two-reel condensation of the play by the same name, and co-starring Lou Tellegen.
1912: Adrienne Lecouvreur (An Actress's Romance; as Adrienne Lecouvreur) A two-reel condensation of the play by the same name. Co-starring Lou Tellegen.
1912: Les Amours d'Elisabeth, Reine d'Angleterre (Queen Elizabeth; a major success) A four-reel condensation of the play of the same name. Co-starring Lou Tellegen.
1912: Sarah Bernhardt à Belle-Isle (Sarah Bernhardt at Home, as herself) This documentary features Sarah at home with her family and friends, fishing for shrimp, and cuddling indoors with her pet dogs.
1915: Mères Françaises (Mothers of France, as Madame Jeanne D'Urbex, a war widow in World War I. When she learns that her son has also been wounded, she searches the battlefields, crawls through trenches, and finally reaches him at a medical station only to have him die in her arms. After this tragedy, she dedicates her life to helping others survive the ravages of war.
1915: Ceux de Chez Nous (Those at Home: biographical, home movies) Among other celebrated persons of the era, there is a brief scene featuring Sarah sitting on a park bench and reading from a book.
1916: Jeanne Doré (as Jeanne Doré). Based on a play of the same name. Sarah appears as a widowed mother, who lavishes attention on her son, Jacques. When he is seduced by a temptress and accidentally murders a man, she visits him in his cell on the night before his execution, pretending to be his fiancée, so he can have one moment of final pleasure.
1921: Daniel (5-minute death scene from the play of the same name.) Sarah appears as a morphine addict in the hour before death.
1923: La Voyante (The Fortune Teller,) Sarah appears as a clairvoyant, who makes predictions that influence the outcome of national events. This film was Sarah's final performance, and was made while she was mortally ill. It was eventually completed with scenes made with a stand-in performing Bernhardt's character with her back turned to the camera.

Recordings

Sarah Bernhardt
Georges Clairin (1843 - 1919) oil painting on canvas

Phèdre (1902)
Le Lac (The Lake) (1902)
La Fiancée du Timbalier (1902)
Lucie (1902)
Le Lac (1903)
La Samaritaine (1903)
Les Vieux (The Old Ones) (1903)
Un Évangile (A Gospel) (1903)
Phèdre (1903)
La Mort d'Izéil (The Death of Izéil) (1903)
La Rêverie de Théroigne de Méricourt (The Dream of Théroigne de Méricourt) (1903)
Un Peu de Musique (A Little Music) (1903)
L'Aiglon (The Eaglet) (1910)
Phèdre (1910)
Les Buffons (The Buffoons) (1908)
La Samaritaine (1910)
L'Étoile dans la Nuit (The Star in the Night) (1918)
Prière pour nos Ennemis (A Prayer for our Enemies) (1918)

References

^ She was baptised in 1857, when was about 12, but the record is missing. A birth date taken from a certificate of a baptism conducted at the age of 12 would not be reliable as a primary source, and could only be used to corroborate other evidence. (In The Art of High Drama, a Professor Ockman describes finding an "unidentified newspaper clipping" in the Bibliothèque de la Comédie Francaise in Paris, which included a copy of a baptismal certificate saying Bernhardt was born on 25 September 1844.) It has been claimed that "Bernhardt sometimes celebrated her birthday on 23 October", although there is no verification of this claim. Bernhardt’s 1907 autobiography Ma double vie (My Double Life) made no reference to her date of birth.
^ ^a ^b Gottlieb, Robert. "The Drama of Sarah Bernhardt". http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20151. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ Encyclopedia Britannica -- Macropædia (Knowledge in Depth) Volume 2
^ COLOMBIER Marie. Le voyage de Sarah Bernhardt en Amérique
^ Sarah Bernhardt (1933), a concise biography based on personal memories
^ MAY AGATE, Madame Sarah (1945)
^ Encyclopedia Britannica -- Macropædia (Knowledge in Depth) Volume 2
^ Sarah Bernhardt at the Internet Broadway Database
^ Golden, Eve. "From Stage to Screen: The Film Career of Sarah Bernhardt". http://www.classicimages.com/past_issues/view/?x=/1997/june/bernhard.html. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ C.O. SKINNER, Madame Sarah (1967), and excellent book primarily biographical attempt at separating fact from fiction
^ "Britannica Concise Encyclopedia entry for Sarah Bernhardt". http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-357122.html. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ Guibert et. al., Portrait(s) de Sarah Bernhardt, 2000."
^ "Edward VII biography". http://www.geocities.com/jesusib/EdwardVII.html. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "Positive Atheism’s Big List of Quotations: Sarah Bernhardt". http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-b0.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ .Sarah Bernhardt in the Theatre of Films and Sound Recordings, by David W. Menefee, McFarland & Company, Inc, 2003
^ "Filming Shakespeare With And Without Words In Settings Familiar And Unfamiliar". http://www.isntlifeterrible.com/labels/film%20preservation.html. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "New International Encyclopedia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_International_Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sarah Bernhardt

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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bernhardt, Sarah.

The Sarah Bernhardt Pages
Sarah Bernhardt at Find a Grave
Works by Sarah Bernhardt at Project Gutenberg
Sarah Bernhardt at the Internet Broadway Database
Performances in Theatre Archive University of Bristol
Sarah Bernhardt at the Internet Movie Database
Sarah Bernhardt at Allmusic
Sarah Bernhardt cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
Sarah Bernhardt Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
Benrhardt's sculpture
Bibliography
Sarah Bernhardt photo gallery series 1 NYP Library
Sarah Bernhardt photo gallery series 2 NYP Library

Persondata
NAME	Bernhardt, Sarah
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bernardt, Marie Henriette
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actress
DATE OF BIRTH	22 October 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris, France
DATE OF DEATH	26 March 1923
PLACE OF DEATH	Paris, France

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