[Rosine Bernard]. French actress, born in Paris on the 22nd of October, of mixed French and Dutch parentage, and of Jewish descent. She was, however, baptized at the age of twelve and brought up in a convent. At thirteen she entered the Conservatoire, where she gained the second prize for tragedy in 1861 and for comedy in 1862. Her début was made at the Comédie Française on the 11th of August 1862, in a minor part in Racines Iphigénie en Aulide, without any marked success, nor did she do much better in burlesque at the Porte St.-Martin and Gymnase. In 1867 she became a member of the company at the Odéon, where she made her first definite successes as Cordelia in a French translation of King Lear, as the queen in Victor Hugos Ruy Blas, and, above all, as Zanetto in François Coppées Le Passant (1869). When peace was restored after the Franco-German War she left the Odéon for the Comédie Française, thereby incurring a considerable monetary forfeit. From that time she steadily increased her reputation, two of the most definite steps in her progress being her performances of Phèdre in Racines play (1874) and of Dona Sol in Victor Hugos Hernani (1877). In 1879 she had a famous season at the Gaiety in London. By this time her position as the greatest actress of her day was securely established. Her amazing power of emotional acting, the extraordinary realism and pathos of her death-scenes, the magnetism of her personality, and the beauty of her voix dor, made the public tolerant of her occasional caprices. She had developed some skill as a sculptor, and exhibited at the Salon at various times between 1876 (honourable mention) and 1881. She also exhibited a painting there in 1880. In 1878 she published a prose sketch, Dans les nuages; les impressions dune chaise. Her comedy LAveu was produced in 1888 at the Odéon without much success. Her relations with the other sociétaires of the Comédie Française having become somewhat strained, a crisis arrived in 1880, when, enraged by an unfavourable criticism of her acting, she threw up her position on the day following the first performance of Émile Augiers LAventurière. This obliged her to pay a forfeit of £4,000 for breach of contract. Immediately after the rupture she gave a series of performances in London, relying chiefly upon Scribe and Legouvés Adrienne Lecouvreur and Meilhac and Halévys Frou Frou. These were followed by tours in Denmark, America and Russia, during 1880 and 1881, with La Dame aux camélias as the principal attraction. In 1882 she married Jacques Damala, a Greek, in London, but separated from him at the end of the following year. After a fresh triumph in Paris with Sardous Fédora at the Vaudeville she became proprietress of the Porte St.-Martin. Jean Richepins Nana Sahib (1883), Sardous Théodora (1884) and La Tosca (1887), Jules Barbiers Jeanne dArc (1890) and Sardou and Moreaus Cléopâtre (1890) were among her most conspicuous successes here, where she remained till she became proprietress of the Renaissance theatre in 1893. During those ten years she made several extended tours, including visits to America in 18861887 and 18881889. Between 1891 and 1893 she again visited America (North and South), Australia, and the chief European capitals. In November 1893 she opened the Renaissance with Les Rois by Jules Lemaître, which was followed by Sylvestre and Morands Izeyl (1894), Sardous Gismonda (1894) and Edmond Rostands La Princesse lointaine (1895). In 1895 she also appeared with conspicuous success as Magda in a French translation of Sudermanns Heimat. For the next few years she visited London almost annually, and America in 1896. In that year she made a success with an adaptation of Alfred de Mussets Lorenzaccio. In Easter week of 1897 she played in a religious drama, La Samaritaine, by Rostand. In December 1896 an elaborate fête was organized in Paris in her honour; and the value of this public recognition of her position at the head of her profession was enhanced by cordial greetings from all parts of the world. By this time she had played 112 parts, 38 of which she had created. Early in 1899 she removed from the Renaissance to the Théâtre des Nations, a larger house, which she opened with a revival of La Tosca. In the same year she made the bold experiment of a French production of Hamlet, in which she played the title part. She repeated the impersonation in London not long afterwards, where she also appeared (1901) as the fate-ridden son of Napoleon I., in Rostands LAiglon, which had been produced in Paris the year before. Of the successful productions of her later years perhaps none was more remarkable than her impersonation of La Tisbé in Victor Hugos romantic drama Angelo (1905). She made a specially successful tour in America in 1906. In 1909 she played Jeanne dArc in Paris. In 1910 she again toured in America. In 1913 she was given the Cross of the Legion of Honour. Though lame as the result of an operation, she appeared in November 1920 in Paris in a new play Daniel, by Louis Verneuil, and repeated this in London in April 1921.
See Jules Huret, Sarah Bernhardt (1889); and her own volume of autobiography (1907).