Bernhardt, Sarah (1844-1923), French actress, who was the best-known stage figure of her time.

Bernhardt was born Sarah-Marie-Henriette Rosine Bernard in Paris on October 22/23, 1844, the daughter of a courtesan. She was educated in a convent and at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1862 she made her debut at the Comédie Française but attracted so little notice that she soon left the company. She appeared briefly and unsuccessfully in burlesque. From 1869 she played at the Théâtre de l’Odéon, winning her first success in Le Passant (1869), a comedy by François Coppée.

Recalled to the Comédie Française in 1872, Bernhardt gained recognition through the leading role in Phèdre (1874) by the classical dramatist Jean Racine and for the queen in Ruy Blas (1872) and Doña Sol in Hernani (1877), two Romantic dramas by Victor Hugo. She left the Comédie in 1880. By 1879 she had begun to travel with her own company, appearing regularly in London and New York and touring North America in 1886-1887 and 1888-1889, and the world in 1891-1893. In Paris she managed or owned various theatres, including the Théâtre des Nations, renamed the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, in which she appeared. Among her most successful performances were those in the romantic tragedy La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils; Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe; and Fédora, Théodora, La Tosca, and Cléopâtre, melodramas by Victorien Sardou. She was highly acclaimed for playing the title roles in a French version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1899) and in L’Aiglon (1901), a play about Napoleon’s son, written for her by Edmond Rostand. Famous for her slim beauty and bell-like voice, she was called the “divine Sarah”.

Bernhardt had a leg amputated at the age of 70, but she refused to abandon the stage. She played for troops at the front in World War I and continued to act until her death in Paris on March 26, 1923. She also wrote two plays, a work on acting (1923), and her memoirs (1907), and she showed talent in sculpture and painting. Bernhardt was made a member of the Légion d’Honneur in 1914.