BERNHARDT, SARAH (ROSINE BERNARD) (1845-1923), French actress, was born in Paris on Oct. 22 1845, of mixed French and Dutch parentage, and of Jewish descent. She was, however, baptized at the age of 12 and brought up in a convent. , At 13 she entered the Conservatoire, where she gained the second prize for tragedy in 1861 and for comedy in 1862. Her debut was made at the Comedie Francaise on Aug. II 1862, in a minor part in Racine's 1 phigenie en Aulide. In 1867 she made her first definite successes at the Odeon, as Cordelia in a French translation of King Lear, as the queen in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas, and above all, as Zanetto in Francois Coppee's Le Passant (1869). After the Franco-German War she left the Odeon for the Comedie Francaise. From that time she steadily increased her reputation, especially by her performances of Phedre in Racine's play (1874) and of Dona Sol in Victor Hugo's Hernani 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 power of emotional acting, the mag netism of her personality and the beauty of her voix d'or, made the public tolerant of her caprices. In 188o, after a breach with the Comedie Francaise, she began her series of world tours. She went first to London, and in 188o and 1881 to Denmark, America, and Russia, with La Dame aux Camelias as the principal attraction. In 1882 she married in London Jacques Damala, who was an actor known by the stage name Daria, but she separated from him at the end of the following year. After a fresh triumph in Paris with Sardou's Fedora at the Vaudeville she became pro prietress of the Porte St. Martin, where she produced, among other plays, Jean Richepin's Nana Sahib (1883), Sardou's Theo dora (1884) and La Tosca (1887), Jules Barbier's Jeanne d'Arc (189o) and Sardou and Moreau's Cleopatre (189o).
She made several tours, including visits to America in 1886-87 and 1888-89. Between 1891 and 1893 she again visited America (North and South), Australia, and the chief European capitals. In Nov. 1893 she opened the Renaissance with Les Rois by Jules Lemaitre, which was followed by Sylvestre and Morand's Izeyl (1894), Sardou's Gismonda (1894) and Edmond Rostand's La Princesse lointaine (1895). In 1895 she also appeared with conspicuous success as Magda in a French translation of Suder mann's 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 Musset's Lorenzaccio. In Easter week of 1897 she played in a religious drama, La Samaritaine, by Rostand. In Dec. 1896 a fete was organized in Paris in her honour. Early in 1899 she removed to the Theatre des Nations, a larger house, which she opened with a revival of La Tosca. In the same year she made the experiment of a French production of Hamlet, in which she took the title part. And in 1 goo she played the Duc de Reichstadt in Rostand's L'Aiglon. Of the successful productions of her later years perhaps none was more remarkable than her impersonation of La Tisbe in Victor Hugo's romantic drama Angelo (1905) . In Jan. 1914, the Legion of Honour was conferred upon her. During the World War, al though she could no longer walk or stand unaided (an accident having led to the amputation of her leg in 1915) she played at the Front, toured in America (1917) and went to London, where, in 1922, she played a young man's part in Verneuil's Daniel. She died in Paris on March 26, 1923.
She was the author of a prose sketch, Dans les Nudges (1878) ; plays, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Un Coeur d'Homme (pub. 1911) ; L'Aveu (1888) ; a novel, Petite Idole (192o) ; Eng. trans. The Idol of Paris (1921) ; The Art of the Theatre (trans. 1924) .