50 Fun Facts About Sarah Bernhardt

What was Sarah Bernhardt's name at birth?

Henriette-Rosine Bernard: her birth record burned with the Paris archives in 1871, so even the day she was born was long disputed.

What was the profession of Bernhardt's mother, Judith Bernard?

Courtesan: her aunt was one too, and in her lean early years Sarah followed them, living off wealthy admirers between roles at the theatre.

Which ceremony did the animal-loving young Bernhardt stage at her convent school?

Giving her pet lizard a Christian burial: she led her classmates in a funeral procession for it, and the passion lasted, since the grown star kept a cheetah, an alligator and other strange pets.

Which powerful family friend proposed at a family council that the teenage Bernhardt should become an actress?

The Duke of Morny: she had wanted to be a nun, but he was the emperor's half-brother and his word settled it, then opened the doors of the Conservatoire and France's national theatre for her.

Which novelist said of the stick-thin young Bernhardt that she had 'the head of a virgin and the body of a broomstick'?

Alexandre Dumas père: the creator of The Three Musketeers made the crack after her 1866 debut at a new theatre, yet two years later his own play Kean gave her a first resounding success.

At her Conservatoire audition, the teenage Bernhardt recited a fable by which writer?

Jean de La Fontaine: with nobody to feed her cues for a scene, she recited his 'The Two Pigeons'; a judge grumbled that this was no place for fables, and she was admitted anyway.

What did Bernhardt do in 1863 that ended her first stint at the Comédie-Française?

Slapped a senior actress in the face: Madame Nathalie had shoved Sarah's little sister into a pillar for treading on her train, and Sarah gave up her place rather than apologise.

Which writer sent Bernhardt a bracelet with a tear-shaped jewel after her acting in his play moved him to weep?

Victor Hugo: after she played Doña Sol in his Hernani in 1877 he wrote that the tear she had made him shed was hers, and sent the jewel to stand for it.

With which Belgian aristocrat did Bernhardt have her only child, Maurice, in 1864?

Henri, Prince de Ligne: they never married and the boy took her surname; she doted on Maurice for life, even putting him in charge of a Paris theatre while he was still in his teens.

At which Left Bank theatre did Bernhardt make her name from 1866, in plays such as Kean and Le Passant?

The Odéon: its director Félix Duquesnel hired her over his partner's objections, and she later called it the theatre she loved most, a happy company that felt like school carried on.

Which novelist, a woman who wrote under a man's name, called the young Bernhardt 'my little Madonna' during rehearsals of her plays?

George Sand: Bernhardt adored the notorious rebel, whose plays gave her early roles, and remembered her as timid and gentle, saying little and smoking all through rehearsals.

What did Bernhardt turn her theatre into during the Prussian siege of Paris in 1870?

A hospital for wounded soldiers: she ran it herself, nursing and begging supplies from every rich man she knew, and by her own account even talked the police prefect out of his fur-lined overcoat.

At the supper for the 100th performance of Ruy Blas, its author raised a toast to Bernhardt's what?

Golden voice: the phrase clung to her for life as 'la voix d'or', but the supper ended grimly when one of her two managers collapsed at the table and died without regaining consciousness.

What piece of furniture did Bernhardt famously keep in her bedroom and sometimes sleep in?

A satin-lined coffin: she lay in it to learn her roles, slept in it when her dying sister needed the bed, and posed in it for a photograph that fed the legend.

Which 1878 stunt got Bernhardt fined 1,000 francs by the director of the Comédie-Française?

A balloon flight over Paris: the balloon, named Doña Sol after her current stage role, came down miles from the city, and when she refused to pay and offered her resignation, a government minister had to step in to keep her.

Which composer turned La Tosca, a melodrama written for Bernhardt in 1887, into one of the world's best-loved operas?

Giacomo Puccini: he saw Bernhardt play the part on tour in Italy and begged his publisher for the rights, but the project passed to a rival composer for a time, and his opera did not open until 1900.

Which play did Bernhardt give 65 times on her first American tour, more often than any other in her repertoire?

La Dame aux Camélias: Americans knew it as 'Camille', and when preachers denounced the French star from their pulpits as a corrupter of the New World, the crowds only grew.

Which inventor made a recording of Bernhardt when she visited his laboratory on her first American tour?

Thomas Edison: she took a train out to Menlo Park and, by her own account, found the place lit up for her by his new electric lamps, a reception she called worthy of fairyland.

On what unusual object did Bernhardt stand in Boston harbour, at a showman's urging?

The back of a dead whale: its owner then hauled the salted carcass after her from city to city, with posters claiming she had killed it for the whalebone in her corsets.

Whom did Bernhardt marry in London in 1882?

Jacques Damala, a Greek diplomat: he gave up his post to act in her company, but he walked out within the year, and morphine killed him seven years after the wedding.

Which playwright wrote Fédora, Theodora, La Tosca and Cleopatra for Bernhardt?

Victorien Sardou: he directed the plays himself and schooled her in a broad, flamboyant style of lavish sets, exotic costumes and long death scenes, melodramas built from the first line to show her off.

What did Bernhardt keep to play the asp in Cleopatra's death scene?

Two garter snakes: the harmless pair stood in for the deadly asp, and she painted her palms red where no audience could see, explaining that if she caught sight of her hand it would be Cleopatra's.

Which future king, then a pleasure-loving prince, was long rumoured to be one of Bernhardt's lovers?

Edward VII of Britain: as Prince of Wales he haunted her London and Paris seasons, and one night, as a prank, he lay on stage as the dead prince she wept over in Fédora.

Which Brazilian ruler came to every one of Bernhardt's performances in Rio de Janeiro in 1886?

Emperor Pedro II: he led a continent's welcome, with audiences showering her stage with their jewels, and the thirteen-month tour of the Americas sent her home a millionaire.

Which then-unknown artist made Bernhardt's poster for Gismonda in 1894, launching his career?

Alphonse Mucha: the story goes that he was the only artist left at the printer's over Christmas when she demanded a poster at once; she loved it and signed him to design her posters, sets and costumes.

Bernhardt fell out with her own son in the 1890s by publicly defending which French army officer?

Alfred Dreyfus: she stood with Zola for the captain wrongly convicted of treason while her adored son Maurice took the other side, a quarrel that split her household as it split France.

Which Russian writer, then a 21-year-old reviewer, was unimpressed when Bernhardt played Moscow in 1881?

Anton Chekhov: still a medical student paying his way with journalism, he granted her intelligence and taste but found every sigh and tear a lesson learned by heart, the enchantment smothered in artifice.

Which Shakespeare title role did Bernhardt take on in 1899, in a French prose version she commissioned?

Hamlet: at 54 she threw out the brooding dreamer and played the prince as quick, energetic and resolute, a reading some London critics met with jokes at her expense.

In Rostand's L'Aiglon (1900), Bernhardt played which historical figure?

Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt: at 55 she cropped her hair, studied how young cavalry officers walked, and played the prince who died at 21; the play ran for most of a year.

Which Irish writer threw lilies at Bernhardt's feet when she landed in England?

Oscar Wilde: he wrote Salomé in French, and she was rehearsing it in London in 1892 when the censor refused a licence because it put biblical characters on stage; she never played it.

Which American writer is credited with saying there are five kinds of actresses: bad, fair, good, great, and then Sarah Bernhardt?

Mark Twain: when the two shared a New York charity bill in 1905 he followed her on stage, marvelled at a French he always felt he was just about to understand, and called the pair of them two of the youngest people alive.

Which stage stunt is blamed for the knee injury that cost Bernhardt her leg?

The suicide leap in La Tosca: on a South American tour the mattress meant to break her heroine's plunge from the battlements was out of place, she landed on her right knee, and it never healed.

What happened to Bernhardt in Quebec City in 1905 after bishops warned Catholics off her plays?

A mob pelted her with rotten eggs: Quebec's archbishops had told the faithful to keep away from her plays, and after slighting remarks about French Canadians were pinned on her she left town under police escort.

At nine, Bernhardt took 'Quand même' as her lifelong motto after attempting what on a cousin's dare?

Leaping an impossibly wide ditch: by her own account she broke her wrist, swore she would do it again, 'quand même', roughly 'all the same', and asked for writing paper stamped with the words.

Which American producer bought the US rights to Bernhardt's 1912 film Queen Elizabeth?

Adolph Zukor: the profits from showing the famous actress in a full-length film launched his Famous Players company, which grew into Paramount Pictures.

What is said to have killed Ali-Gaga, the pet alligator Bernhardt took on tour in America?

Milk and champagne: she acquired the alligator in Louisiana, took it on tour and even let it share her bed until the rich diet finished it off; she also kept a monkey named Darwin.

In which city, far from the wartime front, did surgeons amputate Bernhardt's leg in 1915?

Bordeaux: after months with the knee in plaster, gangrene set in and she chose to have the leg off; she was soon performing again, for soldiers near the front.

How did Bernhardt get about after losing her leg?

Carried in a palanquin she designed: the white chair, borne by two men, took her on a tour of the Western Front, where she performed for the troops in ruined barns.

On which Breton island did Bernhardt spend her summers for some thirty years, in a converted fort?

Belle-Île: shown the island by a painter friend, she fell for it on sight, bought a disused army fort on a wild headland and filled it each summer with artists and guests; it is now a museum to her.

For which architect's new Monte Carlo theatre did Bernhardt sculpt a figure of Song for the façade?

Charles Garnier: the architect of the Paris Opéra paired her on the façade with the illustrator Gustave Doré, and when the hall opened in 1879 she was the first to perform there, dressed as a nymph.

What were reportedly Bernhardt's first words on coming round after she collapsed at a dress rehearsal in her last winter?

'When do I go on?': the answer was never, since the 78-year-old did not act on a stage again, though she was soon studying a new part.

What was Bernhardt doing at home in the weeks before she died?

Working on a film: too weak to leave the house, she had a room fitted out as a studio so that the cameras could come to her, and she died of kidney failure before the picture, La Voyante, was finished.

In which Paris cemetery was Bernhardt buried in 1923?

Père Lachaise: an enormous crowd followed her funeral procession on its way there across Paris from her parish church.

Why was the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt renamed the Théâtre de la Cité during the German occupation?

Because of her Jewish ancestry: under the new name the house staged the premiere of Jean-Paul Sartre's The Flies in 1943, and it took Bernhardt's name back after the war.

Which name did the Paris theatre Bernhardt ran from 1899 take in 1968?

Théâtre de la Ville: the city kept only the façade, tore out the old horseshoe auditorium for a single steep bank of 1,000 seats, and reopened the house under a new name to match.

Which French honour was Bernhardt finally awarded in 1914, at the age of 69?

The Légion d'honneur: the cross came in the same year that a court reconstructed her birth certificate, the original having burned with the Paris archives in 1871.

Where did Bernhardt perform in Texas in 1906 after a theatre syndicate barred her from its stages?

Under a circus tent: shut out of nearly every big American playhouse, she toured in a huge tent her managers had made for her and filled it night after night, while the press took her side against the syndicate.

Which producers managed Bernhardt's first American farewell tour in 1905-06?

The Shubert brothers: upstart challengers to the Syndicate that controlled most American theatres, they used the world's most famous actress, banned from their rivals' stages, to swing press and public to their side.

Which young Viennese doctor, studying in Paris in the 1880s, told his fiancée he believed every word Bernhardt said on stage?

Sigmund Freud: he thought the play itself a pompous trifle, yet wrote that from her first words he felt he had always known her.

Which famous soprano sang for free at the benefit held after a fire destroyed Bernhardt's uninsured apartment?

Adelina Patti: she had never sung at a benefit before, and by Bernhardt's account the students in the house made her repeat her Rossini aria three times, then escorted her carriage through the streets cheering.