50 Fun Facts About Sarah Bernhardt

What was Sarah Bernhardt's name at birth?

She was born in the Latin Quarter of Paris on 22 October 1844 to a Dutch-Jewish courtesan.

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

Her patrons included the Duke of Morny, half-brother of Napoleon III, who later steered Sarah towards the stage.

For what act was the young Bernhardt accused of sacrilege at her convent school near Versailles?

She had declared she wanted to be a nun; she took first communion as a Catholic in 1856.

Which powerful figure proposed at a family council in 1857 that Bernhardt should become an actress?

He arranged her first-ever theatre visit, to Racine's Britannicus, where she sobbed so loudly she disturbed the audience.

Which writer, comforting the weeping girl after her first play, called her 'my little star'?

He told Morny she was destined for the stage and later coached her for her Conservatory audition.

Which composer, then head of the Paris Conservatory, arranged Bernhardt's audition?

Morny used his influence with Auber; the jury of Auber and five leading actors was won over by her recitation.

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

Madame Nathalie had shoved her little sister Regina into a stone column; Bernhardt refused to apologise unless Nathalie did first.

Whose poems did Bernhardt unwittingly recite before Napoleon III at the Tuileries, offending the emperor?

Hugo was a bitter critic of the emperor in exile; the imperial couple rose and left after the first poem.

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

His family sent an uncle to break up the romance under threat of disinheritance; Maurice later managed her theatre and gambled away its receipts.

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

Director Felix Duquesnel called her 'intelligent to the point of genius, with enormous energy under an appearance frail and delicate'.

How did Bernhardt calm a rowdy 1868 audience heckling Dumas's Kean in favour of an exiled rival author?

She asked whether they served justice by blaming Dumas for the exile of the man they were shouting for; the audience laughed and applauded.

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

She placed 32 beds in the lobby and foyers and had her personal chef cook soup for the patients.

After the 100th performance of Ruy Blas, its author toasted Bernhardt as his adorable queen and her what?

Rostand later called her 'the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture'.

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

Contrary to legend she never took it on tour; she also let her tubercular sister sleep in her bed while she used it.

How did Bernhardt view the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition from above?

She flew with balloonist Pierre Giffard and painter Georges Clairin, and Perrin of the Comédie-Française fined her for the stunt.

Which composer's question about whether she ever prayed drew the reply 'No, never. I'm an atheist'?

Asked by a reporter years later if she was a Christian, she said she was 'a Roman Catholic and a member of the great Jewish race'.

How big was Bernhardt's first American tour?

She travelled in a private palace car with two maids, two cooks, a waiter and her leading man Édouard Angelo.

Which inventor recorded Bernhardt reciting Phèdre at Menlo Park during her first American tour?

The recording has not survived; she posed on the back of a dead whale in Boston on the same tour.

On what unusual object did Bernhardt pose for photographs in Boston?

She was condemned as immoral by some clergy on the tour but sold out everywhere.

Whom did Bernhardt marry in London in April 1882?

Eleven years her junior and a morphine addict, he was dismissed by critics as handsome but talentless; she said she married because it was the one thing she had never tried.

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

For Theodora he invented a strangling for the empress, who historically died of cancer; Bernhardt sketched Ravenna's mosaics for the costumes.

What live creatures did Bernhardt keep for Cleopatra's death scene?

They played the asp; she also painted the palms of her hands for realism.

Which future king was among Bernhardt's lovers?

She renewed the relationship after her husband Damala left her in the 1880s.

Which Brazilian ruler attended all Sarah Bernhardt's Rio performances and gave her a diamond bracelet, promptly stolen?

On the same tour both her leading men caught yellow fever and her manager died; she went crocodile hunting in Guayaquil regardless.

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

She was delighted and signed him for six more posters; his Art Nouveau style became the look of the era.

How much did Bernhardt pay for the Théâtre de la Renaissance in 1893?

She ran every aspect of it and appeared eight times a week, but her debts had reached two million gold francs by 1898.

How many seats did the Théâtre des Nations, which she took over and renamed after herself in 1899, hold?

Twice the size of the Renaissance, its façade blazed with 5,700 electric bulbs and its lobby had life-size portraits of her by Mucha, Abbéma and Clairin.

Which Shakespeare title role did Bernhardt premiere on 20 May 1899 in a prose adaptation?

She played the Dane as direct, natural and 'very feminine'; Paris reviews were positive, London's mixed.

In Rostand's L'Aiglon (1900), the 56-year-old Bernhardt played which historical figure?

She cut her hair short and studied the walk of young cavalry officers; the play ran nearly a year during the 1900 Exposition.

Which Irish writer called Bernhardt 'the Incomparable One' and wrote Salomé in French for her?

British censors banned the play before it could be staged; he had scattered lilies in her path on her arrival in London.

How many kinds of actresses did Mark Twain say existed?

Sigmund Freud, who saw her in Theodora in 1884, was equally overwhelmed.

How did Bernhardt injure the knee that eventually cost her a leg?

In Rio de Janeiro in 1905 the landing mattress had been misplaced and she landed on the boards.

What did a Roman Catholic bishop urge his followers to do to Bernhardt during her 1905 visit to Montreal?

His objection was her sympathetic portrayals of prostitutes; the tour was the first of four 'farewell' tours of the Americas.

In what capacity, rather than as an actress, was Bernhardt awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1906-07?

The award required a review of moral standards and her behaviour was still deemed scandalous; she ignored the snub.

Which American producer filmed Bernhardt as Queen Elizabeth in 1912, with the print hand-tinted?

The money paid off the debts from the stage version, which had lasted only 12 performances; her co-star was her lover Lou Tellegen.

Bernhardt's leading man Lou Tellegen had modelled for which sculptor's Eternal Springtime?

He was not much of an actor but escorted her everywhere for two years and later became a silent-film star in America.

Where and when was Bernhardt's leg amputated?

Gangrene had set in from the old knee injury; she refused a prosthetic, crutches or a wheelchair and was carried in a Louis XV-style palanquin.

How did Bernhardt get about after losing her leg?

Propped on pillows in an armchair, she went on to recite for troops at Verdun and the Argonne.

On which Breton island did Bernhardt keep the holiday home where she painted seascapes and wrote?

She was there when news came of Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914; her painting teachers were Georges Clairin and Louise Abbéma.

For which architect did the sculptor Bernhardt create the figure of Song on his opera house façade?

She also exhibited and sold a high-relief plaque of the death of Ophelia; sculpture was a more serious passion than painting.

What were reportedly Bernhardt's first words on waking from an hour-long coma at a 1922 dress rehearsal?

She recovered enough to plan Cleopatra in Corneille's Rodogune and a film for Sacha Guitry at 10,000 francs a day.

Of what did Bernhardt die on 26 March 1923?

Newspapers said she died 'peacefully, without suffering, in the arms of her son'; a room in her house had been fitted out as a film studio because she was too weak to travel.

How many people attended Bernhardt's funeral, which paused in silence outside her theatre?

Her tombstone bears only the name 'Bernhardt'.

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

The name came back in 1947; the building on Place du Châtelet has been the Théâtre de la Ville since 1968.

What has the Paris theatre Bernhardt ran from 1899 been called since 1968?

It was built by Gabriel Davioud for Baron Haussmann as the twin of the Théâtre du Châtelet across the square; it took the Théâtre de la Ville name in 1968.

What distinction does Bernhardt hold among those honoured on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

Her motion-pictures star at 1751 Vine Street was added in 1960; Thomas Edison is the next-earliest-born person on the Walk.

Where did Bernhardt perform in Texas and Kansas City when a theatre syndicate barred her from its stages?

The syndicate controlled nearly every major US theatre and refused outside producers, so her managers improvised enormous tents.

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

It was the first of four farewell tours she made to the US, Canada and Latin America.

How many electric bulbs lit the façade of the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt after her 1899 renovation?

She also swapped the red plush and gilt interior for yellow velvet and white woodwork, and kept a fire burning year round in her five-room dressing suite.

Which famous soprano sang for free at the 1868 benefit after a fire destroyed Bernhardt's uninsured apartment?

The emperor's brooch and her pearls melted in the blaze, but she found the diamonds in the ashes and ended up buying a larger home on rue de Rome.