Sarah Bernhardt

Stage Actress

Birthday October 22, 1844

Birth Sign Libra

Birthplace Paris, France

DEATH DATE Mar 26, 1923 (78)

#35379 Most Popular

About

Late nineteenth and early twentieth-century melodramatic actress of stage and screen. She appeared in plays by Ibsen, Shakespeare, Racine, Moliere, and Scribe, as well as in a 1911 film version of Dumas fils' Camille.

Before Fame

She made her theatrical debut in an 1862 production of Racine's Iphigenie.

Trivia

She bought a coffin in which she would sometimes sleep; she claimed that the reminder of mortality helped her to enter the psyches of the dramatic characters she portrayed.

Family Life

She was born Rosine Bernhardt in Paris, France. Her father's identity was unknown, and her stepfather abandoned the family in 1835.

Associated With

She was romantically interested in Nikola Tesla; however, he rejected her on the grounds that she distracted him from his work.