Bernhardt, Sarah

Bernhardt, Sarah [née Bernard] (1844–1923), actress. The great French performer had only recently made her front‐page departure from the Comédie‐Française and embarked on a career as an independent star when she made her American debut at Booth's Theatre in 1880. Wisely, she chose for her first appearance the role many American critics came to consider her best part, the doomed actress Adrienne Lecouvreur. While she was no beauty, her frizzy red‐gold hair, her thin, pale face with its sharp eyes, and her slim, almost frail body were not unattractive. She had a voice variously described as like a “golden bell” and the “silver sound of running water.” Her notoriety was such that she had been guaranteed $1,000 per performance plus all traveling expenses, so that when her sellout tour was over, she had earned more than $156,000 for a series of performances that grossed the producer, Henry E. Abbey, $553,000. Including her first visit and her last, in 1916, she toured America nine times. The most unusual tour was the one that covered the 1905–06 season. Defying the Theatrical Syndicate, or Trust, whose terms she refused to accept, she was forced to play in tents and oddly assorted makeshift playhouses. Except on rare occasions in later years, she always performed in French. From the start most American critics considered her best in emotional roles and much weaker in truly tragic parts. The Herald observed, “In depicting human suffering she seems to absolutely control every organ of her body—her cheek blanches, tears come at her bidding . . . but where her lines call for the grand and imposing effects of concentrated passion . . . Mlle Bernhardt lacked breadth, force and passion.” Among her most celebrated vehicles were Frou‐Frou, Phèdre, Ernani, La Dame aux Camélias, Jeanne d'Arc, L'Aiglon, and La Tosca. Autobiography: Memories of My Life, 1923.