Bernhardt photographed by Nadar, 1859. Sarah Bernhardt (October 23, 1844 - March 26, 1923) was a French stage and early film actress. Her stage career started in 1862 while she was a student at the Com矇die-Francaise. She left France, and went to Belgium, where she became the mistress of Henri, Prince de Ligne. During this time she acquired her famous coffin, in which she often slept in lieu of a bed. She secured a contract at the Th矇atre de L'Od矇on where she began performing in 1866. During the Franco-Prussian she converted the theater into a makeshift hospital where she took care of the soldiers wounded on the battlefield. She made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s and was soon in demand all over Europe and in New York. She was one of the pioneer silent movie actresses, starring in eight motion pictures and two biographical films. In 1905, while performing in La Tosca in Rio de Janeiro, she injured her right knee when jumping off a parapet in the final scene. The leg never healed properly. By 1915, gangrene had set in and her entire right leg was amputated. She continued her career often without using a wooden prosthetic limb. Bernhardt died from uremia following kidney failure in 1923; she is believed to have been 78 years old.