Trivia

Was the only female cover subject of Time magazine during the year 1923.

Considered herself as too old to adapt to the celluloid medium and, consequently, only made one film.

George Bernard Shaw considered her a greater actress than Sarah Bernhardt, who was more popular than Duse.

She was born in a wagon at Vigevano, a small village just outside of Venice.

In 1895 she met the poet and writer Gabriele d'Annunzio, who was five years her junior, and the two became involved romantically as well as collaborating professionally. Gabriele d'Annunzio wrote four plays for her, and her association with d'Annunzio was widely recognized. When d'Annunzio gave the lead for the premiere of the play "La città morta" to Sarah Bernhardt instead of Duse, there was a furious fight, and Duse ended her affair with him.

Suffered for most of her later life from pulmonary problems.

Came from a performing background: her father and grandfather were both actors.

Her grandfather, Luigi Duse, founded the Garibaldi Theatre in Padua, Italy.

In 1968, Duse's granddaughter Eleonora Ilaria Bullough donated the rest of her grandmother's personal items to the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice.

In 1933, Duse's daughter Henrietta donated many of her mother's personal items to the Italian state. Those items are exhibited in the "Museo Civico" in Asolo.

Duse originally retired from the stage in 1909. She resumed her career in 1921, performing in both Europe and the United States. She died of pneumonia in Pittsburgh, during a tour of the United States. She lay in state for four days in New York City before her funeral.