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Eleonora Duse[dOO´zu, Ital. AlAOnO´rA dOO´zA] Pronunciation Key, 1859–1924, Italian actress. Of a theatrical family, she made a successful appearance at 14 as Juliet and in 1879 gained recognition in EmilE Zola's ThErEse Raquin. In 1893, in New York and London, her portrayal of Dumas's La Dame aux camElias was extraordinarily sensitive and deep. With her portrayal in 1895, in Paris, of Magda in Hermann Sudermann's Heimat, she became the only rival of Bernhardt. For some years a romantic attachment existed between Duse and the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, whose plays she was often the first to present and champion. She appeared in the film Cenere (1916). A great interpreter of Ibsen, she made her farewell appearance (1923) in his Lady from the Sea in New York. Duse's acting was characterized by simplicity and lack of theatrical artifice. She excelled in emotional parts, and her dramatic power, however restrained, was tremendous in its effect. A slender woman of melancholy appearance, she was an enigmatic personality who disdained publicity.
See biographies by J. Stubbs (1971), E. Le Galliene (1966), and W. Weaver (1984).
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