Jacques Damala

Aristides Damalas , known in France by the stage name Jacques Damala, , was a Greek military officerturnedactor, who is mostly remembered as being husband to Sarah Bernhardt for a number of years. Damalas characterization by modern researchers is far from positive. His handsomeness was as notable as his insolence and Don Juan quality. Writer Fredy Germanos describes him as an opportunistic and hedonistic person, whose marriage to the great diva would inevitably intensify and maximize his vices, namely, his vanity and obsession with women, alcohol, and drugs.

Damala was born at Piraeus, Greece onJanuary 1855 to an aristocratic family. He was the second of three children to Ambrosios Damalas , a wealthy shipping magnate, who later served as mayor of Ermoupoli and Piraeus and his wife, Calliope Ralli , whose father, Loukas Rallis, had also once served as mayor of Piraeus and Ermoupolis, Syros and was a member of the Executive Committee which attempted the liberation of Chios in 1827, during the Greek War of Independence. The other two children of Ambrouzis and Calliope were a son, Paul Damalas and a daughter, Eirini . The family later moved to Marseille, France, where they spent several years, until they relocated to Ermoupoli, Syros, after Ambrosios was appointed mayor there. The family later returned to Marseille and eventually to Piraeus.

Source: Wikipedia