Booth, Edwin [Thomas] (1833–93), actor and manager. The second son of the elder Junius Brutus Booth to become an actor, he was born in Belair, Maryland, and made his debut in 1849 at the Boston Museum playing Tressel to his father's Richard III. Booth made an unobtrusive New York debut in 1850 as Wilford in The Iron Chest but later garnered attention when he replaced his ailing father as Richard III. Shortly afterward he left to spend several seasons in California and the South Pacific, during which time his father died. It was on this tour that he mastered virtually all the roles for which he would be famous, notably Hamlet, Cardinal Richelieu, and Sir Giles Overreach. On his return to New York in 1857, he was billed as “the Hope of the living Drama.” His season included not only Hamlet, Richelieu, and A New Way to Pay Old Debts, but also King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, The Lady of Lyons, and Othello (in which he played Iago to Charles Fisher's Moor), as well as several now‐forgotten works. Critics were unawed by his name or billing, the Tribune noting, “Mr. Booth is the most unequal actor we remember ever to have seen; and his fine, careful acting in one scene is no guaranty that he will not walk feebly through the next, and let it go by default.” By 1862, when he became manager of the Winter Garden, his acting had improved, although many critics still complained about occasional unevenness. Booth mounted many highly praised Shakespearean productions at the house, including a Julius Caesar in which he portrayed Brutus, Junius Brutus Booth Jr. played Cassius, and John Wilkes Booth played Marc Antony. The following night, November 26, 1864, he began a one‐hundredperformance run as Hamlet, the longest run the play had ever had until that time. Less than a month after the play closed, Booth went into temporary retirement after learning that his brother had assassinated President Lincoln. He returned to the stage in 1866, and when the Winter Garden was destroyed by fire, he built his own theatre at 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, opening it in 1869 with Romeo and Juliet. His Juliet, Mary McVicker, later became his second wife. Unfortunately, the playhouse sat on the edge of the main theatre district. This, coupled with some poor financial management, forced Booth to declare bankruptcy and lose the theatre in 1873. He then toured the country and from 1880 to 1882 performed successfully in England and Germany. In London he played at Henry Irving's Lyceum, where he and Irving alternated as Othello and Iago. On his return he formed noteworthy partnerships with Lawrence Barrett, Helena Modjeska, Madame Ristori, and Tommaso Salvini. In 1888 he gave his home on Gramercy Park to the newly organized Players, though he retained an apartment there until his death. His last appearance was as Hamlet in 1891 at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn.

Booth's personal life was as plagued by tragedy as any of the characters he portrayed. His father and several other close family members died insane; both his first wife, Mary Devlin Booth, and his second died young; his brother's murder of Lincoln gave him his darkest moment; and financial and drinking problems often beset him. Quite possibly the daunting distractions of his private life determined his conservative approach to drama. Unlike Edwin Forrest, he never sought to promote native plays; unlike Barrett, he never risked reviving obscure or neglected masterpieces. From early on he recognized that he had small ability in comic or in basically romantic plays. Tragedy was his forte, and he remained content with his reasonably large but relatively safe repertory. Booth stood about five feet six inches tall. His black hair, dark complexion, brown eyes, and sad mouth gave him a slightly Latin or Semitic appearance. Of his acting in Hamlet, William Winter wrote, “Surely the stage, at least in our time, has never offered a more impressive and affecting combination than Mr. Booth's Hamlet of princely dignity, intellectual stateliness, glowing imagination, fine sensitiveness to all that is most sacred in human life and all that is most thrilling and sublime in the weird atmosphere of ‘supernatural soliciting,’ which enwraps the highest mood of the man of genius!” A statue of Booth was erected in 1918 in Gramercy Park opposite the Players, making him one of the rare actors so honored, and in 1913 a second New York theatre was named after him. Biography: Prince of Players, Eleanor Ruggles, 1953.

Edwin Booth

Edwin Booth (1833-1893) was one of America's greatest tragic actors, introducing into his characterizations an artistic sensitivity and completeness that replaced the bombast of earlier times.

Edwin Booth had little schooling. Instead, he accompanied his actor father, Junius Brutus Booth, on the theatrical circuits, ostensibly to attend him but really to control the elder genius's drinking and erratic behavior, a problem Edwin himself later had. Edwin first took up drama in 1849 and thereafter played minor roles, until in New York, in 1851, his father's illness (real or feigned) permitted him to substitute as Richard III. Edwin was an immediate success.

Booth modestly continued his training in a variety of major and minor roles, first in California and later in the South. In Richmond, Va., he fell in love with Mary Devlin, who became his wife. Returning to New York in 1857, he was acclaimed for his brilliant and forceful portrayals of Richard III, Shylock, Romeo, and other Shakespearean characters. Booth surpassed the critical praise given to Edwin Forrest, who emerged from retirement in 1860 to challenge the young man.

At 31 Booth was America's foremost actor. His wife's death, however, caused him deep sorrow that exaggerated his already melancholy nature. He left the stage saying, "The beauty of my art is gone—it is hateful to me."

But acting was so deeply a part of the man that by 1864 Booth was back as star and manager of the Winter Garden Theater in New York. It was there that the three Booth brothers—Edwin, Junius, and John Wilkes—gave their memorable performance of Julius Caesar. (This staged political assassination was soon to be followed by a real one.) While Edwin was at the zenith of his fame, having acted Hamlet for more than a hundred consecutive nights, he heard of his brother John Wilkes's murder of President Lincoln. Once more he retired from the stage in sorrow.

Assured that the public did not hold him responsible for his brother's action, Booth returned to acting in 1866 and was greeted by a tremendous and sympathetic ovation. At the Booth Theater in New York City he managed and acted in the most elaborate and artistic productions of Shakespeare America had ever known. Bankruptcy in 1873 made him renounce managership forever, and he thereafter concentrated on becoming what many critics insisted was the greatest actor of his time. His performances were sensitive, integrated in tone, gesture, and setting, and full of poetic power. He did not think of himself as an entertainer but as an artist who revealed the beauty and wisdom of great dramatic poetry.

Booth had earlier made a gift of his home to the acting profession, and it was there, at the Players Club in New York City, that he died.

Further Reading

Eleanor Ruggles, Prince of Players: Edwin Booth (1953), is a popular portrait of the actor. William Winter, The Life and Art of Edwin Booth (1894; rev. ed. 1906), is a deeply appreciative analysis of Booth's technique and temperament. Asia B. Clarke, The Elder and Younger Booth (1882), is still an interesting study of the professional and personal lives of the Booth acting family. A good brief account of Booth and other tragedians of his time is in Garff B. Wilson, A History of American Acting (1966).

Additional Sources

Oggel, L. Terry, Edwin Booth: a bio-bibliography, New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.

Players (Club), Edwin Booth's legacy: treasures from the Hampden-Booth theatre collection at the Players, New York: Hampden-Booth Theatre Library, 1989.

Smith, Gene, American gothic: the story of America's legendary theatrical family, Junius, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Tebbel, John William, A certain club: one hundred years of The Players, New York: Wieser & Wieser, 1988. □

Edwin Booth 1833–93, one of the first great American actors and the most famous of his era, b. "Tudor Hall," near Bel Air, Md. After years of touring with his father, Junius Brutus Booth , serving his theatrical apprenticeship, he appeared in New York City (1857) and later toured (1861–63) England. By his mid-20s, Booth was at the pinnacle of the acting profession. On returning to New York he leased the Winter Garden Theatre, where in 1864 he presented his famous 100-night run of Hamlet. He was celebrated for his realistic style, which broke with the declamatory acting that preceded it, and for his identification with the characters he portrayed, many of them from the Shakespearean repertoire. His productions at the Winter Garden terminated in 1865, when his brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln. The ensuing scandal forced Edwin Booth to retire, but he returned to the Winter Garden in 1866. When it burned down, he built Booth's Theatre, New York (1869). He again toured England in 1880–82; his last appearance was in 1891.

Bibliography: See his letters, ed. by D. J. Watermeier (1971); recollections by his daughter E. B. Grossman (1894, repr. 1969); biographies by E. Ruggles (1953), W. Winter (1893, repr. 1968), and R. Lockridge (1932, repr. 1971); C. H. Shattuck, The Hamlet of Edwin Booth (1969); N. Titone, My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth (2010).

Booth, Edwin Thomas (1833–93), son of Junius Brutus Booth, was also a prominent tragedian, best known for his Shakespearean roles. He was the founder and first president of the Players Club. Otis Skinner edited his letters, with a biographical commentary, as The Last Tragedian (1939).