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Edwin Booth | 1833–93 |
The greatest American tragedian of the 1800s, Edwin Booth began acting in 1849 with his father, Junius Brutus Booth, with whom he traveled to California. He then toured on his own in the West and Australia for years before appearing in the East.
Booth was known for his natural style, which focused on the thoughts and feelings of characters like Hamlet and Iago. In 1864, he performed Hamlet for a record-setting 100 nights. Weeks later, he was devastated by his brother John Wilkes Booth’s murder of Abraham Lincoln and went into seclusion for months before performing again for the public. Four years after his return, he founded Booth’s Theatre in New York, a financial failure but a critical success.
Mr. Edwin Booth as Iago. Engraving, 1869. Folger Shakespeare Library.