BOOTH, BARTON (1681-1733), English actor, who came of a good Lancashire family, was educated at Westminster school, where his success in the Latin play Andria gave him an inclination for the stage. He was intended for the church; but in 1698 he ran away from Trinity college, Cambridge, and obtained employment in a theatrical company in Dublin, where he made his first appear ance as Oroonoko. After two seasons in Ireland he returned to London, where Betterton gave him all the assistance in his power. At Lincoln's Inn Fields (17oo—o4) he first appeared as Maximus in Valentinian, and his success was immediate. He was at the Haymarket with Betterton from 17o5 to 1708, and for the next 20 years at Drury Lane. Booth died on May Io, 1733, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His greatest parts, after the title part of Addison's Cato, which established his reputation as a tragedian, were probably Hotspur and Brutus. His Lear was deemed worthy of comparison with Garrick's.
See Victor, Memoirs of the Life of Barton Booth (1733) ; Cibber, Lives and Characters of the most eminent Actors and Actresses (1753)