BOOTH, EDWIN THOMAS American actor, second son of the Anglo-American actor Junius Brutus Booth, was born Nov. 13, 1833 at Belair, Maryland. His father (born London 1796) removed to America in 1821. There he became a great favourite upon the stage, renewing the successes he had achieved in London, where he was regarded as a serious rival to Edmund Kean.
Edwin Booth's first appearance was made at the Boston Museum on Sept. 1o, 1849, as Tressel to his father's Richard III., in Colley Libber's version. But it was not until after his parent's death in 1852 that Edwin won renown for himself. His first New York appearance was as Wilford in The Iron Chest at the National Theatre in Chatham Street, Sept. 27, 185o, and a year later, on the illness of his father, Edwin took his place in the character of Richard III. Between 1852 and 1856 he played in California, Australia and the Sandwich lands, and from this time his matic triumphs were warmly acknowledged.
Thus early successful, in 1862 he became manager of the Winter Garden Theatre, New York. There he presented a series of Shakespearean productions of then unexampled magnificence. There the three Booth brothers, Junius Brutus (1821-1883 ), Ed win and John Wilkes (1839 1865), played together in a mem orable performance of Julius Caesar, and later, from Nov. 26, 1864, to March 22, 1865, Edwin played Hamlet consecutively for one hundred times. The splendour of this period in his career was dashed for many months when in 1865 his younger brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Lincoln. This caused his retirement until January 3, 1866, when he reappeared with success at the Winter Garden as Hamlet.
In 1868 Booth built a theatre of his own, Booth's Theatre, at the corner of 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, New York, and or ganized an excellent company of actors. Here he produced prac tically his own entire repertory, Shakespearean and otherwise. At this time he used the true text of Shakespeare, and thus antedated by many years a similar reform in England. Almost invariably his ventures were successful, but injudicious direction of financial affairs took away from him the structure he had raised (1874), and with it went his entire personal fortune. By arduous toil, however, he again accumulated wealth.
In later life Booth formed partnerships, which brought artistic distinction to the theatre and success to him and to his associates, with Lawrence Barrett and Helena Modjeska. He played with Madame Ristori in 1885, and during April and May 1886 he and Tommaso Salvini appeared together in Othello and Hamlet. In 1861 he had played in London, which he revisited in 188o and in 1882, playing there and in the English provinces with much success. At the invitation of Henry Irving he alternated Iago and Othello with him at the Lyceum Theatre, London. He also visited Germany in 1882, where his acting was received with the highest enthusiasm. This success he regarded as the summit of his artistic achievement. He was supported by a German troupe. His last appearance was as Hamlet, in 1891 at the old Academy of Music, Brooklyn, N.Y. He died on June 7, The record of Booth's achievements and the testimony of his time bear witness to his undeniable genius as an actor, especially in tragic roles, for which his personality, voice and appearance were eminently fitted. His place is secure with the greatest in the long line of Shakespearean tradition. Booth, for the most part, confined himself to playing Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Iago, Brutus, Shylock, Wolsey and Richard III., of Shakespeare; and to "Richelieu" by Bulwer Lytton, Bertuccio in Tom Taylor's "The Fool's Revenge," and John Howard Payne's "Brutus." Despite its professional high-lights the course of Booth's life was sad and tragic, shadowed as it was with exceptional sorrows and reverses. Their effect upon his sensitive nature was to make him more aloof and retiring. He converted his residence at 16 Gramercy Park, New York, into a club, The Players, and presented to it in perpetuity the house, with all his books and works of art. BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Edwin Booth's Prompt-books, edited by William Winter (1878) ; Asa Booth Clarke, The Elder and the Younger Booth (1882) ; Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and America, edited by Lawrence Hutton and Brander Matthews, to which Booth con tributed recollections of his father, and Lawrence Barrett, an article on Edwin Booth (1893) ; William Winter, Life and Art of Edwin Booth (1893) ; Lawrence Hutton, Edwin Booth (1893) ; Edwina Booth Grossman, Edwin Booth: Recollections (1894) ; Henry A. Clapp, Reminiscences of a Dramatic Critic (1902) ; William Winter, Vagrant Memories (1915) ; J. Ranken Towse, Sixty Years of the Thea tre (1916) ; Mrs. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Crowding Memories (192o) .
Portraits. In civilian dress by John Singer Sargent, at The Players; as Richelieu by Hon. John Collier, at The Players; as Hamlet by Oliver I. Lay, at The Players; as lago, by Thomas Hicks, at The Players.
Bust.—As Hamlet, by Launt Thompson, at The Players; Edwin Booth, by Edmond T. Quinn, placed in the Hall of Fame.
Statue.—As Hamlet, by Edmond T. Quinn, erected in Gramercy Park by The Players, November 13, 1918. (W. HAM.)