Edwin Booth

American actor

• Born: November 13, 1833
• Birthplace: Near Bel Air, Maryland
• Died: June 7, 1893
• Place of death: New York, New York

The most talented member of a family of actors, Edwin Booth suffered greatly from the association of his name with that of his younger brother, the assassin John Wilkes Booth, but nevertheless came to be admired for his art and his role in advancing the profession of acting in the United States.

Early Life

Edwin Thomas Booth’s mother and father immigrated to the United States from London, England. His mother was the former Mary Ann Holmes, and he was the celebrated but temperamental actorJunius Brutus Booth. Ten children were born to the Booths, but only six of these survived early childhood. Edwin’s older brother was Junius Brutus, Jr., and his older sister was Rosalie; his younger sister was Asia, and his younger brothers were John Wilkes and Joseph Adrian. Most of them, like Edwin, were short, slim, dark, and sensitive.

Edwin’s formal education was cursory, but he was highly intelligent and a quick learner. Traveling with his alcoholic and unstable father as a boy, he determined to become an actor. He made his formal debut in Boston in a minor role in William Shakespeare’s Richard III (pr. c. 1592-1593); two years later, in 1851, he played the lead for the first time in the same play in New York when his father refused to go on. In 1852, Edwin played the California gold camps. Junius Brutus Booth died later that year, and “Booth the Younger” was heralded in San Francisco as a worthy successor; still, it took several more years before Edwin equaled, and then exceeded, the reputation of his father.

In 1854, Booth joined a troupe headed for Australia, headlined by the distinguished actress Laura Keene; they performed in Sydney and Melbourne. Booth parted company with the troupe in Hawaii, following an argument, but while in Honolulu he was able to perform Richard III before King Kamehameha IV, using the king’s throne for a prop. Then, in Sacramento, California, Booth proved that he could play romantic as well as tragic roles with remarkable skill when he played Raphael in a new melodrama by Charles Selby, The Marble Heart: Or, The Sculptor’s Dream (1854). By the time he returned to his family at last in 1856, he had the wide experience of a versatile actor.

Life’s Work

Between 1857 and 1859, Booth triumphed upon the stage in Boston and New York, and became so celebrated in these and other cities for his portrayal of Richard III that both his father’s version and that of his namesake, Edwin Forrest, were almost forgotten. Booth’s voice was resonant and beautiful, and his gestures and looks were expressive and penetrating. No Shakespearean character was beyond him, but his Richard, Iago, Mark Anthony, Macbeth, and Hamlet were especially well received.

Admired by many, the young Edwin Booth had few close friends, among them journalist Adam Badeau and actor David Anderson. They knew better than most of his independent nature and penchant for drinking, and were surprised when he married an actress on July 7, 1860. This was the charming young Mary Devlin, daughter of a bankrupt Troy Devlin, a New York merchant. The Reverend Mr. Samuel Osgood, an Episcopalian clergyman, officiated at the ceremony in his home in New York City. On December 9, 1861, Mary gave birth to their only child, Edwina, but the mother grew ill and died on February 21, 1863. In 1869, Booth married Mary McVicker, stepdaughter of the proprietor of McVicker’s Theater in Chicago; the only child of his second marriage, Edgar, died shortly after birth, and his second Mary became insane before her death in 1881.

Making his home in New York during the 1860’s, Edwin played opposite Charlotte Cushman in a Philadelphia run of Macbeth (pr. 1606) and starred in The Merchant of Venice (pr. c. 1596-1597) and several other plays in London. In England, however, he was not as satisfied with his performances and their reception as he was in New York. The outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861 also persuaded him to stay close to home. Edwin, like most of the Booths, but certainly unlike John Wilkes, was supportive of the Union.

After becoming comanager of New York’s Winter Garden Theatre, Edwin was able to produce his favorite Shakespearean plays and star in them as well. Obviously one of these favorites was singularly popular, as his production of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (pr. c. 1600-1601) ran for one hundred consecutive performances. Then, too, his production of Julius Caesar (pr. c. 1599-1600) with Edwin as Brutus and his brothers Junius as Cassius and John Wilkes as Mark Anthony, was very well received. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, however, by the latter brother five months later, in April, 1865, disgraced the family and forced Edwin to suffer an almost nine-month retirement from the public view.

Having been performing in Boston, Edwin returned to New York for his self-confinement. There he received several death threats, and the New York Herald treated him savagely. At first he expected never to perform again, but debts mounted and the New York Tribune appealed to him in print that he not waste his considerable talent. At last, on January 3, 1866, a nervous Booth appeared at New York’s Winter Garden as Hamlet. The theater was packed, and the audience rose as one to applaud him at the opening curtain.

On January 22, 1867, Booth received a much-delayed gold medal for his unparalleled achievement two years before in the first hundred-night run of Hamlet. His popularity was such now that theatergoers in almost every major city in North America asked to see him. A renewed Hamlet was followed by a production of Lord Lytton’s Richelieu: Or, The Conspiracy (1839), then The Merchant of Venice, and then Brutus: Or, The Fall of Tarquin (pr., pb. 1818), by John Howard Payne. All were well received, but in Brutus fire was used to portray the burning of Rome, and it burned out of control one day in March to engulf the theater. With the destruction of the Winter Garden, Booth lost his finest costumes and was compelled to play benefit performances in Chicago and Baltimore.

Upon the advice of friends such as William Bispham, Booth built his own, superior, theater at the corner of Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue. Richard A. Robertson, a Boston businessperson, was taken in as a partner. The Booth Theatre opened February 3, 1869, with a lackluster performance of Romeo and Juliet (pr. c. 1595-1596). The critics felt that Booth and Mary McVicker were unconvincing in their romantic, title roles, yet they were married soon thereafter.

The excellent building, new costumes, props, and actors made the Booth Theatre the outstanding showplace for Shakespearean drama in America. Charlotte Cushman and others were coaxed out of retirement when given the opportunity to perform there. The great Edwin Forrest, however, refused to play in Booth’s theater.

Booth’s productions followed the Shakespearean texts rather than later adaptations, and historians were consulted to gain authenticity for the sets. Still, Booth was a poor businessperson, and when he quarreled with Robertson the latter sold out to Booth, leaving the actor-manager heavily in debt. Booth’s brother Junius tried to straighten out his affairs, but the Panic of 1873 destroyed their hopes. Early in 1874, Edwin Booth filed for bankruptcy, owing almost $200,000.

Repayment came, however, after Booth made a comeback in New York in October, 1875, when he played his unassailable Hamlet at Augustin Daly’s Fifth Avenue Theater. A budding star in his own right also in the cast then was Maurice Barrymore, father of Ethel, Lionel, and John. In desperation, Booth now dared even to play Richard II and King Lear, although the former was new to him and the latter role had long been thought the special property of Edwin Forrest. These performances too won him much credit. He also played to packed houses in the South, although he had formerly refused to go there. In 1876, Booth performed with distinction at the California Theater in San Francisco.

Although his debts were paid off within two years of his bankruptcy and he was becoming more popular than ever, he still received threats on his life. On April 23, 1879, a madman named Mark Gray shot at him, twice, from the audience while Booth was acting the role of Richard II at McVicker’s Theater in Chicago. Both shots went wild, and a composed Booth strode to the footlights so that he might point out the culprit to the police.

During the 1880’s, Booth performed in Europe: in London (with Henry Irving) and elsewhere in the British Isles, in Berlin and other German cities, and in Vienna. Everywhere, but especially in Berlin, he was lauded for his Shakespearean roles, and invitations were extended from France, Spain, Italy, and Russia. Booth declined these offers; his dream was semiretirement in New England, and he returned to build a cottage called “Boothden” on the Rhode Island coast near Newport. He also acquired a larger house in Boston.

In 1888, Booth founded and served as first president of New York’s club, The Players. When he performed in his later years, he liked to costar with accomplished younger actors such as Tommaso Salvini, Helena Modjeska, and Otis Skinner, and especially with another “old trouper,” Lawrence Barrett. After Barrett’s death in 1891, Booth, in ill health, gave fewer and less inspired performances. His last effort was as Hamlet on April 4, 1891, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He weakened, suffered a brain hemorrhage, and died in New York City on June 7, 1893, at the age of fifty-nine.

Significance

Booth, in his prime, was probably the world’s preeminent tragedian. His performance as Hamlet moved even Germans unfamiliar with English to tears. His apt movements and the quiet but perfect modulation of his voice, its timbre and clarity, seemed to late nineteenth century audiences much more natural and refined than the loud, forced theatrics of a previous generation. Like Forrest’s, Booth’s King Lear was considered exquisite, but almost all the other tragic characters in Shakespeare’s plays were also his meat.

Unfortunately, Booth’s private life echoed the tragedy he played out upon the stage. His actor-brother’s assassination of Lincoln, his father’s and his own bouts with alcoholism, the failure of the Booth Theatre, the early deaths of his two Marys, and his own rapid aging were truly components of a tragic life. At last he lost heart and almost seemed to will his own death.

While the solid structure of the Booth Theatre was torn down in his lifetime, the subtle delicacy of his acting technique remains in the better theatrical performances of today. In his lifetime, he was forever compared, usually unfavorably, to his father, but Edwin Booth is universally recognized today as the greater actor of the two, and by far superior to Junius, Jr., and John Wilkes. However, it is the continuing tragedy of the Booths that the best known of their number is the one who killed Abraham Lincoln.

Bibliography

Goodale, Katherine. Behind the Scenes with Edwin Booth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931. This is a charming and lively account of Booth’s professional life during the years when the author knew him (after 1870). Goodale, who performed under the stage name Kitty Molony, makes excellent observations relating to Booth’s mastery of his craft and is one of several authors to suggest that, despite his personal tragedies, he led a “charmed life.”

Grossman, Edwina Booth. Edwin Booth: Recollections by His Daughter. New York: Century, 1894. Booth’s sole surviving child was especially close to him during the years of his greatest success. His letters to her and some of his letters to friends such as David Anderson and William Bispham give this eulogy added strength and research value.

Kimmel, Stanley. The Mad Booths of Maryland. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1940. One of the best and most readable books ever written about the Booth family. The book deals with all of the Booth family members, treating them with balance and fairness, and does much to explain the strained relationship between Edwin Booth and his brother, John Wilkes.

Lockridge, Richard. Darling of Misfortune. New York: Century, 1932. This is a sound enough biography, but it was superseded by Ruggles’s work (see below). It is, perhaps, most valuable on the brief life span of the Booth Theatre.

Ruggles, Eleanor. Prince of Players: Edwin Booth. New York: W. W. Norton, 1953. At this writing still the definitive biography of Booth, reflecting the author’s exhaustive research. While sympathetic toward her tragic subject, Ruggles does not hesitate to reveal the extent of his early struggle with alcoholism, which she believes to have been quieted only by the shock of his first wife’s death.

Skinner, Otis. The Last Tragedian. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1939. Skinner, the father of the renowned actress Cornelia Otis Skinner, based this insider’s account of Booth on their performances together, also making effective use of selected Booth letters.

Smith, Gene. American Gothic: The Story of America’s Legendary Theatrical Family, Junius, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Well-written and researched history of the Booth family, focusing on the personalities and careers of Junius and his two sons, Edwin and John Wilkes. Examines how the assassination of Lincoln affected the family.

Tebbell, John. A Certain Club: One Hundred Years of the Players. New York: Wieser & Wieser, 1988. History of the Players, including information about Booth’s founding and involvement with the club.

Winter, William. Life and Art of Edwin Booth. New York: Macmillan, 1893. The celebrated drama critic of the New York Tribune was a longtime friend and confidant of Booth; he was also a prolific author, many of whose other works refer to the celebrated actor. This book contains much of value on the ups and downs of a remarkable career.