Edwin Thomas Booth's Accomplishments

Edwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th-century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays with his family. Some theatrical historians consider him the greatest American actor, and the greatest Hamlet, of the 19th century. However, his achievements are often overshadowed by his relationship with his brother, John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
Booth finished his hundredth night as Hamlet at the Winter Garden Theatre on March 20, 1865, but one month later he retired from the stage after his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. He reluctantly returned to the Winter Garden stage in 1866: "[h]is sufferings had been dreadful, and it is thought that nothing but the pressure of financial obligation would have induced him to return to the stage" (Odell 8:20). Fortunately, the audience was friendly and did not hold him responsible for his brother's actions.
After the Winter Garden burned to the ground in March 1867, Booth began building what came to be known as "Booth's Theatre" in New York City. In 1869 he was married for the second time to Mary McVicker, another actress. She quit performing after their marriage and slowly went insane before finally dying on November 13, 1881. Unfortunately, Booth's …show more content…
His acting ability seemed to decline along with his health and by the age of forty "his acting...often seemed tired; his voice, always his weakest point, tended to become monotonous; his gestures became more formal" (Bates). In 1877 Booth, with the help of William Winter, organized a collection of his known plays for publication. They were published in 1878 as Edwin Booth's Prompt Book. Booth continued working until two years before his death. On April 4, 1891 he stepped on stage for the last time to perform Hamlet at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New