John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American actor who is most famous for assassinating Abraham Lincoln. A professional and extremely popular stage actor of his day, Booth was a Confederate sympathizer who was dissatisfied by the outcome of the American Civil War.

Background and early life

Booth was born on a farm near Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland. His parents, Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Holmes, were British Roman Catholics who had moved to the United States in 1821. He was named after the famous British revolutionary John Wilkes, whom the family claimed as a distant relative; Junius himself was named after the legendary Roman statesman Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. Junius was one of the most famous actors on the American stage; he also had a reputation as an eccentric and a drunk, even insane. After he died in 1852 the poet Walt Whitman wrote, "There went the greatest and by far the most noble Roman of them all." Booth's brother, Edwin Booth, was the most influential Shakespearean actor in America in the late 19th Century. Another brother, Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., also followed their father into acting. He was married to Agnes Booth.

Related Topics:
Bel Air - Harford County - Maryland - Junius Brutus Booth - 1821 - John Wilkes - Marcus Junius Brutus - Julius Caesar - 1852 - Walt Whitman - Edwin Booth - Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. - Agnes Booth

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Booth appeared to have led a happy childhood. He received an education in the classics and in particular Shakespeare. In 1851 Booth attended St. Timothy's Military Academy in Catonsville, near Baltimore, Maryland. It was there that he met Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen, both of whom would later become involved in Booth's attempt to kidnap and, later, murder Lincoln.

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