He as part of an illustrious family of stage actors
Before entering the presidential box of Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth was already a familiar figure to many Americans as a member of an illustrious family of stage actors. Before John Wilkes fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln, his name had been emblazoned on American theater playbills for decades. Only a few months before, the assassin and his two brothers had appeared on Broadway in a benefit performance of Julius Caesar to raise funds for the erection of a statue of William Shakespeare in Manhattan's Central Park.
The prospect of fame, fortune, and freedom piqued young Booth's interest, and he demonstrated remarkable talent from an early age, deciding on a career in the theater by the age of 17. He appeared in several small theaters across England before embarking on a tour of the Low Countries in 1814, returning the following year to make his London debut.
To live up to his family's theatrical reputation, the volatile John Wilkes, an ardent Confederate supporter, took center stage in an American tragedy. His assassination of Lincoln altered American history and the lives and reputations of many of Booth's relatives, including one who unknowingly saved Lincoln's life and another who wrote a secret memoir of her infamous brother.
