American actor and Confederate sympathizer who assassinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865 — using the noise of the play's laughter as cover for the gunshot — a member of the famous Booth acting family and a celebrated Shakespearean actor himself.
Represents the intersection of theatrical culture and political violence — Booth's choice of a theatre for the assassination, his dramatic cry of 'Sic semper tyrannis' after shooting Lincoln, and his self-conscious identification with Brutus demonstrate how theatrical performance and political action can catastrophically converge.
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