Prince of Players Edwin Booth Author:Eleanor Ruggles Edwin Thomas Booth (13 November 1833 ? 7 June 1893), was a famous 19th century American actor. He was born near Bel Air, Maryland into the English American theatrical Booth family. Booth toured throughout America and to the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespeare; in 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre tha... more »t was quite modern for its time.[2] Some theatre historians consider him the greatest American actor and Hamlet of the 19th century.[3] He was also the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.« less