Junius Brutus Booth

Junius Brutus Booth (1 May 1796 – 30 November 1852) was an English stage actor. He was the father of John Wilkes Booth, an actor and the assassin of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Edwin Booth, the foremost tragedian of the mid-to-late 19th century, and Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., an actor and theatre manager. Booth was named after Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the lead assassins in William Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar.

Early life and education

Booth was born in St. Pancras, London, Great Britain, the son of Richard Booth, a lawyer and avid supporter of the American cause, and Jane Elizabeth Game. His paternal grandfather was John Booth, a silversmith, and his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Wilkes, was a relative of the English radical and politician John Wilkes. While he was growing up, Booth's father tried to settle his son in a lengthy succession of professions. Booth recalls of his childhood, "I was destined by my Controllers first for the Printing office, then to be an architect, then to be a sculptor and modeler, then a lawyer, then a sailor, of all of these I preferred those of sculptor and modeler."

Brutus

Brutus is a cognomen of the Roman gens Junia, a prominent family of the Roman Republic. The plural of Brutus is Bruti, and the vocative form is Brute, as used in the quotation "Et tu, Brute?" ("and you, Brutus?"), from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.

Notable ancient Romans with this cognomen include:

See also