Barton Booth (1681- May 10, 1733) was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century.

Booth He was from Lancashire and was educated at Westminster School, where his success in the Latin play Andria gave him an inclination for the stage. He was intended for the church; but in 1698 he ran away from Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained employment in a theatrical company in Dublin, where he made his first appearance as Oroonoko.

London Success

After two seasons in Ireland he returned to London, where Thomas Betterton, who had previously failed to help him, probably out of regard for Booth's family, now gave him all the assistance in his power. At Lincoln's Inn Fields (1700_1704) he first appeared as Maximus in Valentinian, and his success was immediate. He was at the Haymarket with Betterton from 1705 to 1708, and for the next twenty years at Drury Lane. In 1713 he joint-managed the theater with Doggett, Colley Cibber, and Wilkes. On his death, Booth was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Roles

His greatest parts, after the title-part of Thomas Addison's Cato, which established his reputation as a tragedian, were probably Hotspur and Brutus. His King Lear was deemed worthy of comparison with David Garrick's. As the ghost in Hamlet he is said never to have had a superior. Among his other Shakespearian rôles were Mark Antony, Timon of Athens and Othello. He also played to perfection the gay Lothario in Thomas Rowe's Fair Penitent. Booth was twice married; his second wife, Hester Santlow, a noted actress, survived him.

Bibliography

• See Cibber, Lives and Characters of the most eminent Actors and Actresses (1753)
  • an etext version is available at the [University of Virginia (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new?id=Cib2Apo&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0)]
• Victor, Memoirs of the Life of Barton Booth (1733)

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.