12/05/2025
On this day in 1864, John Wilkes Booth performed with his two brothers in a landmark production of “Julius Caesar” in New York City. For the first and only time, audiences saw all three of the famous Booth brothers on stage together. The brothers posed for a photo in costume, with John Wilkes on the left.
John Wilkes Booth played Marc Antony that night. His brother Edwin played Brutus, the noble Roman who assassinated Julius Caesar. But offstage, John Wilkes would soon carry out an assassination of his own. Booth would later claim that by murdering President Abraham Lincoln, he was only “doing what Brutus was honored for.”
Midway through the show, audience members raised a cry of "fire!" Confederate agents had set fire to a building next door. Edwin Booth leaped to the front of the stage and assured the crowd not to panic. John Wilkes stayed silent. Five months later, he led his own act of insurgent violence at Ford’s Theatre.
Photo of Booth brothers from the Brown University Library. Left to right: John Wilkes Booth, Edwin Booth, and Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.
