Edwina booth biography of michael
The Mourners Came
By MICHAEL GERBINOAt 1:17 a.m. on June 7th, 1893, Edwina Booth Grossman held her father, Edwin Booth, the greatest actor of his generation, as the last breath oozed from his body in the third-floor bedroom of The Players on Gramercy Park South. A handful of hours later The New York Times front page read, “The Great Actor Made His Exit Early This Morning.”
The artifacts of Booth’s life lay on display in his room: skulls, costumes, quotes from Shakespeare, portraits of his first wife Mary Devlin, his father Junius Brutus Booth, and his infamous brother John Wilkes Booth—all of them serving as reminders of his great career as an actor and showman. At his funeral the crowds that once gathered at theatres to see him perform paid their last respects at the Little Church Around The Corner. He was buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His pipe was laid to rest, his slippers tucked under his bed, and the door to his room on the third floor of The Players was closed.
Then the mourners came, silently lifting themselves from the pigments that hung on hallowed walls in the Library, Great Hall and Dining Room: Richelieu the Cardinal, Doctors Pangloss and Ollapod; Bob Acres and Sir Lucius O’Trigger from The Rivals; Benedick, Beatrice and Claudio from the Cathedral Scene of Much Ado About Nothing; stage folk from Alfred Frueh’s lithographs. The line drawings of George M. Cohan and Lillian Gish extracted themselves from the tarnished paper and made their way way upstairs along with Joe Webber and Lew Fields, the father of soon-to-be-lyricist Dorothy Fields. Stage folk not yet born when Booth passed came as well: Helen Hayes and Alfred Drake, Muriel Kirkland—whose face would grace 16 Gramercy Park three times as the years went by—and Sarah Bernhardt.
Actors from out of the Library made their way up the flight of stairs to the departed’s room: Mary from Superstition, Dr. Cantwell from The Hypocrite, William Charles Macready and Edmund
Booth (actor)
Booth (actor) may refer to:
- Barton Booth (1681–1733), one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century.
- Edwin Booth, (1833–1893), a famous 19th-century American actor.
- Junius Brutus Booth (1796–1852), an English actor and father of:
- Agnes Booth (1843–1910), born Marion Agnes Land Rookes, was an Australian born American actress (married to Junius Brutus Booth Jr.)
- Booth Colman (1923–2014), a film, television and stage actor.
- James Booth (1927–2005), an English actor.
- Antony Booth (1931–2017), an English actor, best known for his role as Mike Rawlins in the BBC series Till Death Us Do Part.
- Billy Booth (actor), (1949–2006), an American child actor, perhaps best known for his role as Jay North's best friend Tommy Anderson on the sitcom Dennis the Menace.
- Tim Booth (born 1960), an English singer, dancer, and actor best known as the lead singer from the band James.
- Stefan Booth (born 1979) is an English actor and singer.
- Zachary Booth (born 1982), an American actor.
- Douglas Booth (born 1992), an English actor known for his portrayal of Boy George in the BBC Two television drama Worried About the Boy.
- Cornelius Booth an actor best known for his role as Colonel Fitzwilliam in the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.
- Matthew Booth (actor), an English actor from Normanton, West Yorkshire.
- See also
“Could I But Hear Thy Voice”: Edwin Booth’s Poems to Mary Devlin
From the death of his father due to his missing guardianship, the murder of the President at the hand of his younger brother, and the financial loss of his opulent theater in New York City, Edwin Booth lived a life of unimaginable tragedy. Though incredibly successful and praised for his histrionic talents on the stage, the unlucky circumstances of Edwin’s life plagued him with constant melancholy and sorrow. Aside from his darling daughter, Edwina, it appears that the only source of true comfort and happiness that Edwin Booth ever felt was his treasured wife, Mary Devlin.
Mary Devlin and Edwin Booth first met on the stage in 1856. While it seems that both became interested in each other, young Mary was hesitant to engage with an actor of Edwin’s reputation. He was six years her senior and recently returned from several years on the rowdy west coast. When Edwin traveled on from their shared engagement as Romeo and Juliet in 1856, nothing developed further. When they reunited for a couple of engagements in 1858, however, it appears that a relationship began to form. In the end, Edwin proposed to Mary in 1859 and the two were married on July 7, 1860.
Mary Devlin Booth, possibly in her wedding gown
At some point during their 1858-1859 courtship, Edwin Booth composed two poems for Mary Devlin. He recorded them in an autograph album that Mary owned. The album is currently in the collection of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library as part of the noted Taper collection. The state of Illinois has done a wonderful job digitizing many of the documents, letters, and images associated with the Taper collection, the album being among them.
In the available images of the autograph album, we can see that there are a total of four poems, two of which are written by others. Of the two Edwin poems, only one of them bears Edwin’s name at the end. While the second on American actress (1904–1991) This article is about the 20th-century actress. For the 19th-century writer, see Edwina Booth Grossman. Edwina Booth Josephine Constance Woodruff Provo, Utah, U.S. Long Beach, California, U.S. Anthony Shuck Urial Leo Higham Reinhold L. Fehlberg Edwina Booth (born Josephine Constance Woodruff; September 13, 1904 – May 18, 1991) was an American actress. She is best known for the 1931 film Trader Horn, during the filming of which she contracted an illness which effectively ended her movie career. She was born in Provo, Utah on September 13, 1904, to James Lloyd Woodruff and Josephine Booth Woodruff. She was the oldest of their five children. Her father was a doctor. She suffered from hypoglycemia, which left her with little energy and kept her from completing any full year of school. Her family moved to Venice, California, in 1921 due to her father contracting influenza. As a young adult, Woodruff watched many movies during her free time. Her stage name was Edwina Booth: her favorite granduncle was named Edwin and her grandfather's last name was Booth. Booth was discovered while sunbathing on a California beach by director E. J. Babille. He gave her a business card and she went to the Metropolitan Studio to take her first screen test a few days later. She got her first part in 1926 in a silent film. In 1928, Booth was cast in the Dorothy Arzner-directed Manhattan Cocktail. She was on vacation following a 1927 stage appearance when film director E Edwina Booth
Born
(1904-09-13)September 13, 1904Died May 18, 1991(1991-05-18) (aged 86) Occupation Actress Years active 1928–1932 Spouses Early life and discovery