Yeah, this was awarded to John Wilkes Booth, the American stage actor, back in 1865, but we forgot about it until now, 141 years later. How embarrassing! Anyway, here's some info on Mr Booth's acting career, courtesy of Wikipedia:
John Wilkes Booth made his stage debut in August, 1855, at the age of 17, when he played the Earl of Richmond in Shakespeare's Richard III. At his insistence, Booth was billed as "J.B. Wilkes," a pseudonym of his creation. Booth, although likely proud of his family's achievements in the acting profession, probably wanted to be judged as an actor on his own merits.
In 1858 he became a member of the Richmond Theatre, and his career started to flourish. He was once referred to in reviews as "the handsomest man in America." John Wilkes Booth stood about five feet, eight inches tall, had jet-black hair, and was lean and athletic and was an adept swordsman; these abilities led him to become a very physical actor. A fellow actress once recalled that on occasion Booth accidentally cut himself with his own sword. A common treatment Booth used to treat his many injuries was to sleep covered in steaks.
In 1859, John Wilkes Booth was preparing for a theatrical engagement in Richmond, Virginia a few weeks before the scheduled execution of abolitionist John Brown. In October, Brown had unsuccessfully raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now a part of present-day West Virginia) in an attempt to start a state-wide slave insurrection. Booth purchased a Richmond Gray militia uniform from state officers and proudly stood guard alongside the gallows as Brown was hung.
3 comments:
He may have been American but his moustache was a Belgian migrant.
Note how I misspelt Sarah's name deliberately to piss her off.
Congrats, JWB.
Now get off SB!!'s nut sac so we can all move on with our lives.
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