Move to the United States

In 1821, Booth emigrated to the United States with Mary Ann Holmes, a flower girl, abandoning his wife and their young son. Booth and Holmes claimed to be married that year^[4] and settled in 1822 near Bel Air, Maryland. For years they lived in a log cabin Booth bought, moved to his 150 acres, and whitewashed. Just before his death, he began building a much grander house which he named Tudor Hall. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.^[5]

Booth was quickly hired to play Richard III. In less than a year, Booth became the most prominent actor in the United States. Critic William Winter said, "He was followed as a marvel. Mention of his name stirred an enthusiasm no other could awaken" (Smith 23). He embarked upon a 30-year acting career that made him famous throughout the country. Booth traveled to Baltimore, Boston, and New York.

A persistent story, but apocryphal according to some sources, is that Junius Brutus Booth was acclaimed for performing Orestes in the French language in New Orleans. Theatrical manager Noah Ludlow, who was performing with Booth at the time at the American theatre there, recounts the actual events starting on page 230 of his memoir Dramatic Life As I Found It and concludes: "Therefore, I consider the story of Mr. Booth having performed Orestes in the French language, on the French stage, altogether a mistake arising from his having acted that character in the French theatre of New Orleans in 1822, but in the English language."^[6] However, Stephen M. Archer notes that Ludlow was in Mobile, Alabama, in 1828, so was not present for this performance. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, has two playbills from the production and both are in French. Booth's daughter Asia wrote that her father spoke fluent French and cited a review on the subject. The review was not oblivious to the fact that Booth's French pronunciation was less than perfect, however.^[7] In 1823, Booth did the role in New York in the English adaptation by Ambrose Philips with Mary Ann Duff as Hermione.

L-to-r: Booth's sons, John, Edwin, and Junius Jr. in Julius Caesar

In 1825–1826 and 1836–1837, Booth made tours of his native England. He took his whole family with him for the second of these. During their stay in England, one of his children, Henry Byron, succumbed to smallpox. By 1831, he had become the manager of the Adelphi Theatre in Baltimore. His acclaim continued to grow throughout the rest of his life; Walt Whitman described him as "the grandest histrion of modern times." Although his relationship with Holmes, his supposed wife, was relatively happy, four of their children died, three in the same year (1833), when epidemics of cholera occurred. In addition, he suffered from alcoholism, which had an effect on the entire family.

Booth's alcoholism also caused him to become increasingly unpredictable and reckless. He would drop lines, miss scenes, and cause chaos onstage. During a performance of Hamlet, Booth suddenly left the scene he was playing with Ophelia, scurried up a ladder, and perched up in the backdrops crowing like a rooster until his manager retrieved him. He was once booked for a sold-out performance in Richmond, then disappeared from town for several days. Eventually, he was found with "ragged, besotted wretches, the greatest actor on the American stage."

Booth's alcoholism and violent nature often caused problems onstage during his performances. On several occasions, when he played the title character in Richard III, the actor playing the Earl of Richmond fled the stage when Booth became too aggressive during their dueling scene. One night, when Booth was appearing as Othello, the actress playing Desdemona had to be rescued by other cast members when Booth tried to genuinely suffocate her with a pillow.^[8]

Booth soon became so unreliable that he had to be locked into his hotel rooms with a guard standing watch. Often, he would still find ways of escaping to drink at a nearby tavern. Once, when a theater manager locked Booth in his dressing room before a performance, Booth bribed a stage hand to go out and buy a bottle of whiskey. As the stage hand stood outside the door, Booth stuck a drinking straw through the keyhole and sipped whiskey from the bottle.^[9]

Booth's violent behavior offstage was notable as well. In Charleston, in 1838, Booth was so intoxicated that he attacked a friend, Tom Flynn, with a fireplace andiron. To defend himself, Flynn hit Booth in the face, breaking his nose and forever altering the actor's profile and voice.^[9]

Some historians and critics have claimed that reality could become overwhelming for Booth, so he would flee into alcoholism and the roles he played. One critic said of Booth that the "personality of the actor was forgotten, and all the details seemed spontaneous workings and unconscious illustrations of the character he represented. He seemed to be possessed by the characters, losing his own identity." Such subjective judgments are perhaps too facile, as Edwin Booth's later comment about his father certainly was: "Great minds to madness closely are allied." In any case, from February 1817 onward, Junius Booth played almost 3000 performances. Booth brought a romantic, natural acting style to America, which he pioneered in the hearts of American audiences.

To help him maintain a modicum of stability and also to ensure that he sent his earnings home to the family, Junius and Mary Ann chose their son Edwin to accompany him as his dresser, aid, and guardian. This was an exhausting job because Junius Brutus could go without sleep for very long periods of time and would often disappear.

In 1835, Booth wrote a letter to President Andrew Jackson, demanding he pardon two pirates. In the letter, he threatened to kill the President. Though there would also be an actual attempt of assassination on the President early that year, the letter was believed to be a hoax, until a handwriting analysis of a letter written some days after the threat concluded that the letter was, in fact, written by Booth.^[10] Booth apologized to Jackson, though since he and Jackson were friends, the "threat" likely was Booth's clumsy attempt at a joke.^[11] Decades later, Booth's son, John Wilkes, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.^[12]