John Wilkes Booth ( May 10 , 1838 – April 26 , 1865 ) was an American actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford 's Theatre in Washington , D.C. on April 14 , 1865 . He was a member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and a well-known actor in his own right . He was also a Confederate sympathizer , vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln and strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery in the United States
assassinated
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth