Man’s Final Lore: How Shakespeare Shot Lincoln | Picture This | Big Think: It’s one of the most infamous images of American Shakespearean theater. Taken from a performance of Julius Caesar in New York City in 1864, the photograph shows three brothers from a distinguished acting family pose in character: Junius as Cassius on the right, Edwin as Brutus in the center, and on the left, as Marc Anthony, the youngest brother, John Wilkes Booth. It was the only time the three brothers appeared together on stage, but that play would haunt them the rest of their lives. John Wilkes watched his brother Edwin’s portrayal of the “noblest Roman of them all” and decided to become an “American Brutus” who would slay the tyrant Abraham Lincoln who waged a Civil War against his beloved South. Today is the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 by the would-be Brutus, who failed to recognize the tragic flaw of hubris Shakespeare gave to the protagonist of Julius Caesar. Shakespeare didn’t pull the trigger, of course, but it was his play that inadvertently triggered a series of events that inspired the act.