Can’t even imagine what Edwin Booth had to contend with.

[LincolnMan]

Edwin, himself, was the target of a would-be assassin in 1879, while performing at the McVicker Theatre (owned by his second wife's stepfather) in Chicago. Dave Taylor did a lengthy posting about this years ago on BoothieBarn.com.

Two or three shots failed to hit Booth, and he walked in the direction of the sound and pointed to a man in the balcony. The crowd took over until the police quickly came.

"Two or three shots failed to hit Booth..."
From the balcony to the stage must have been quite a distance using a pistol (which I'm assuming was the weapon). That's reality. The Western movies and TV shows we all grew up with portray shooting accurately quite differently-lol.