Esma Cannon
| Esma Cannon | |
|---|---|
In The Spy in Black (1939)
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| Born |
Esma Ellen Charlotte Cannon 27 December 1905 Randwick, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 18 October 1972 (aged 66) Camden, London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1937–1964 |
| Spouse(s) | Ernst Littman (1945-1972, 27 years) 1 child |
Esma Ellen Charlotte Littman (née Cannon) (27 December 1905 – 18 October 1972), credited as Esme or Esma Cannon, was a diminutive (4 feet 7 inches (1.40 m)) Australian-born character actress and comedian, who moved to Britain in the early 1930s. Although better known in her latter years for her television roles, she was best known as a film actress, with a lengthy career in early British productions, from the 1930s to the 1950s.
After early experience at Minnie Everett's School of Dancing in Sydney, Cannon began acting on the stage at the age of four. She appeared in productions for both the J. C. Williamson and Tait companies - including the early prominent role of Ruth Le Page in Sealed Orders at the Theatre Royal in 1914, and played Baby in an adaptation of Seven Little Australians the same year. She was given children's parts well into adulthood. In an interview with the Australian Women's Weekly published in 1963, she claimed it was the theatrical impresario Percy Hutchinson who told her if she visited London he would give her work; her first London role was in the play Misadventure. She worked not only as an actor in Britain in the 1930s but also in stage management and production.
Her film début was an uncredited part in The Man Behind the Mask (1936); she was first credited, as Polly Shepherd, in The Last Adventurers (1937), and she appeared in 64 films over the next 26 years. She had small parts in three early Powell and Pressburger films: The Spy in Black (1939), Contraband (1940) and A Canterbury Tale (1944), Holiday Camp (1947) and, towards the end of her career, appeared in Inn for Trouble (1960), Doctor in Love (1960), Raising the Wind (1961), What a Carve Up! (1961), Over the Odds (1961), We Joined the Navy (1962), On the Beat (1962), Nurse on Wheels (1963) and Hide and Seek (1964).
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