Esma Ellen Charlotte Littman , credited as Esme or Esma Cannon, was a diminutive Australian-born character actress and comedian, who moved to Britain in the early 1930s. Although she frequently appeared on television in her latter years, Cannon is best known as a film actress, with a lengthy career in British productions from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Career
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. She was first credited, as Polly Shepherd, in The Last Adventurers, and appeared in 64 films over the next 26 years. She had small parts in three early Powell and Pressburger films: The Spy in Black, Contraband and A Canterbury Tale. In Holiday Camp she gave a fine dramatic performance of a pathetic and sad spinster who is lured to her death and is the murder victim, quite different from her usual comedy roles. Towards the end of her career, she appeared in Inn for Trouble, Doctor in Love, Raising the Wind, What a Carve Up!, Over the Odds, We Joined the Navy, On the Beat, Nurse on Wheels and Hide and Seek. She is perhaps best remembered for her role as Edie Hornett opposite Peggy Mount in the comedy Sailor Beware!. She played "Brother" Lil in the British television comedy series The Rag Trade, and also appeared in four Carry On films: Carry On Constable, Carry On Regardless, Carry On Cruising and Carry On Cabby.
Retirement and death
Cannon, whose first name sometimes appears incorrectly as "Esme", retired in 1964 after Hide and Seek. She died in 1972 at the age of 66 and is buried at Saint-Benoît-la-Forêt in France. Her elusiveness was such that her former colleagues and friends discovered she had died only after a "Where are They Now?" feature appeared in Films and Filming a number of years after her death. She was played by the actress Marcia Warren in the 2011 TV playHattie, a drama based on the career of Hattie Jacques. The play featured a number of scenes with the two actresses on the set of Carry On Cabby with Cannon characterised as being disenchanted with acting and proposing leaving show business.
