Les Coney

Australian comedian, songwriter, actor (radio/film) - (b. Melbourne 1891 - d. ???) The nephew of comedian Fred Bluett, Les Coney started out as an amateur comedian/singer in Melbourne at age 11 and turned professional at 15. His first big break was with the Gaiety Vaudeville Company in September 1906. He was still entertaining audiences in the 1940s, both on the stage and as a radio actor. During his five decades-long career Coney toured extensively throughout the Australasian region, was involved in radio from its start in 1924 (he claims to have been the first comedian to be broadcast on Sydney station 2FC), and appeared in two films in the early 1930s – Fellers (1930) and Showgirl’s Luck (1931). He wrote many of his own songs, one of the most successful being “The Old Sundowner” (which Fred Bluett made a hit in London ca. 1913/1914).