COMEDIAN'S SUICIDE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20324, 3 August 1929, Page 13

COMEDIAN'S SUICIDE.

BODY FOUND ON A BEACH

JACK CANNOT'S TRAGIC END

(Received August 2. 10.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 2

Members of tho theatrical' profession and listeners-in throughout Australia received a shock to-day when they learned of the tragic death of Mr. Jack Cannot, a popular comedian. His body was discovered by tho police in tho scrub on Maroubra Beach.

A packet containing remnants of a poisonous drug was found in one of deceased's pockets. His widow received a letter from him telling her where his body would be found. Mr. Cannot played tho " dame" in several pantomimes. More recently ho had beon a broadcasting artist.

Like njany other noted comedians Mr. Jack Cannot's early ambitions on the stage were toward the serious side. It was not until ho went to Australia just before the Great War that his flair for burlesque was discovered and given an opportunity to develop. Mr. Cannot was about 45 years of age. He made his tlcbuL to an Australian audience under tho aegis of J. C. Williamson, Limited, who brought him from England to be the baritone in ''Gipsy Love." When it was found that he was really a comedian, Williamson's billed him as such, and he became an outstanding success. His more notable early appearances were in "Tho Quaker Girl" and "The Sunshine Girl." He then turned to pantomime and to many of the younger generation of Now Zealand and Australian theatre-goers he was the "dame" by whom all others were judged. In recent years his early good fortune had not been with him, various ventures in which lie was interested having failed. Mr. Cannot had appeared many times in Auckland. He was last here in 1925 in "Whirled into Happiness" and "Leave Tt to Jane."