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1882 Illustr. Sporting & Dramatic News 23 Dec. 355/2 ‘Banjo Hams’ are held up to scorn.

1882 Illustr. Sporting & Dramatic News 23 Dec. 355/2 One writer proudly describes himself as ‘no ham, but a classical banjo player’.

1903 S. Clapin New Dict. Amer. 220 Ham, in theatrical parlance, a tenth-rate actor or variety performer.

1911 Hampton's Mag. Aug. 178/1 It was the voice of what is known as a ‘ham’, because Shakespeare once wrote a play. A ‘ham’ actor.

1926 H. C. Witwer Roughly Speaking 223 Ham actors get a extra split week at a picture house if their fearful monologs put the ladies on the broiler.

1928 Daily Express 20 June 9/4 Sophie Tucker will, in all probability, appear in a revue next autumn... ‘You have never seen me in revue,’ Sophie reminded me, ‘I am a ham actor too, you know.’

1933 ‘I. Hay’ & ‘A. Armstrong’ Orders are Orders ii. 51 ‘We'd better have Harvey..to double for him.’..‘That old ham actor?’

1936 P. G. Wodehouse Laughing Gas xviii. 200 Just one of these ham actors that's jealous of a fellow's screen genius.

1941 E. Wilson Wound & Bow i. 61 Dickens had a strain of the ham in him, and, in the desperation of his later life, he gave in to the old ham and let him rip.

1947 N. Marsh Final Curtain xii. 179 A squalid little ham actress.

1957 V. J. Kehoe Technique Film & Television Make-up i. 15 The expression ‘ham’ actor originated from those performers who rubbed ham rind on their faces as a base for their colored powders when they could not afford the more expensive and less odoriferous oils.

1958 Times 16 Apr. 3/2 ‘He thought I was an old ham,’ says Miss Seyler indulgently.