Scottish comedian, dancer, stage and film actor.
Joe Valli brought his comedy Tickets Please to Australia in 1916, touring it for Harry Clay and the Royal Follies before returning home a year later. He came back to the Antipodes to join the New Zealand Famous Diggers (1921-22) and in 1923 teamed up with Pat Hanna as Chic and Joe (Hanna’s Famous Diggers). After co-starring in Diggers (1931) and Diggers in Blighty (1933) Valli went on to appear in 14 more films, including The Rats of Tobruk (1944), and numerous stage shows. He later worked behind the scenes at Sydney’s Minerva Theatre before losing his voice in 1948 following a throat operation.
[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]
