Con Colleano(1899-1973)
- Actor
- Stunts
A member of the Circus Hall of Fame, Con Colleano is in the Guinness
Book of World Records as being the first person to ever successfully
attempt a forward somersault on a low-wire tightrope. The son of an
Irish bare-knuckle boxer and an Aboriginal woman, Con and his family
put together a traveling troupe of high-wire walkers, jugglers, and
clowns that eventually left Australia for America and other exotic
places. For years, Colleano, masquerading as a Spaniard, walked the
tightrope in many exotic places for Cole Brothers Circus and Ringling
Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus. Dressed in a toreador's costume,
Colleano, with his wife Winnie (a dancer and skilled trapeze artist),
and members of his family who were part of the act would dance a
bolero, and show his acrobatic expertise with an amazing repertoire of
movements, including dance moves and twists and turns.