Daily AncestorActor
An actor performed roles in plays and, later, in films; a woman in the same work was usually recorded as an actress.
An actor portrays a character in a production, on the stage or later in film, radio and television. Wiktionary dates this sense from the 1500s.
The 1900 census instructions list actor first among the professions to be named exactly, and tell enumerators to distinguish an actor from a theatrical manager and from a showman. The 1910 instructions count actors engaged for wages or salaries as employees, unlike lawyers and doctors working for fees.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1910 to 1940 census
Lillian Varnum, 26, Actress, Theater
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Actor." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/actor. Last checked 2026-10-12.