Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) an actor, thus as v. to act.

[1900		Maitland Dly Mercury (NSW) 21 Feb. 6/3: You saw the ‘Settled for Life’ company at the railway station [...] You your self thought the men looked common and odd, with their blue chins and green overcoats and schoolboy noisiness].
1901		Eve. News (Sydney) 10 Aug. 2/2: On the other hand you find an ‘old blue-chin,’ who says of this same aspirant, [...] ‘Let him study hard, for seven years, and then pray for another seven that the Lord will make him good enough to be an actor!’.
1919		World’s News (Sydney) 27 Dec. 17/1: [ex Dly Mail, London] Blue-chinned, broken-down actors in buttoned coats and mouldy hats, the sere and yellow veterans of the stage who eternally do hover between Short’s and the Bodega.
1921		Newcastle Morn. Herald (NSW) 17 June 2/3: ‘Never could stand actors,’ said the Admiral, ‘going blue-chinning about the country’.
1923		Register (Adelaide) 11 Sept. 11/6: Actors’ Corner [...] One thing strike me about the professional greeting, which scarcely ever varies. Old blue-chinned stagers of the heavy father type address each other as ‘My boy’ .
1924		Teleg. (Brisbane) 16 Jan. 12/4: After the customary round of the agents, he [i.e. ‘the old tragedian’] would hie him to the Bodega to chat with his fellow blue-chins and hear what news on the theatrical Rialto. By the way, actors seem largely to have lost their characteristic blue chin. Whatever can be the reason? Do they shave closer nowadays?
1941		Eve. News (Rockhampton, Qld) 23 May 3/4: Waiting outside the theatrical agent’s office, two world-worn actors were discussing the world. ‘I suppose you’ve seen, laddie, that the Government has prohibited the import of bananas?’ said the one with the blue chin.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.