Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a philanderer, a promiscuous man.

1896

Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 1: Abatteur de bois (or de femme) m. A wencher; a ‘performer’.

2. (orig. naut.) one who makes a fuss or a good deal of noise.

1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 870: [...] C.20.
1944		O. Ferguson ‘Vocab. for Lakes, [etc.]’ AS XIX:2 104: A man who acts up partly through liquor and partly through something defective in his parents is a performer.
1947		R.O. Boyer Dark Ship 153: Eccentrics are usually called ‘screwboxes,’ ‘performers,’ or ‘characters’.

3. an expert.

1949

R. Chandler Little Sister 59: Whoever did this one [i.e. a murder] was a performer.

4. a professional villain; a member of the underworld elite.

1961

J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 120: Underworld people — I mean burglars and real performers, not slags and petty cheats.

5. a sexually active woman.

1963–74

B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 18: She must be a great little performer.