Bonar Colleano was born in the bustling metropolis of New York City, where he was initially known by his birth name, Bonar Sullivan. However, he would later adopt his family's stage name, Colleano, when he joined the family's renowned acrobatic circus act at the tender age of five. This marked the beginning of his life-long journey in the world of entertainment.
At the age of twelve, Bonar and his family relocated to England, where he would go on to establish himself as a beloved figure in British cinema. His mother, a talented contortionist and part of the Colleano family act, had met his father in Australia, her homeland, while performing in the family's circus show.
Interestingly, Bonar's ancestry was steeped in a rich history of performers. His great-grandfather, a skilled boxer, had emigrated to Australia from Ireland, where he began a family legacy of circus performers. This legacy would eventually give rise to the Colleano family's world-renowned circus act.
Bonar was named after his Uncle Bonar, a renowned wire-walker who was celebrated among circus historians for his expertise in this precarious art form. Throughout his career, Bonar Colleano would go on to appear in numerous British films, earning a reputation as a charismatic wisecracker with a distinctive, Bob Hope-inspired delivery.
His dashing good looks, complete with dark hair, proved irresistible to British women of the 1950s, who couldn't help but be drawn to his charming on-screen presence. In fact, Bonar's presence in British cinema during the post-war era served as a symbol of the many American GIs who had courted and married British women during World War II, fathering thousands of children in the process.
In his personal life, Bonar married British Rank starlet Susan Shaw, with whom he had a son, actor Mark Colleano. Mark would go on to appear in the film "Hornet's Nest" alongside Rock Hudson at the tender age of fourteen, playing the role of an Italian boy.
Tragically, Bonar's life was cut short in a road accident on his way back to London from a theatre engagement out of town in 1958. The news of his death made front-page headlines in the English press, and his wife Susan struggled to cope with the loss, eventually succumbing to a drink problem that would plague her for the remainder of her life until her passing in 1978.
In the aftermath of Bonar's death, his mother took on the role of legal guardian for his son Mark, who would go on to be groomed for a career in acting by his devoted mother. Despite the tragic circumstances of his passing, Bonar Colleano's legacy as a beloved entertainer continues to be celebrated to this day.
