A poor quality or amateurish actor, particularly one who overacts or gives a bad performance.
19th-century theatrical slang, possibly derived from the use of ham fat as a cheap grease for removing stage makeup, or from 'ham' meaning to overact, combined with 'fat' suggesting poor quality or excess.
Theater people invented 'hamfat' as an insult for bad actors—the image of someone coating their face with cheap ham fat and doing exaggerated movements perfectly captures what they thought of overacting!
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