The son of Raphael Tolano, a Sydney publican and one-time lessee of the Royal Victoria Theatre, Joe Tolano carved out a successful career as an actor between the 1860s and late 1890s. After working at his father's theatre in the mid to late-1860s he went on to established his reputation as a harlequinade specialist in pantomime and later as a more than capable dramatic actor. His name first came to the public's attention with W. B. Gill and Edmund Holloway at the Queen's Theatre
(Sydney) in the early 1870s and over the course of the next two decades he was associated with Bland Holt, James Rainford, George Rignold, and the Melbourne-based partnership of Harwood, Stewart, Hennings and Coppin. Tolano, who retired in the late 1890s to become a publican, was also an uncle of Australian vaudeville star Nat Phillips (aka Stiffy the rabbitoh).
