Salesman turns up with past actor (9)
I believe the answer is:
performer
'actor' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'salesman turns up with past' is the wordplay.
'salesman' becomes 'rep' (I've seen this before).
'turns up' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'past' becomes 'former' ('former' can be similar in meaning to 'past'**).
'rep' back-to-front is 'per'.
'per'+'former'='PERFORMER'
(Other definitions for performer that I've seen before include "Entertainer" , "clown possibly" , "Fred Astaire, say" , "Such as a musician or actor" , "artist" .)