Barry Humphries

Known for ActingBorn 1934-02-17Died 2023-04-22Camberwell, Melbourne, Australia

John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE (17 February 1934 - 22 April 2023) was an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, perhaps best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the Court of St. James's. He was a film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning writer and an accomplished landscape painter. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin. Humphries' characters, especially Dame Edna Everage, have brought him international renown, and he had appeared in numerous films, stage productions and television shows. Originally conceived as a dowdy Moonee Ponds housewife who caricatured Australian suburban complacency and insularity, Edna had evolved over four decades to become a satire of stardom, the gaudily dressed, acid-tongued, egomaniacal, internationally feted Housewife Gigastar, Dame Edna Everage. Humphries' other major satirical character creation was the archetypal Australian bloke Barry McKenzie, who originated as the hero of a comic strip about Australians in London (with drawings by Nicholas Garland) which was first published in Private Eye magazine. The stories about "Bazza" (Humphries' nickname, as well as an Australian term of endearment for the name Barry) gave wide circulation to Australian slang, particularly jokes about drinking and its consequences (much of which was invented by Humphries), and the character went on to feature in two Australian films, in which he was portrayed by Barry Crocker. Humphries' other satirical characters include the "priapic and inebriated cultural attaché" Sir Les Patterson, who has "continued to bring worldwide discredit upon Australian arts and culture, while contributing as much to the Australian vernacular as he has borrowed from it", gentle, grandfatherly "returned gentleman" Sandy Stone, iconoclastic 1960s underground film-maker Martin Agrippa, Paddington socialist academic Neil Singleton, sleazy trade union official Lance Boyle, high-pressure art salesman Morrie O'Connor and failed tycoon Owen Steele. Humphries died following complications from hip surgery at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney on 22 April 2023.Read more

Movies & web series

Parkinson at 50

Micallef Tonight

Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage

Magical Land of Oz

Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show

QI

Mary and Max

Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook

Selling Hitler

The Team: A Season With McLaren

A Night on Mount Edna

Finding Nemo

Barry Humphries at the BBC

RTL Samstag Nacht

Hollywood Squares

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Friday Night, Saturday Morning

We Are Most Amused

The Graham Norton Show

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Immortal Beloved

Da Kath & Kim Code

Nicholas Nickleby

Boulevard Bio

An Audience with Jackie Mason

Omnibus

Not Quite Hollywood

Jack Irish: Dead Point

Pleasure at Her Majesty's

Saturday Night Live

Ally McBeal

The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom

Side by Side

The Tony Danza Show

The Secret Policeman's Other Ball

Napoleon

A Comedy Roast

Justin and the Knights of Valour

The Osbournes

Dr. Fischer of Geneva

Bedazzled

Welcome to Woop Woop

Blinky Bill the Movie

Shock Treatment

The Last Impresario

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

Kath & Kimderella