Barry Humphries

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1934-02-17

Deathday 2023-04-22 (89 years old)

Place of Birth Camberwell, Melbourne, Australia

Also Known As Dame Edna Everage, John Barry Humphries, Edna Everage, Les Patterson, Barry McKenzie, Sandy Stone, Bazza McKenzie

Barry Humphries

Biography

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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Barry Humphries, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Actor

2023
Barry Humphries at the BBC

as Self (archive material) / Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson

2021
Parkinson at 50

as Dame Edna Everage (archive footage)

2019
Dame Edna Rules The Waves

as Dame Edna Everidge

2019
Standing Up for Sunny

as Barry Humphries

2019
Magical Land of Oz

as Narrator (voice)

2016
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

as Charlie / Dame Edna

2015
Blinky Bill the Movie

as Wombo (voice)

2014
Jack Irish: Dead Point

as Justice Logan

2013
2013
The Great Comic Relief Bake Off

as Contestant (Dame Edna Everage)

2012
2012
Kath & Kimderella

as Dame Edna Everage

2009
Mary and Max

as Narrator (voice)

2009
Salvation

as Client

2008
2008
Q&A

as Self - Panellist

2008
I'd Do Anything

as Himself - Judge

2006
The One Show

as Self

2006
The One Show

as Dame Edna Everage

2005
Da Kath & Kim Code

as John Monk

2004
2004
The Tony Danza Show

as Dame Edna

2003
Barry Humphries Presents Back to My Roots and Other Suckers

as Sir Les Patterson/Owen Steele/Sandy Stone/Dame Edna Everage

2003
Finding Nemo

as Bruce (voice)

2003
Little Britain

as Dame Edna Everage

2003
QI

as Self

2003
2002
Nicholas Nickleby

as Mrs. Crummies/Mr. Leadville

1998
Welcome to Woop Woop

as Blind Wally

1998
Parkinson

as Dame Edna Everage

1997
Spice World

as Kevin McMaxford

1997
Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills

as Bert / Lady Shopper / Manager

1997
Ally McBeal

as Claire Otoms

1997
The View

as Self

1996
The Leading Man

as Humphrey Beal

1995
Napoleon

as Kangaroo (voice)

1994
Immortal Beloved

as Clemens Metternich

1992
Joan Rivers: Abroad in London

as Dame Edna Everage

1992
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

as Dame Edna Everage

1991
Selling Hitler

as Rupert Murdoch

1991
Dame Edna's Hollywood

as Dame Edna Everage

1991
Pebble Mill

as Self

1991
1987
Howling III: The Marsupials

as Academy Award Presenter

1987
Les Patterson Saves the World

as Sir Les Patterson / Dame Edna Everage

1986
An Aussie Audience with Dame Edna

as Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson / Self

1984
Dr. Fischer of Geneva

as Richard Deane

1982
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball

as Self - Various Roles

1982
Wogan

as Self

1981
Shock Treatment

as Bert Schnick

1981
The Rocky Horror Treatment

as (archive footage)

1978
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

as Our Guests at Heartland

1978
An Audience with...

as Dame Edna Everage

1978
An Audience with...

as Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson

1977
The Getting of Wisdom

as Rev. Strachey

1976
1975
The Great MacArthy

as Col Ball-Miller

1975
Saturday Night Live

as Self - Cameo (uncredited)

1974
1974
Percy's Progress

as Dr. Anderson / Australian TV Lady

1972
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie

as Aunt Edna Everage / Hoot / Dr. DeLamphrey

1970
The Naked Bunyip

as Edna Everage

1968
The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom

as Mr. Wainwright

1967
Bedazzled

as Envy

Creator