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
as Dame Edna
as Self
as Self (archive material) / Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson
as Dame Edna Everage (archive footage)
as Dame Edna Everidge
as Barry Humphries
as Narrator (voice)
as Charlie / Dame Edna
as Herself
as Wombo (voice)
as Justice Logan
as Self
as Braulio (voice)
as Contestant (Dame Edna Everage)
as The Great Goblin
as Dame Edna Everage
as Self
as Narrator (voice)
as Client
as Self
as Self
as Self - Panellist
as Himself - Judge
as Self
as Self
as Self
as Self
as Dame Edna Everage
as John Monk
as Self - Edna Everage
as Dame Edna
as Sir Les Patterson/Owen Steele/Sandy Stone/Dame Edna Everage
as Bruce (voice)
as Dame Edna Everage
as Self
as Self
as Mrs. Crummies/Mr. Leadville
as Blind Wally
as Kevin McMaxford
as Bert / Lady Shopper / Manager
as Claire Otoms
as Self
as Humphrey Beal
as Kangaroo (voice)
as Clemens Metternich
as Dame Edna
as Dame Edna Everage
as Dame Edna
as Dame Edna Everage
as Rupert Murdoch
as Dame Edna Everage
as Self
as Self
as Dame Edna Everage
as Academy Award Presenter
as Sir Les Patterson / Dame Edna Everage
as Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson / Self
as Dame Edna
as Richard Deane
as Edna Everage
as Self - Various Roles
as Self
as Bert Schnick
as Himself
as Our Guests at Heartland
as Self
as Dame Edna Everage
as Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson
as Rev. Strachey
as Edna Everage
as Col Ball-Miller
as Self - Cameo (uncredited)
as Edna Everage
as Dr. Anderson / Australian TV Lady
as Aunt Edna Everage / Hoot / Dr. DeLamphrey
as Edna Everage
as Mr. Wainwright
as Envy
as Dame Edna Everage
Writer
as Writer
as Writer
as Writer
as Writer
as Writer
as Writer
Creator
as Creator