89
Age
69
Movies
44
TV Shows
7.7
Rating
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.
89
Died at
69
Movies
44
TV Shows
7.7
Avg Rating
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.
The Graham Norton Show
2007
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.
Gender
Male
Birthday
February 17, 1934
Died
April 22, 2023
Birthplace
Camberwell, Melbourne, Australia
Also Known As
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2012
Finding Nemo
2003
Immortal Beloved
1994
An Audience with Jackie Mason
1990
Dr. Fischer of Geneva
1984
A Toast to Melbourne
1981
Making Mary and Max
2009
Mary and Max
2009
Les Patterson Saves the World
1987
The Rocky Horror Treatment
1981
The Great MacArthy
1975
Nicholas Nickleby
2002
Barry Humphries at the BBC
2023
Joan Rivers: Abroad in London
1992
The Man Inside Dame Edna
2008
Not Quite Hollywood
2008
A Night on Mount Edna
1990
Percy's Progress
1974
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
1972
Jack Irish: Dead Point
2014
+ 49 more movies
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
The Graham Norton Show
2007
Saturday Night Live
1975
The View
1997
Hollywood Squares
1998
The One Show
2006
The One Show
2006
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993
QI
2003
QI
2003
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
1992
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
1992
The Tony Danza Show
2004
Wogan
1982
Parkinson
1998
Omnibus
1967
Omnibus
1967
Ally McBeal
1997
Q&A
2008
+ 24 more TV shows