1934-02-17 ( 91 years old ) in Camberwell, 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.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Barry Humphries, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies
Barry Humphries: The Last Laugh
2023-12-23
Barry Humphries at the BBC
2023-05-28
Parkinson at 50
2021-08-28
Show of Titles
2021-06-13
Dame Edna Rules The Waves
2019-12-31
Standing Up for Sunny
2019-06-12
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
2016-07-01
Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show
2015-12-25
Blinky Bill the Movie
2015-08-21
Jack Irish: Dead Point
2014-04-13
Justin and the Knights of Valour
2013-08-09
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2012-12-12
Kath & Kimderella
2012-09-06
Making Mary and Max
2009-10-21
Mary and Max
2009-04-09
Salvation
2009-03-19
We Are Most Amused
2008-11-15
Not Quite Hollywood
2008-08-28
Little Britain Down Under
2007-05-27
It Started with Swap Shop
2006-12-28
Da Kath & Kim Code
2005-11-27
Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
2004-12-09
Finding Nemo
2003-05-30
Nicholas Nickleby
2002-12-27
Welcome to Woop Woop
1998-08-13
Spice World
1997-12-18
Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills
1997-10-07
The Leading Man
1996-12-12
Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook
1995-12-19
Napoleon
1995-06-30
Immortal Beloved
1994-12-16
Joan Rivers: Abroad in London
1992-10-08
Selling Hitler
1991-06-11
An Audience with Jackie Mason
1990-12-27
One More Audience with Dame Edna Everage
1988-12-25
Howling III: The Marsupials
1987-05-15
Les Patterson Saves the World
1987-04-09
An Aussie Audience with Dame Edna
1986-04-14
Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage
1984-12-30
Dr. Fischer of Geneva
1984-10-08
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
1982-03-01
Shock Treatment
1981-08-21
The Rocky Horror Treatment
1981-02-04
A Toast to Melbourne
1981-01-01
An Audience with Dame Edna Everage
1980-12-26
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1978-07-24
The Getting of Wisdom
1977-08-25
Pleasure at Her Majesty's
1976-12-29
The Great MacArthy
1975-08-04
Side by Side
1975-04-30
Barry McKenzie Holds His Own
1974-12-12
Percy's Progress
1974-08-01
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
1972-10-12
The Naked Bunyip
1970-02-02
The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom
1968-09-11
Bedazzled
1967-10-30
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