
Barry Humphries
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.
109 acting credits
Acting · 109

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962

The Graham Norton Show
2007

Saturday Night Live
1975

The View
1997

The One Show
2006

QI
2003

Hollywood Squares
1998

Wogan
1982

Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
1992

Finding Nemo
2003

Omnibus
1967

Ally McBeal
1997

Q&A
2008

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2012
The Tony Danza Show
2004

An Audience with...
1978

The Wednesday Play
1964
Pebble Mill
1991

The South Bank Show
1978

Parkinson
1998

Boulevard Bio
1991

The Osbournes
2002

RTL Samstag Nacht
1993

Mary and Max
2009

Who Do You Think You Are?
2008
Russell Harty
1980

Spice World
1997

The Dame Edna Experience
1987

The Great Comic Relief Bake Off
2013

Nicholas Nickleby
2002

Immortal Beloved
1994

The Team: A Season With McLaren
1993

Bedazzled
1967

Friday Night, Saturday Morning
1979

The Leading Man
1996
A Comedy Roast
2010

The Dame Edna Treatment
2007

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
2016

Justin and the Knights of Valour
2013

Shock Treatment
1981

Magical Land of Oz
2019

Not Quite Hollywood
2008

Brilliant Creatures
2014

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1978

I'd Do Anything
2008

Blinky Bill the Movie
2015

A Granny's Guide to the Modern World
2016

Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
2004

Jack Irish: Dead Point
2014

Howling III: The Marsupials
1987
Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford
2010

Salvation
2009

Micallef Tonight
2003

Da Kath & Kim Code
2005

Napoleon
1995

The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
1972

Show of Titles
2021

The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom
1968

Royal Variety Performance 1984
1984

Dr. Fischer of Geneva
1984

The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
1982

Kath & Kimderella
2012

Barry Humphries at the BBC
2023

The Man Inside Dame Edna
2008

Parkinson at 50
2021

Selling Hitler
1993

Standing Up for Sunny
2019

The Getting of Wisdom
1977

Welcome to Woop Woop
1998

Pleasure at Her Majesty's
1976

Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills
1997

We Are Most Amused
2008

Percy's Progress
1974

Little Britain Down Under
2007

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own
1974

Les Patterson Saves the World
1987
The Rocky Horror Treatment
1981
Betjeman and Me
2006

The Last Impresario
2014

Gaybo Laughs Back
2008

Barry Humphries: The Last Laugh
2023
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The Missing Sketches
2016

Making Mary and Max
2009

Sir Les And The Great Chinese Takeaway
1997
Telling Schoolgirl Tales: The Making of 'The Getting of Wisdom’
2006

An Audience with Dame Edna Everage
1980

The Great MacArthy
1975

Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show
2015

Dame Edna's Neighbourhood Watch
1992

Dame Edna Rules The Waves
2019

The Naked Bunyip
1970

Side by Side
1975

A Night on Mount Edna
1990

It Started with Swap Shop
2006

Dame Edna's Hollywood
1991

One More Audience with Dame Edna Everage
1988

Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook
1995

A Toast to Melbourne
1981

A Late Lunch With Sir Les
1991

Barry Humphries Presents Back to My Roots and Other Suckers
2003

An Audience with Jackie Mason
1990

Joan Rivers: Abroad in London
1992
A Birthday Tribute to Dame Edna Everage
1984

Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage
1984

Barry Humphries: This is Your Lunch
1988

An Aussie Audience with Dame Edna
1986

Barry Humphries - A Life of Laughs
2023

Les Patterson 'Has A Stand Up' - Live & Rampant
1996