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