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