
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.

as Dame Edna Everage

as Dame Edna Everage
1962

as Self
2007

as Dame Edna Everage
1975

as Self
1997

as Self - Panelist
1998

as Self
2003

as Dame Edna
1993

as Self
2006

1992

as Self
1982

as Bruce (voice)
2003

as Self - Panellist
2008
as Self (Archive)
2023

as Self
2023

as Self (archive material) / Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson
2023

as Self (Archive)
2023

as Dame Edna Everage (archive footage)
2021

as "Anyone Can Whistle" Performer
2021

as Dame Edna Everidge
2019

as Barry Humphries
2019
as Self
2016

as Charlie / Dame Edna
2016

as Self
2015

as Wombo (voice)
2015

as Self
2014

as Justice Logan
2014

as Braulio (voice)
2013

as The Great Goblin
2012

as Dame Edna Everage
2012

as Self
2009

as Narrator (voice)
2009

as Client
2009

as Self
2008

as Dame Edna
2008

as Self
2008

as Self/Dame Edna/Les Patterson
2008

as Dame Edna Everage
2007
as Dame Edna Everage
1 ep.

as Dame Edna Everage
1 episodes

as Self
1 episodes

as Dame Edna Everage
1 episodes

as Self
1 episodes

as Self - Panelist
5 episodes

as Self
1 episodes

as Dame Edna
1 episodes

as Self
1 episodes

2 episodes

as Self
2 episodes

as Self - Panellist
1 episodes

as Dame Edna Everage
2 episodes

as Sir Les Patterson
1 episodes
as Dame Edna
1 episodes

1 episodes

as Self
1 episodes

as Claire Otoms
12 episodes

as Dame Edna Everage
3 episodes
as Self
1 episodes

1 episodes

as Dame Edna
1 episodes

as Self
1 episodes

as Self
1 episodes

13 episodes
Writer

Writer

Writer

Writer

Writer

Writer

Writer

Creator

Writer

Writer

Writer