Barry Humphries

Acting · 1.4 popularity

Age

Movies

Born: February 17, 1934 – April 22, 2023
From: Camberwell, Melbourne, Australia

Biography

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.

Works

71 films

Finding Nemo

20037.8

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

20127.4

Mary and Max

20097.9

Justin and the Knights of Valour

20135.9

Spice World

19974.9

Napoleon

19956.3

Nicholas Nickleby

20026.9

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

20165.3

Immortal Beloved

19947.1

Blinky Bill the Movie

20155.5

The Marsupials: The Howling III

19874.5

Show of Titles

2021

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

19784.3

Shock Treatment

19815.8

Bedazzled

19676.2

Not Quite Hollywood

20086.8

The Secret Policeman's Other Ball

19826.3

We Are Most Amused

20087.2

Standing Up for Sunny

20195.2

Royal Variety Performance 1984

1984

The Leading Man

19965.0

The Man Inside Dame Edna

20087.0

Percy's Progress

19744.0

The Last Impresario

20145.5

Pleasure at Her Majesty's

19767.0

The Adventures of Barry McKenzie

19725.3

Kath & Kimderella

20125.3

Parkinson at 50

202110.0

Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?

20044.8

The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom

19686.8

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own

19745.4

Welcome to Woop Woop

19985.8

Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills

19975.3

The Naked Bunyip

19705.5

Side by Side

19756.7

A Night on Mount Edna

19908.0

Dr. Fischer of Geneva

19846.1

It Started with Swap Shop

2006

Les Patterson Saves the World

19874.8

A Late Lunch With Sir Les

1991

Jack Irish: Dead Point

20146.6

Da Kath & Kim Code

20056.9

Barry Humphries at the BBC

20237.6

Barry Humphries: The Last Laugh

2023

The Getting of Wisdom

19775.4

An Audience with Dame Edna Everage

19803.8

Barry Humphries: This is Your Lunch

1988

Barry Humphries - A Life of Laughs

2023

An Audience with Jackie Mason

19907.0

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

1996

Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage

19849.0

Selling Hitler

19938.0

Gaybo Laughs Back

2008

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The Missing Sketches

2016

The Rocky Horror Treatment

1981

One More Audience with Dame Edna Everage

1988

Joan Rivers: Abroad in London

1992

Little Britain Down Under

20074.0

The Great MacArthy

19755.4

Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show

20158.0

A Birthday Tribute to Dame Edna Everage

1984

Dame Edna Rules The Waves

20193.5

Making Mary and Max

20094.0

Sir Les And The Great Chinese Takeaway

1997

A Toast to Melbourne

1981

Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook

19958.0

Salvation

20095.0

An Aussie Audience with Dame Edna

1986

Le Bain Vorace (Dial P for Plughole)

1954

Barry Humphries Presents Back to My Roots and Other Suckers

2003

Telling Schoolgirl Tales: The Making of 'The Getting of Wisdom’

2006