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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
February 17, 1934
Died
April 22, 2023
Place of Birth
Camberwell, Melbourne, Australia
Also Known As
- Dame Edna Everage
- John Barry Humphries
- Edna Everage
- Les Patterson
- Barry McKenzie
- Sandy Stone
- Bazza McKenzie
Barry Humphries
1.0 Popularity
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.
Known For
0.0
Self
Barry Humphries: The Last Laugh
2023
7.6
Self (archive material) / Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson
Barry Humphries at the BBC
2023
0.0
Self (Archive)
Barry Humphries - A Life of Laughs
2023
10.0
Dame Edna Everage (archive footage)
Parkinson at 50
2021
0.0
"Anyone Can Whistle" Performer
Show of Titles
2021
0.0
Dame Edna Everidge
Dame Edna Rules The Waves
2019
5.2
Barry Humphries
Standing Up for Sunny
2019
8.6
Narrator (voice)
Magical Land of Oz
2019
🎬
0.0
Self
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The Missing Sketches
2016
0.0
A Granny's Guide to the Modern World
2016
Credits
Barry Humphries: The Last Laugh
as Self
2023
0.0
Barry Humphries at the BBC
as Self (archive material) / Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson
2023
7.6
Barry Humphries - A Life of Laughs
as Self (Archive)
2023
0.0
Parkinson at 50
as Dame Edna Everage (archive footage)
2021
10.0
Show of Titles
as "Anyone Can Whistle" Performer
2021
0.0
Dame Edna Rules The Waves
as Dame Edna Everidge
2019
0.0
Standing Up for Sunny
as Barry Humphries
2019
5.2
Magical Land of Oz
as Narrator (voice)
2019
8.6
🎬
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The Missing Sketches
as Self
2016
0.0
A Granny's Guide to the Modern World
2016
0.0
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
as Charlie / Dame Edna
2016
5.3
Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show
as Self
2015
8.0
Blinky Bill the Movie
as Wombo (voice)
2015
5.6
Brilliant Creatures
as Self
2014
0.0
Jack Irish: Dead Point
as Justice Logan
2014
6.7
Justin and the Knights of Valour
as Braulio (voice)
2013
5.9
The Great Comic Relief Bake Off
as Contestant (Dame Edna Everage)
2013
0.0
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
as The Great Goblin
2012
7.4
Kath & Kimderella
as Dame Edna Everage
2012
5.3
🎬
A Comedy Roast
2010
6.0
🎬
Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford
2010
0.0
Making Mary and Max
as Self
2009
4.0
Mary and Max
as Narrator (voice)
2009
7.9
Salvation
as Client
2009
5.0
We Are Most Amused
as Self
2008
7.2
Gaybo Laughs Back
as Dame Edna
2008
0.0
Not Quite Hollywood
as Self
2008
6.8
Q&A
as Self - Panellist
2008
3.2
I'd Do Anything
as Himself - Judge
2008
0.0
Who Do You Think You Are?
as Self
2008
2.8
The Man Inside Dame Edna
as Self/Dame Edna/Les Patterson
2008
0.0
Little Britain Down Under
as Dame Edna Everage
2007
4.0
The Dame Edna Treatment
2007
5.3
The Graham Norton Show
as Self
2007
7.2
It Started with Swap Shop
as Self
2006
0.0
The One Show
as Self
2006
4.4
The One Show
as Dame Edna Everage
2006
4.4
🎬
Betjeman and Me
2006
0.0
🎬
Telling Schoolgirl Tales: The Making of 'The Getting of Wisdom’
as Self
2006
0.0
Da Kath & Kim Code
as John Monk
2005
6.9
Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
as Self - Edna Everage
2004
4.8
🎬
The Tony Danza Show
as Dame Edna
2004
6.1
Barry Humphries Presents Back to My Roots and Other Suckers
as Sir Les Patterson/Owen Steele/Sandy Stone/Dame Edna Everage
2003
0.0
QI
as Self
2003
7.9
QI
as Self - Panellist (archive footage)
2003
7.9
Finding Nemo
as Bruce (voice)
2003
7.8
Micallef Tonight
as Self
2003
9.0
Nicholas Nickleby
as Mrs. Crummles/Mr. Leadville
2002
6.9
The Osbournes
as Self
2002
5.9
Hollywood Squares
1998
7.3
Welcome to Woop Woop
as Blind Wally
1998
5.8
Parkinson
as Dame Edna Everage
1998
0.0
Spice World
as Kevin McMaxford
1997
4.9
Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills
as Bert / Lady Shopper / Manager
1997
3.7
Ally McBeal
as Claire Otoms
1997
6.6
The View
as Self
1997
4.3
Sir Les And The Great Chinese Takeaway
as Les Patterson/Dame Edna
1997
0.0
The Leading Man
as Humphrey Beal
1996
5.0
Les Patterson 'Has A Stand Up' - Live & Rampant
as Les Patterson
1996
0.0
Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook
as Self
1995
0.0
Napoleon
as Kangaroo (voice)
1995
6.1
Immortal Beloved
as Clemens Metternich
1994
7.1
The Team: A Season With McLaren
as Dame Edna Everage
1993
8.0
RTL Samstag Nacht
1993
8.0
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
as Dame Edna
1993
7.2
Selling Hitler
as Rupert Murdoch
1993
7.0
Joan Rivers: Abroad in London
as Dame Edna Everage
1992
0.0
Dame Edna's Neighbourhood Watch
as Dame Edna
1992
4.3
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
1992
5.4
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
as Dame Edna Everage
1992
5.4
A Late Lunch With Sir Les
as Les Patterson
1991
0.0
Dame Edna's Hollywood
as Dame Edna Everage
1991
1.0
🎬
Pebble Mill
as Self
1991
3.1
Boulevard Bio
as Dame Edna
1991
6.0
An Audience with Jackie Mason
1990
7.0
A Night on Mount Edna
as Dame Edna Everage
1990
0.0
One More Audience with Dame Edna Everage
as Dame Edna Everage
1988
0.0
Barry Humphries: This is Your Lunch
as Self/Dame Edna
1988
0.0
The Dame Edna Experience
1987
4.0
Howling III: The Marsupials
as Academy Award Presenter
1987
4.5
Les Patterson Saves the World
as Sir Les Patterson / Dame Edna Everage
1987
4.7
An Aussie Audience with Dame Edna
as Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson / Self
1986
0.0
Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage
as Dame Edna/Les Patterson
1984
0.0
Royal Variety Performance 1984
1984
0.0
Dr. Fischer of Geneva
as Richard Deane
1984
5.6
🎬
A Birthday Tribute to Dame Edna Everage
as Dame Edna/Sir Les Patterson
1984
0.0
Wogan
as Self
1982
4.5
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
as Self - Various Roles
1982
6.0
Shock Treatment
as Bert Schnick
1981
5.8
🎬
The Rocky Horror Treatment
as (archive footage)
1981
0.0
A Toast to Melbourne
1981
0.0
An Audience with Dame Edna Everage
as Dame Edna
1980
1.0
🎬
Russell Harty
1980
0.0
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
as Our Guests at Heartland
1978
4.3
The South Bank Show
as Self
1978
5.6
An Audience with...
as Dame Edna Everage
1978
5.3
An Audience with...
as Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson
1978
5.3
The Getting of Wisdom
as Rev. Strachey
1977
5.2
Pleasure at Her Majesty's
as Edna Everage
1976
6.5
Saturday Night Live
as Dame Edna Everage
1975
7.0
The Great MacArthy
as Col Ball-Miller
1975
4.2
Side by Side
as Rodney
1975
6.5
Barry McKenzie Holds His Own
as Aunt Edna Everage / Dr. Meyer Delamphrey / Offensive Buck-toothed Englishman / Senator Douglas Manton
1974
5.2
Percy's Progress
as Dr. Anderson / Australian TV Lady
1974
3.4
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
as Aunt Edna Everage / Hoot / Dr. DeLamphrey
1972
5.1
The Naked Bunyip
as Edna Everage
1970
5.2
The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom
as Mr. Wainwright
1968
6.5
Bedazzled
as Envy
1967
6.2
Omnibus
as Sir Les Patterson
1967
7.2
Omnibus
as Self
1967
7.2
The Wednesday Play
1964
4.5
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Dame Edna Everage
1962
7.5
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
1962
7.5