Dame Edna Creator Barry Humphries Dies In Sydney At 89

CANBERRA, Australia – Barry Humphries, Tony Award-winning comedian known for his outrageous theatrical character, Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and thinly disguised snob whose changing character has charmed audiences for seven decades, has died. He was 89.

His family confirmed his death in a Sydney hospital where he had spent several days due to complications after hip surgery.

According to a family statement, “he was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, unique wit, and generosity of spirit.”

“He was an entertainer to the core, touring up until the last year of his life and planning more shows that will sadly never be,” they continued.

Humphries had resided in London for decades before returning to his native Australia for Christmas.

He told The Sydney Morning Herald last month that his treatment after his accident and hip replacement had been “agony.”

“It was the most absurd thing, as are all domestic incidents.” “I was reaching for a book when my foot got caught on something, and I fell,” Humphries explained his incident.

Humphries has continued to perform as a performer, touring the United Kingdom last year with his one-man show “The Man Behind the Mask.”

Dame Edna began as dowdy Mrs. Norm Everage, who first appeared on stage in Humphries’ hometown of Melbourne in the mid-1950s. Humphries found postwar suburbia immobility and cultural blandness suffocating.

“Farewell, Barry Humphries, you comedy genius,” Ricky Gervais, a British comedian, tweeted.

Edna is one of Humphries’ most memorable characters. Sir Les Patterson, an ever-drunk, unkempt, and lecherous Australian cultural attache, is the second most famous.

Patterson reflected Humphries’ and many other renowned Australian intellectuals’ perception of Australia as a Western cultural wasteland.

Humphries, a law school dropout, had significant success as an actor, writer, and entertainer in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, but the United States remained elusive.

In the United States, he received a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway production “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the legendary comedian.

“For 89 years, Barry Humphries entertained us through a galaxy of personas, from Dame Edna to Sandy Stone,” Albanese tweeted, referring to one of Humphries’ most enduring characters, the gloomy and meandering Stone. “But Barry was always the brightest star in that galaxy.” He was both gifted and a gift, a wonderful wit, satirist, writer, and an amazing one-of-a-kind.”

“Farewell, Barry Humphries, you comedy genius,” Ricky Gervais, a British comedian, tweeted.

“One of the funniest people I have ever met,” said Piers Morgan, a British television personality.

Morgan called Morgan a “wonderfully intelligent, entertaining, daring, provocative, mischievous comedy genius.”

Humphries was also a well-known character actor with several stage and cinema appearances, the author of novels and an autobiography, and an exceptional landscape painter.

On February 17, 1934, John Barry Humphries was born in Melbourne. His parents were content, loving, and strict, and they must have worried about their eldest son, Sunny Sam. His mother always told him not to bring attention to himself.

On February 17, 1934, John Barry Humphries was born in Melbourne.

Humphries was more interested in art and secondhand bookshops than sports before graduating from Melbourne Grammar School. At 16, his favorite author was Franz Kafka, and he subsequently stated that he “felt a little foreign.”

He studied Dadaism, a subversive, anarchic, and absurdist European art movement, for two years at Melbourne University.

“Puss In Boots,” waterproof rubber boots filled with custard, and, on the performance art side, going on a tram with a supposedly blind accomplice whom Humphries would kick in the shins while saying, “Get out of my way, you disgusting blind person,” were among his contributions.

He moved to London in 1959 and began working at Peter Cook’s comedy club, The Establishment. In 1960, he played Sowerberry in the first London production of “Oliver!” and reprised the role on Broadway. In “Treasure Island,” he co-starred alongside Spike Milligan and William Rushton.

In 1964, Humphries collaborated with New Zealand artist Nicholas Garland to create the Barry McKenzie comic strip for the satirical magazine Private Eye.

The Australian government prohibited the book version of the cartoons because it “relied on indecency for its humor.” Humphries expressed satisfaction at the attention and pleaded with officials not to relax the restriction.

Humphries’ drinking had gotten out of hand by this point. In late 1970, he was charged with being drunk and unruly in Melbourne. He finally admitted himself to an alcoholism hospital for therapy that would transform him into a lifetime abstainer.

Despite the earlier restriction, the first Barry McKenzie film was released in 1972, with financial help from the Australian government. It was panned by critics, who were worried about what the world’s first film to feature beer-induced vomiting would do to Australia’s reputation abroad.

However, it was a tremendous success, and a sequel two years later had then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam knighting McKenzie’s aunt, Edna.

He was married four times and left behind his wife, Lizzie Spender, four children, and ten grandchildren.

SOURCE – (AP)