Barry Humphries dies at 89

Dame Edna creator had been in hospital after hip surgery complications

Barry Humphries has died at the age of 89 after being hospitalised earlier this week due to complications from hip surgery.

The Australian comedy legend, best known for his alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, had been readmitted to St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney earlier in the week after his health took a turn for the worse.

He had the original operation last month after falling at his home and breaking a hip.

Fellow comics - and even Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - were quick to pay tribute.

Albanese called Humphrise 'a great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind, he was both gifted and a gift'.

Inside No 9's Reece Shearmith said: 'Barry Humphries was a genius. He was always so funny, so sly and so terrifying. A brilliant comic mind. We have lost a legend. RIP.'

Veep and The Thick of It writer Simon Blackwell said: 'This is very sad. What a phenomenal talent. Its a cliche to say someone has funny bones, but cliches are often true, and he had some of the funniest.'

Dara O Brian tweeted: 'RIP Barry Humphries, one of the absolute funniest people ever. A huge life, lived long and well. He will be missed.'

And Marcus Brigtsocke added: 'You have left behind a hilarious and extraordinary collection of brilliant comedy for us to enjoy. An absolute inspiration.'

Born in the Melbourne suburb of Kew in February 1934, Humphries was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and Melbourne University, where he read law, philosophy and fine arts. There he staged anarchic Dadaist pranks and exhibitions, with exhibits such Pus In Boots – a pair of Wellingtons filled with custard.

He began his stage career in 1952, writing and performing songs and sketches in university revues. At the start, Humphries had ambitions for straight theatre and toured in Shakespeare plays and joined the newly formed Melbourne Theatre Company.

But the major turning point occurred in 1955, when he created Mrs Norm Everage, a suburban Melbourne housewife who over the years evolved into the glamorous gladioli-wielding 'gigastar' Dame Edna that has made his fortune.

In Sydney, in the late Fifties, Humphries joined the Philip Street Revue Theatre, Australia's first home for intimate revue and satirical comedy which allowed him to develop a cast of characters such as grandfatherly Sandy Stone, sleazy trade union official Lance Boyle and socialist academic Neil Singleton.

In 1959 he moved to London and became part of the so-called Satire Boom, working alongside the likes of Dudley Moore and Peter Cook – performing at Cook's club The Establishment and starring in their film Bedazzled as Envy. He also worked with Joan Littlewood's groundbreaking Stratford East theatre company, and played Long John Silver at the Mermaid Theatre.

While in the UK he developed the cartoon strip about rugged Outback adventurer Barry (Bazza) McKenzie, who predated Crocodile Dundee and real-life Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. The character started life in Private Eye, but his exploits were also made into a film.

Humphries also appeared in numerous West End stage productions including the Lionel Bart musical Oliver! and Spike Milligan's The Bed Sitting Room.

His first London comedy show, in 1962, was slated by the critics, and it took him seven years to return to the West End stage - eventually cracking it with his 1976 production Housewife, Superstar!

Dame Edna also made numerous TV appearances, including fronting her own LWT chat show The Dame Edna Experience and a recurring guest role in Ally McBeal.

Humprhies's most famous creation after Dame Edna was slobbish Australian cultural attache Sir Les Paterson, who made his debut in 1974. The character was a hopeless drunk, and in reality Humphries, too, had battled a drink problem. In the early Seventies he was found unconscious in a gutter after a binge, and his parents checked him into a drying-out clinic. That incident prompted him to swear off the booze.

Humphries. who was was awarded a CBE in the 2007 Birthday Honours. He was been married four times and his widow Lizzie Spender is the daughter of British poet Sir Stephen Spender. He leaves two daughters and two sons.

In later life he faced accusations of transphobia after calling gender-reassignment surgery 'self-mutilation', described Caitlyn Jenner as a 'publicity-seeking rat-bag' and saying transgenderism was a 'fashion'. The row prompted the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to drop the 'Barry Award' as the name of its top prize.

Dame Edna infiltrates the Royal Box, so to speak. This is fabulous!

God bless Barry Humphries x pic.twitter.com/6JYzPeEd1P
— James Hogg (@JamesAHogg2) April 22, 2023