Tony Award-winning comedian Barrie Humphreys, internationally renowned for his flamboyant stage persona as Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and imperfectly veiled snob whose evolved character delighted audiences for seven decades, has died. Has been. He was 89 years old.
His death at a Sydney hospital, where he spent several days with complications following hip surgery, was confirmed by his family.
A family statement said, “He was completely himself to the end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique intelligence and generosity of spirit.”
“With over 70 years on stage, he was his original entertainer, touring until the last year of his life and planning more shows that sadly will never happen,” he said.
Performer Barrie Humphreys as Sir Les Patterson performs at the BBC Poems’ Last Night at the Royal Albert Hall in London, September 15, 2009. , Photo Credit: AP
Mr Humphreys had lived in London for decades and returned to native Australia in December for Christmas.
They told Sydney Morning Herald The newspaper said last month that his physiotherapy after his fall and hip replacement had been “painful”.
“It was the most ridiculous thing, like all domestic incidents. I was reaching for a book, my foot got caught in a rug or something, and I went down,” Mr Humphreys said of his fall. .
Mr. Humphreys remains an active entertainer, touring the UK with his one-man show “The Man Behind the Mask” last year.
The character of Dame Edna began as the dowager Mrs Norm Everage, first appearing on stage in Mr Humphreys’ hometown of Melbourne in the mid-1950s. They reflected a post-war suburban inertia and cultural dullness that Mr. Humphreys found stifling.
Edna is one of several permanent characters in Mr. Humphreys. The next most famous is Sir Les Patterson, the ever-drunk, disheveled and promiscuous Australian cultural attaché.
Patterson reflected on the perception of Australia as a Western cultural wasteland that sent Humphreys to London with a number of prominent Australian intellectuals.
Actress Joan Collins and actor Barrie Humphreys during a party to celebrate the 180th anniversary of the weekly politics magazine The Spectator held at the Churchill Hyatt Hotel in central London on May 7, 2008. Photo Credit: AP
Mr. Humphreys, a law school dropout, found great success in Britain in the 1970s as an actor, writer and entertainer, but the United States was an ambition he found stubbornly elusive.
A high point in the United States was a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway show “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour”.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the legendary comedian.
“For 89 years, Barrie Humphreys entertained us through a galaxy of personalities, from Dame Edna to Sandy Stone,” tweeted Albanese, referring to one of Humphreys’ most enduring characters, the sullen and belligerent Stone . “But the brightest star in that galaxy was always Barry. A great wit, satirist, writer and a wacko, he was both a genius and a gift.
British comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted: “Farewell, Barry Humphries, you comedy genius.”
Piers Morgan, British television personality, tweeted: “One of the funniest people I’ve ever met.”
“An amazingly intelligent, amusing, daring, provocative, mischievous comedy genius,” said Mr. Morgan.
The multi-talented Mr. Humphreys was also a respected character actor with numerous stage and screen credits, author of novels and an autobiography, and an accomplished landscape painter.
John Barry Humphreys was born on February 17, 1934 in Melbourne. His parents were easygoing, loving, and strait-laced, and they must have thought of their eldest son, whom they called Sunny Sam. His mother used to tell him to stop drawing attention to himself.
Before he ended up at the prestigious Melbourne Grammar School, Humphreys was more interested in art and secondhand bookshops than football. At age 16 his favorite author was Kafka and he later said that he “felt a little alien.”
He spent two years at the University of Melbourne, where he embraced Dadaism – the subversive, anarchic and absurdist European art movement.
His contributions included “Puss in Boots,” waterproof rubber boots filled with custard, and on the performance art side, boarding a tram with an apparently blind companion called Mr. Humphreys “Get out of my way” You disgusting blind person.
In 1959, he settled in London and soon began working at Peter Cook’s comedy venue The Establishment. He called “Oliver!” Sowerberry in the original London production of in 1960 and reprized the role on Broadway. He appeared in “Treasure Island” with Spike Milligan and William Rushton.
Mr Humphries, along with New Zealand artist Nicholas Garland, created the Barrie McKenzie comic strip in 1964 for the satirical magazine Private Eye.
When the strips appeared in book form, it was banned by the Australian government because it “relied on indecency for its humour.”
By then Mr. Humphreys’s drinking had gotten out of control. In Melbourne in the late 1970s, he was accused of being drunk and disorderly. He eventually admitted himself to a hospital specializing in alcoholism for treatment that would make him a lifelong sober.
In 1972 came the first Barry McKenzie film – financially backed by the Australian government, despite an earlier ban. It was panned by reviewers, mainly because they were wary of how the world’s first film to feature beer-induced vomiting would affect Australia’s image overseas.
But it was a popular success and a sequel followed two years later involving the then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam Knighting Edna, Mr MacKenzie’s aunt.
Married four times, he is survived by his wife, Lizzie Spender, four children and 10 grandchildren.