Barry Humphries

John Barry Humphries (17 February 1934 – 22 April 2023) was an Australian‑born comedian, actor, author, artist and satirist whose career spanned nearly seven decades, making him one of the most enduring figures in both Australian and British entertainment. Born in the Melbourne suburb of Kew to construction manager Eric Humphries and Louisa Agnes Brown, he grew up in a comfortable garden‑suburb home where early moments of costume play and a love of reading foreshadowed his later work as a character creator. After brief studies in law, philosophy and fine arts at the University of Melbourne, he joined the Melbourne Theatre Company in the mid‑1950s and introduced the world to his first incarnation of Dame Edna Everage, a parody of suburban housewives that would evolve into a global satire of celebrity culture. Humphries moved to Sydney in 1957, honed his craft at the Phillip Street Theatre, and later relocated to London where he befriended leading figures of the British comedy boom such as Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, contributing cartoons to Private Eye and appearing in West End productions including Oliver! and Maggie May. His signature characters – the gaudy Dame Edna, the lecherous cultural attaché Sir Les Patterson, and the wistful elderly Australian Sandy Stone – anchored a series of one‑man revues that combined absurdist monologue, musical numbers and audience interaction, earning him an Olivier Award, a Special Tony, and numerous lifetime‑achievement honors. Beyond the stage, Humphries acted in films ranging from Bedazzled (1967) to voicing the shark Bruce in Pixar’s Finding Nemo (2003), and he authored several autobiographies, novels, and satirical books. He married four times—Brenda Wright, Rosalind Tong, Diane Millstead and Elizabeth Spender—and fathered four children, including editor Oscar Humphries. A passionate bibliophile, he amassed a personal library of roughly 25 000 volumes and was elected to the elite Roxburghe Club. He remained active in charitable patronage, supporting the Tait Memorial Trust and various arts organizations, until a fall in early 2023 led to complications from hip surgery that caused his death in Sydney at age 89. His legacy endures through the enduring popularity of Dame Edna and his profound influence on character comedy worldwide.