Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries

Date of birth: 17-02-1934
Date of death: 22-04-2023
Born in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, 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 has 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 character 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.

Since this first foray into London, he has split his time between England, Australia and sometimes the USA – which he only really cracked with his 2000 Broadway show, one of innumerable solo shows he's performed around the world, usually as Dame Edna with other characters in a supporting role.

But his first London 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! The only other actor ever to appear on stage with Humphries in his stage shows has been Emily Perry, who played Edna's put-upon sidekick Madge.

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

Humprhies' most famous creation after Dame Edna is slobbish Australian cultural attache Sir Les Paterson, who made his debut in 1974. The character was a hopeless drunk, and in reality Humphries too has 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. Since then, he has abstained.

He was awarded a CBE in the 2007 Birthday Honours, and among his other accolades are an Order of Australia in 1982, an honorary Doctorate of Law at Melbourne University in 2003, a Montreaux Golden Rose for his 1991 show A Night On Mount Edna, and a Tony award in 2000. His autobiography More Please won the J.R. Ackerley prize for biography in 1993

Humphries has been married four times; his fourth wife Lizzie Spender is the daughter of British poet Sir Stephen Spender. He has two daughters and two sons.

At the end of 2007, he underwent appendix surgery in Sydney, but developed complications that forced him to quit work for six months.

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.

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Rob Brydon to pay tribute to Barry Humphries

On what would have been his 90th birthday.

Rob Brydon is to pay tribute to Barry Humphries on what would have been his 90th birthday.

The Would I Lie You? chairman is hosting an hour-long Radio 4 programme about the Dame Edna creator that features unheard archive recordings as well as interview with those who knew him.

Brydon said: ‘Barry was a comic great, a true inspiration and a friend.  It has been such an honour to present this programme and join so many friends and admirers in paying tribute to a legendary man.’

Additional interviews include close friend and colleague Bruce Beresford who talks about the moment King Charles telephoned the hospital to speak to Humphries  just before he died on April 22 last year.

Other interviewees include cartoonist Nicholas Garland, who claims he created Barry McKenzie, the randy, boozy Australian rampaging through Swinging London who starred in a hit Private Eye comic strip… a claim Humphries, who co-wrote the strips, firmly disagreed with.

The programme also includes the first interview with Barry’s sister, Barbara Johnson  since his death,while drama critic John Lahr also speaks about about the sometimes fine line between Humphries and the characters he portrayed, including the epitome of vulgarity, Sir Les Patterson.  Lahr asks if the theatrical creations could have been used as a tool to ridicule and tease the rest of the world to conceal his true self? 

When asked how he might feel without Edna and Les in his life, Humphries said that they were, ‘cathartic and God knows what might happen to me if they didn’t exist’.

Radio 4 says: ‘This Archive on 4 episode will be delving deep, unpicking Barry’s more complicated side; the satirist with a compulsion to point out the absurd or pompous, no matter how raw or uncomfortable it was. The man whose real-life contradictions flowed through his creations.’

• Archive on 4: Barry Humphries: Gloriously Uncut will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday February 17 at 8pm.

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Published: 6 Feb 2024

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