Status: 04/22/2023 3:30 p.m
For more than seven decades, Australian comedian Barry Humphries has captivated audiences, most notably in his role as the quirky lady Edna Everage. He has now died at the age of 89. A hip operation had led to complications.
Australian comedian Barry Humphries is dead. He died at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney aged 89. The entertainer had been treated there after complications from hip surgery.
Humphries had slipped into numerous satirical roles over the course of his career, which spanned around seven decades. But he was best known for his fictional character Dame Edna Everage with purple hair, butterfly glasses, lots of glitter and a very big mouth.
Dame Edna also has a decades-long career behind her. The Melbourne suburban housewife was one of Australia’s biggest stars on stage, from London’s West End to Broadway to television talk, where she interviewed Sean Connery and Zsa Zsa Gabor. The audience greeted them with “Hello, possums”, “Hello, possums”.
The face behind the shrill figure: Australian comedian Barry Humphries
Image: dpa
Dame Edna – an Australian icon
Barry Humphries’ family wrote in a statement that Humphries remained true to himself to the end. He never lost his brilliant mind and unique wit.
In Australia, Dame Edna is a national icon. A square in Melbourne was named after her during her lifetime, and she ended up on a postage stamp from the Australian Post Office on her 50th birthday. She was allowed to say anything. Why are Australians so good at sports? “Good food and nutrition, living in the fresh air, juicy steaks, sunshine – and the total absence of intellectual distraction.”
She was shrill and impudent, but the Australians liked that. And the English too: there are pictures of Prince Charles standing next to Edna, very enraptured. When Humphries first played the female role in 1955, many didn’t yet know what travesty was, let alone “drag”.
Edna later appeared in films such as “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, and she was given the title “Dame” spontaneously in the 1970s by then Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. She had her first internationally successful stage show in London in 1976 with “Housewife, Superstar!” Dame Edna had called Barry Humphries a liar when he claimed she was his creation. He’s just an “entrepreneur” and her manager.
Dame Edna meets Lady Diana in 1987.
Image: AP
“Australia has lost one of its greatest”
Humphries lived a long life as a sober alcoholic, he was married four times and has four children.
In 2012, Humphries announced the retirement of the lady with the purple hair. But there were still a few more performances. In an interview with ABC television, Humphries described his golden rule of entertaining the audience as follows: “I’ve always thought that if I’m amused, then others will be amused too.”
Barry Humphries entertained people with “a galaxy of personalities,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Twitter. However, the brightest star in this galaxy was always Humphries himself. Australian actor Jason Donovan tweeted: “Australia has lost one of its greatest!”