Photo of Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries

Biography

John Barry Humphries (17 February 1934 – 22 April 2023) was an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He was best known for writing and playing his stage and television characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He appeared in numerous stage productions, films and television shows. Humphries's characters brought him international renown. Originally conceived as a dowdy Moonee Ponds housewife who caricatured Australian suburban complacency and insularity, the Dame Edna Everage character developed into a satire of stardom: a gaudily dressed, acid-tongued, egomaniacal, internationally fêted "housewife gigastar". His other satirical characters included the "priapic and inebriated cultural attaché" Sir Les Patterson, who "continued to bring worldwide discredit upon Australian arts and culture, while contributing as much to the Australian vernacular as he has borrowed from it"; gentle, grandfatherly "returned gentleman" Sandy Stone; iconoclastic 1960s' underground film-maker Martin Agrippa; Paddington socialist academic Neil Singleton; sleazy trade-union official Lance Boyle; high-pressure art salesman Morrie O'Connor; failed tycoon Owen Steele; and archetypal Australian bloke Barry McKenzie.

Bio from Wikipedia

Discography

Records they worked on — most-collected first.

Credited work

112 releases · 29 albums · active 1958–2021

  • Performance · 114
  • Other credits · 85
  • Production · 1

Studios: Melbourne Concert Hall · The New Theatre, London · Globe Theatre · EMI Studios, Heemstede

Frequent collaborators

  • Dame Edna Everage
  • Various
  • Lionel Bart
  • Barry (Bazza) Crocker
  • Mick Thomas' Roving Commission
  • Les Patterson
  • Jim Haynes (4)
  • Sir Leslie Colin Patterson

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