Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries, born John Barry Humphries on 17 February 1934 in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, Victoria, Australia, was a comedian, actor, author, and satirist who died on 22 April 2023. He was the son of Eric Humphries, a construction manager, and Louisa Agnes Humphries. His paternal grandfather had emigrated to Australia from Manchester, England, in the late 1800s. Humphries grew up in Camberwell, then one of Melbourne's new garden suburbs, where his father spent little time with him and he occupied himself dressing up in costumes in the back garden. In his teens he rebelled against suburban life by pursuing art, collecting rare books, and developing an interest in surrealism. He attended Camberwell Grammar School before moving to Melbourne Grammar School, where he excelled in English and art while avoiding sport and cadets. He subsequently spent two years at the University of Melbourne studying law, philosophy, and fine arts, serving concurrently as a private in the Melbourne University Regiment, though he did not graduate.

During his university years Humphries became a follower of the Dada movement and mounted a series of absurdist pranks and performances that became part of Australian folklore. These included an exhibit called "Pus in Boots," consisting of Wellington boots filled with custard, and a mock pesticide product labeled "Platytox," which claimed to be effective against the platypus. He was also part of a group that made Dada-influenced recordings in Melbourne from 1952 to 1953, among them a piece called "Wubbo Music," considered one of the earliest recordings of experimental music in Australia.

After leaving university, Humphries joined the newly formed Melbourne Theatre Company, where he created the first incarnation of what became his most celebrated character, Edna Everage. The first stage sketch featuring Mrs. Norm Everage, titled "Olympic Hostess," premiered at Melbourne University's Union Theatre on 13 December 1955. In his autobiography More Please, published in 1992, Humphries credited his mentor Peter O'Shaughnessy with nurturing the character through its early years. In 1957 he moved to Sydney and joined the Phillip Street Theatre, where he revived "Olympic Hostess" for the satirical revue Two to One, appearing alongside veteran Australian musical star Max Oldaker and future Number 96 star Wendy Blacklock. The subsequent Phillip Street revue, Around the Loop, teamed Humphries again with Oldaker, Gordon Chater, Blacklock, and newcomer June Salter, running eight shows a week for fourteen months. Also in September 1957, Humphries appeared as Estragon in Australia's first production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Arrow Theatre in Melbourne, directed by Peter O'Shaughnessy. In 1958 he made his first commercial recording, the EP Wild Life in Suburbia, with liner notes by architect and writer Robin Boyd.

Humphries moved to London in 1959 and worked there throughout the 1960s, becoming acquainted with leading figures of the British comedy scene including Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, and Spike Milligan. His Broadway career spanned from 1963 to 2010, during which he appeared in the play Oliver Oliver and in Children and Art, and starred in three productions built around his signature characters: Dame Edna: The Royal Tour, Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance, and All About Me. He also served as book writer for Broadway productions. His work on Dame Edna: The Royal Tour earned him both the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and the Theatre World Special Award, both in 2000.

Humphries was best known internationally for two satirical characters he wrote and performed across stage and television. Dame Edna Everage began as a caricature of an Australian suburban housewife from Moonee Ponds and evolved over decades into a satire of celebrity, portrayed as a gaudily dressed, acid-tongued, egomaniacal housewife gigastar. His second major character, Sir Les Patterson, was conceived as a priapic and inebriated cultural attaché whose behavior brought satirical discredit upon Australian arts and culture. Among his other characters were Sandy Stone, a gentle, grandfatherly returned gentleman whose creation was inspired by a chance encounter with an elderly man near Bondi; Martin Agrippa, an iconoclastic 1960s underground filmmaker; 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.