Cast & creator
Barry Humphries
Best known for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Saturday Night Live
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE (17 February 1934 - 22 April 2023) was an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, perhaps best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the Court of St. James's. He was a film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning writer and an accomplished landscape painter. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin. Humphries' characters, especially Dame Edna Everage, have brought him international renown, and he had appeared in numerous films, stage productions and television shows. Originally conceived as a dowdy Moonee Ponds housewife who caricatured Australian suburban complacency and insularity, Edna had evolved over four decades to become a satire of stardom, the gaudily dressed, acid-tongued, egomaniacal, internationally feted Housewife Gigastar, Dame Edna Everage. Humphries' other major satirical character creation was the archetypal Australian bloke Barry McKenzie, who originated as the hero of a comic strip about Australians in London (with drawings by Nicholas Garland) which was first published in Private Eye magazine. The stories about "Bazza" (Humphries' nickname, as well as an Australian term of endearment for the name Barry) gave wide circulation to Australian slang, particularly jokes about drinking and its consequences (much of which was invented by Humphries), and the character went on to feature in two Australian films, in which he was portrayed by Barry Crocker. Humphries' other satirical characters include the "priapic and inebriated cultural attaché" Sir Les Patterson, who has "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 and failed tycoon Owen Steele. Humphries died following complications from hip surgery at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney on 22 April 2023.
Also known as: Dame Edna Everage, John Barry Humphries, Edna Everage, Les Patterson, Barry McKenzie
80
film credits
50
television credits
119
1954–2023 · acting roles
6.2
average across scored titles
Signature credits
Known for
Across film & television
Filmography (130)
Showing 130 of 130 credits
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Dame Edna Everage
1962The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self
1962
Saturday Night Live
Dame Edna Everage
1975
The Graham Norton Show
Self
2007
The View
Self
1997
Hollywood Squares
Self - Panelist
1998
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Dame Edna
1993
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
1992The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Dame Edna Everage
1992
The One Show
Self
2006The One Show
Dame Edna Everage
2006
The South Bank Show
Self
1978The South Bank Show
1978
QI
Self
2003QI
Self - Panellist (archive footage)
2003
The Wednesday Play
1964
Wogan
Self
1982The Tony Danza Show
Dame Edna
2004
Omnibus
Sir Les Patterson
1967Omnibus
Self
1967
Finding Nemo
Bruce (voice)
2003
Parkinson
Dame Edna Everage
1998
An Audience with...
Dame Edna Everage
1978An Audience with...
Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson
1978Pebble Mill
Self
1991
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Great Goblin
2012
Ally McBeal
Claire Otoms
1997
Q&A
Self - Panellist
2008
Parkinson
Dame Edna Everage
2004
Boulevard Bio
Dame Edna
1991
RTL Samstag Nacht
1993
The Osbournes
Self
2002
Mary and Max
Narrator (voice)
2009
Who Do You Think You Are?
Self
2008
The Dame Edna Experience
1987
Justin and the Knights of Valour
Braulio (voice)
2013
Friday Night, Saturday Morning
1979Single Voices
Sandy Stone
1990Single Voices
Writer
1990
The Great Comic Relief Bake Off
Contestant (Dame Edna Everage)
2013
Immortal Beloved
Clemens Metternich
1994
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
Charlie / Dame Edna
2016
I'd Do Anything
Himself - Judge
2008
Nicholas Nickleby
Mrs. Crummles/Mr. Leadville
2002
Spice World
Kevin McMaxford
1997
Blinky Bill the Movie
Wombo (voice)
2015
The Team: A Season With McLaren
Dame Edna Everage
1993
The Marsupials: The Howling III
Academy Award Presenter
1987Russell Harty
1980
Napoleon
Kangaroo (voice)
1995
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Our Guests at Heartland
1978A Comedy Roast
2010
The Dame Edna Treatment
2007
Standing Up for Sunny
Barry Humphries
2019
We Are Most Amused
Self
2008Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford
2010
Welcome to Woop Woop
Blind Wally
1998
Show of Titles
"Anyone Can Whistle" Performer
2021
The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom
Mr. Wainwright
1968
Bedazzled
Envy
1967
Jack Irish: Dead Point
Justice Logan
2014
Kath & Kimderella
Dame Edna Everage
2012
Not Quite Hollywood
Self
2008
Da Kath & Kim Code
John Monk
2005
Magical Land of Oz
Narrator (voice)
2019
The Leading Man
Humphrey Beal
1996
Parkinson at 50
Dame Edna Everage (archive footage)
2021
Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
Self - Edna Everage
2004
It Started with Swap Shop
Self
2006
Shock Treatment
Bert Schnick
1981
Les Patterson Saves the World
Sir Les Patterson / Dame Edna Everage
1987Les Patterson Saves the World
Writer
1987
Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills
Bert / Lady Shopper / Manager
1997Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The Missing Sketches
Self
2016
A Night on Mount Edna
Dame Edna Everage
1990
One More Audience with Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna Everage
1988
The Getting of Wisdom
Rev. Strachey
1977
Barry McKenzie Holds His Own
Aunt Edna Everage / Dr. Meyer Delamphrey / Offensive Buck-toothed Englishman / Senator Douglas Manton
1974Barry McKenzie Holds His Own
Writer
1974
Micallef Tonight
Self
2003
Pleasure at Her Majesty's
Edna Everage
1976
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
Aunt Edna Everage / Hoot / Dr. DeLamphrey
1972The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
Writer
1972
Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook
Self
1995
Royal Variety Performance 1984
1984
Brilliant Creatures
Self
2014
Selling Hitler
Rupert Murdoch
1993
Barry Humphries at the BBC
Self (archive material) / Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson
2023
Barry Humphries: The Last Laugh
Self
2023
Little Britain Down Under
Dame Edna Everage
2007
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
Self - Various Roles
1982
Making Mary and Max
Self
2009
Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna/Les Patterson
1984Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage
Writer
1984
An Audience with Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna
1980
Dame Edna's Neighbourhood Watch
Dame Edna
1992
The Man Inside Dame Edna
Self/Dame Edna/Les Patterson
2008
A Late Lunch With Sir Les
Les Patterson
1991
Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show
Self
2015
The Rocky Horror Treatment
(archive footage)
1981
Percy's Progress
Dr. Anderson / Australian TV Lady
1974
The Naked Bunyip
Edna Everage
1970
An Audience with Jackie Mason
1990Betjeman and Me
2006
Barry Humphries Presents Back to My Roots and Other Suckers
Sir Les Patterson/Owen Steele/Sandy Stone/Dame Edna Everage
2003Barry Humphries Presents Back to My Roots and Other Suckers
Writer
2003
The Last Impresario
Self
2014
Dr. Fischer of Geneva
Richard Deane
1984
Barry Humphries - A Life of Laughs
Self (Archive)
2023Telling Schoolgirl Tales: The Making of 'The Getting of Wisdom’
Self
2006
A Granny's Guide to the Modern World
2016
Gaybo Laughs Back
Dame Edna
2008
Barry Humphries: This is Your Lunch
Self/Dame Edna
1988
Dame Edna's Hollywood
Dame Edna Everage
1991
Les Patterson 'Has A Stand Up' - Live & Rampant
Les Patterson
1996Les Patterson 'Has A Stand Up' - Live & Rampant
Writer
1996
Joan Rivers: Abroad in London
Dame Edna Everage
1992
Side by Side
Rodney
1975A Birthday Tribute to Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna/Sir Les Patterson
1984
The Great MacArthy
Col Ball-Miller
1975
Sir Les And The Great Chinese Takeaway
Les Patterson/Dame Edna
1997Sir Les And The Great Chinese Takeaway
Writer
1997
A Toast to Melbourne
1981
Dame Edna Rules The Waves
Dame Edna Everidge
2019Dame Edna Rules The Waves
Writer
2019
Dame Edna Rules The Waves
Creator
2019
An Aussie Audience with Dame Edna
Dame Edna Everage / Sir Les Patterson / Self
1986An Aussie Audience with Dame Edna
Writer
1986
Salvation
Client
2009