Current:Home > ContactDame Edna creator Barry Humphries dies at 89 -TradeStation
Dame Edna creator Barry Humphries dies at 89
View
Date:2025-04-18 05:56:58
Tony Award-winning comedian Barry Humphries, internationally renowned for his garish stage persona Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and imperfectly-veiled snob whose evolving character has delighted audiences over seven decades, has died. He was 89.
His death was confirmed Saturday by the Sydney hospital where he spent several days with complications following hip surgery.
Humphries had lived in London for decades and returned to native Australia in December for Christmas.
He told The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper last month that his physiotherapy had been "agony" following his fall and hip replacement.
"It was the most ridiculous thing, like all domestic incidents are. I was reaching for a book, my foot got caught on a rug or something, and down I went," Humphries said of his fall.
Humphries has remained an active entertainer, touring Britain last year with his one-man show "The Man Behind the Mask."
The character of Dame Edna began as a dowdy Mrs. Norm Everage, who first took to the stage in Humphries' hometown of Melbourne in the mid-1950s. She reflected a postwar suburban inertia and cultural blandness that Humphries found stifling.
Edna is one of Humphries' several enduring characters. The next most famous is Sir Les Patterson, an ever-drunk, disheveled and lecherous Australian cultural attache.
Patterson reflected a perception of Australia as a Western cultural wasteland that drove Humphries along with many leading Australian intellectuals to London.
Humphries, a law school dropout, found major success as an actor, writer and entertainer in Britain in the 1970s, but the United States was an ambition that he found stubbornly elusive.
A high point in the United States was a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway show "Dame Edna: The Royal Tour."
Married four times, he is survived by his wife Lizzie Spender and four children.
- In:
- Tony Awards
veryGood! (678)
Related
- Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
- Widespread Panic reveals guitarist Jimmy Herring diagnosed with tonsil cancer
- Police bodyguard accused of fraud and false statements about alleged affair with mayor
- Madelyn Cline, Camila Mendes and More to Star in I Know What You Did Last Summer Reboot
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- 3 killed, 6 injured after argument breaks into gunfire at Philadelphia party: reports
- Biggest questions for all 32 NFL teams: Contract situations, QB conundrums and more
- TNT sports announces it will match part of new NBA rights deal, keep league on channel
- A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?
- Attorneys for state of Utah ask parole board to keep death sentence for man convicted in 1998 murder
Ranking
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- The Simpsons writer comments on Kamala Harris predictions: I'm proud
- Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Reveal Name of Baby No. 4
- Every Time Simone Biles Proved She Is the GOAT
- Who's hosting 'Saturday Night Live' tonight? Musical guest, how to watch Dec. 14 episode
- All-Big Ten preseason football team, selected by USA TODAY Sports Network
- USA TODAY Sports Network's Big Ten football preseason media poll
- All-Big Ten preseason football team, selected by USA TODAY Sports Network
Recommendation
Taylor Swift makes surprise visit to Kansas City children’s hospital
Rapper Snoop Dogg to carry Olympic torch ahead of Paris opening ceremony
Missouri judge overturns the murder conviction of a man imprisoned for more than 30 years
Montana education board discusses trends, concerns in student achievement
Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
Delta cancels hundreds more flights as fallout from CrowdStrike outage persists
‘We were built for this moment': Black women rally around Kamala Harris
Missouri judge overturns wrongful murder conviction of man imprisoned for over 30 years