Tony Award-winning comedian Barry Humphries, 89, renowned for his stage persona, Dame Edna, a condescending and imperfectly veiled snob, is in a Sydney hospital with complications following his hip surgery after tripping on a rug, 2 months ago.
-March 2023
He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit,” a family statement said. ”With over 70 years on the stage, he was an entertainer to his core, touring up until the last year of his life and planning more shows that will sadly never be,” they added.
There’s something about the layers of makeup, the lipstick, dyed hair, flamboyant glasses and sequinned outfits which provide a kind of force-field around Dame Edna.
Queen Elizabeth II meeting Barry Humphries
aka Dame Edna Everage in 2003 David Cheskin
Through West End shows and television series, Dame Edna became a national institution in Britain, pioneering a show based around interaction with her audience. Humphries has been credited with inventing the modern comedy/light entertainment chat show format.
Once, Humphries made comments that were criticized as transphobic:Vanity Fair magazine had invited Dame Edna – whose mother was incarcerated in a “maximum-security twilight home for the permanently bewildered”- to write a satirical advice column.
She created controversy replying to a reader who asked if she should learn Spanish:
“Forget Spanish. There’s nothing in that language worth reading
except Don Quixote and a quick listen to Man of La Mancha will
take care of that: Who speaks it that you are really desperate to
talk to? The help? Your leaf blower?”
Actress Salma Hayek responded angrily, penning a furious letter in which she denounced Dame Edna. When Dame Edna was questioned about the controversy on the eve of her 2003 Australian tour, she retorted that Hayek’s denunciation was due to “professional jealousy” and that Hayek was envious because the role of painter Frida Kahlo, for which Hayek received an Oscar nomination, had originally been offered to Edna.
Vanity Fair responded: “In the role of Dame Edna, Humphries practices a long comedic tradition of making statements that are tasteless, wrongheaded, or taboo . . . Anyone who has seen Dame Edna’s over-the-top performances on TV or in the theater knows that she is an equal-opportunity distributor of insults,”
Humphries stated later: “If you have to explain satire to someone, you might as well give up.”
Throughout his career, Humphries received numerous accolades and
awards for his work, including a CBE1 in 2007 and a knighthood, in 2020.
John Barry Humphries, died April 22, 2023, in Sydney, Australia.
This comment from BBC News (online)
“Long live Dame Edna! Keep holding that mirror up to us so we can see ourselves as we really are – warts and all! She’s an eagle-eyed filleter of society, slicing and dicing with humor with an acid tongue and penetrating insights – a woman for the ages!”
My thoughts exactly.
In Dame Edna’s own words:
Ricky Gervais:
“Farewell, Barry Humphries, you Comedy genius.”
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire
