Award-winning Dame Edna Everage creator Barry Humphries dies in Sydney aged 89
- With lilac hair, oversized diamante glasses and an outlandish wardrobe, the Dame Edna character would greet audiences with her trademark ‘Hello Possums!’
- A household name in Britain and Australia, he won a Tony award for his Dame Edna: The Royal Tour on Broadway in the US and had a role in the sitcom Ally McBeal
Barry Humphries, the comedian best known for his character Dame Edna Everage who blossomed from an Australian suburban housewife into a self-described gigastar, died on Saturday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. He was 89.
The paper said Humphries died at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, where he had been treated for various health issues.
With coiffed lilac hair, oversized diamante glasses and an outlandish wardrobe, the instantly recognisable Dame Edna would joyfully greet audiences with her trademark “Hello Possums!”.
Describing her shows somewhat accurately as a “monologue interrupted by strangers” and herself as blessed with “the ability to laugh at the misfortune of others”, Edna would warmly skewer celebrities and audience members alike.
“Tim, I could talk to you and about you and behind your back for ages,” the character once said in typical fashion as she was wrapping up a conversation with actor and comedian Tim Allen on one of her talkshows.
Edna’s life as she told it would often leave stars in hysterics. She taught Mel Gibson drama, Julio Iglesias’ father was her travelling gynaecologist and she spent the coronavirus pandemic hiding out with her new lover, the father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in Texas.