Barry Humphries, the Australian entertainer whose gladioli-waving alter ego Dame Edna charmed and roasted celebrities, all with a Cheshire grin, outrageous eyewear, a “Hello, Possums!” greeting and a flurry of caustic wit, died Saturday. He was 89.
Humphries died at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney of complications from hip surgery, his family announced.
“He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit,” they 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.”
He portrayed Dame Edna Everage — whom he called a “gauche, garrulous Melbourne housewife with a very shrill voice who was obsessed with interior decoration” — for more than six decades across cabarets, clubs, stage and screen as one of the world’s oldest continual comic creations.
Humphries died at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney of complications from hip surgery, his family announced.
“He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit,” they 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.”
He portrayed Dame Edna Everage — whom he called a “gauche, garrulous Melbourne housewife with a very shrill voice who was obsessed with interior decoration” — for more than six decades across cabarets, clubs, stage and screen as one of the world’s oldest continual comic creations.
- 4/22/2023
- by Rhett Bartlett
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Australian satirist Barry Humphries, known for his onstage and TV drag persona Edna Everage and for his character Sir Les Patterson, has died. He was 89.
The BBC reported that Humphries had been in hospital in Sydney, Australia, and had been suffering from complications following surgery in March.
“A great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind, he was both gifted and a gift,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said following the news of Humphries’ death.
“Rip Barry Humphries – one of the greatest ever Australians – and a comic genius who used his exuberant alter egos, Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, to say the otherwise unsayable. Also an infallibly brilliant Spectator contributor. What a loss,” said former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Twitter.
Rip Barry Humphries – one of the greatest ever Australians – and a comic genius who used his exuberant alter egos, Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson,...
The BBC reported that Humphries had been in hospital in Sydney, Australia, and had been suffering from complications following surgery in March.
“A great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind, he was both gifted and a gift,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said following the news of Humphries’ death.
“Rip Barry Humphries – one of the greatest ever Australians – and a comic genius who used his exuberant alter egos, Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, to say the otherwise unsayable. Also an infallibly brilliant Spectator contributor. What a loss,” said former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Twitter.
Rip Barry Humphries – one of the greatest ever Australians – and a comic genius who used his exuberant alter egos, Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson,...
- 4/22/2023
- by Carmel Dagan and Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
From ocker blokes to a dunny attendant via drag queens and an endearing dork, the zany characters in Australian films reflect evolving notions of national identity
Guardian Australia film club screens Kenny on 23 August at Cinema Nova, Melbourne with a panel on Australian comedy – book your place
Was Barry McKenzie the greatest comedy trailblazer in the history of Australian cinema? The film that bears his name, director Bruce Beresford’s vulgar 1972 classic The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, didn’t so much pave the way as – to paraphrase Marge Simpson – throw up on it.
Accompanied by his beloved Aunt Edna (Barry Humphries), the beer-guzzling yahoo (played by Barry Crocker) travelled to England and tested cinema patrons with unprecedented gross-outs, like hot beef curry as an aphrodisiac and songs about one-eyed trouser snakes. Audiences responded with two thumbs up and Bazza became one of Australian film’s most notorious comedy heroes. He...
Guardian Australia film club screens Kenny on 23 August at Cinema Nova, Melbourne with a panel on Australian comedy – book your place
Was Barry McKenzie the greatest comedy trailblazer in the history of Australian cinema? The film that bears his name, director Bruce Beresford’s vulgar 1972 classic The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, didn’t so much pave the way as – to paraphrase Marge Simpson – throw up on it.
Accompanied by his beloved Aunt Edna (Barry Humphries), the beer-guzzling yahoo (played by Barry Crocker) travelled to England and tested cinema patrons with unprecedented gross-outs, like hot beef curry as an aphrodisiac and songs about one-eyed trouser snakes. Audiences responded with two thumbs up and Bazza became one of Australian film’s most notorious comedy heroes. He...
- 8/12/2015
- by Luke Buckmaster
- The Guardian - Film News
Phillip Adams today called on filmmakers, writers, painters and other creative types to rally to support the Australian film industry.
Delivering the Hector Crawford Memorial lecture, the ABC radio broadcaster and columnist for The Australian declared the industry.s advocates must not be .fooled into collaborating with the bureaucracies by arguing in their terms..
A former producer and chairman of the Australian Film Commission and the AFI, Adams told the Screen Forever conference, .It is time to form another Team Australia. Based not on dog whistle calls to bigotry but on expressing the sort of cultural and political idealism that was so exhilarating in the glory days of Whitlam.
.It is time to call upon the pantheon of Australia.s creative producers, filmmakers, writers, painters, pundits, public intellectuals and sympathetic pollies . anyone and everyone who can be recruited to the cause..
Adams recalled that the campaigns to properly finance and...
Delivering the Hector Crawford Memorial lecture, the ABC radio broadcaster and columnist for The Australian declared the industry.s advocates must not be .fooled into collaborating with the bureaucracies by arguing in their terms..
A former producer and chairman of the Australian Film Commission and the AFI, Adams told the Screen Forever conference, .It is time to form another Team Australia. Based not on dog whistle calls to bigotry but on expressing the sort of cultural and political idealism that was so exhilarating in the glory days of Whitlam.
.It is time to call upon the pantheon of Australia.s creative producers, filmmakers, writers, painters, pundits, public intellectuals and sympathetic pollies . anyone and everyone who can be recruited to the cause..
Adams recalled that the campaigns to properly finance and...
- 11/16/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Phillip Adams will deliver. the Hector Crawford Memorial Lecture at the Screen Forever conference at Melbourne.s Crown Conference Centre on Monday November 17..
For half a century Adams has been an imposing figure as a broadcaster, filmmaker, social commentator, satirist and author of more than 20 books.
Gough Whitlam once described him as Australia.s .most perceptive social critic... Some regard him as a godfather of the Australian film industry for his contributions to the renaissance of the industry in the 1970s and 80s.
His producing credits include The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Don.s Party,. The Getting of Wisdom and Abra Cadabra, and he was Ep on Lonely Hearts and We of the Never Never.
Recognising Adams. 21 years as presenter of Radio National.s Late Night Live, Professor Robert Manne described him as .perhaps the most remarkable broadcaster in the history of this country..
Screen Producers Australia exec director Matt...
For half a century Adams has been an imposing figure as a broadcaster, filmmaker, social commentator, satirist and author of more than 20 books.
Gough Whitlam once described him as Australia.s .most perceptive social critic... Some regard him as a godfather of the Australian film industry for his contributions to the renaissance of the industry in the 1970s and 80s.
His producing credits include The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Don.s Party,. The Getting of Wisdom and Abra Cadabra, and he was Ep on Lonely Hearts and We of the Never Never.
Recognising Adams. 21 years as presenter of Radio National.s Late Night Live, Professor Robert Manne described him as .perhaps the most remarkable broadcaster in the history of this country..
Screen Producers Australia exec director Matt...
- 10/29/2014
- by Staff writer
- IF.com.au
Actor and producer who played Brad Majors in the original Rocky Horror Show in 1973 and Saffy's gay dad in Ab Fab
Christopher Malcolm, who has died of cancer aged 67, played Brad Majors in the original production of The Rocky Horror Show in 1973 and, as his life as an actor started to overlap with an interest in producing the shows themselves, he became, after co-producing the West End revival of Rocky Horror in 1990, the executive in charge of all subsequent worldwide productions.
His death came just a few days after his latest project, the revival of Oh What a Lovely War at Stratford East, opened to enthusiastic notices, probably sealing a West End transfer. The way the show turned out was a good example of the kind of creative partnerships he enjoyed and nurtured throughout his career. For more than 30 years, he worked as an "insider" producing link between such London...
Christopher Malcolm, who has died of cancer aged 67, played Brad Majors in the original production of The Rocky Horror Show in 1973 and, as his life as an actor started to overlap with an interest in producing the shows themselves, he became, after co-producing the West End revival of Rocky Horror in 1990, the executive in charge of all subsequent worldwide productions.
His death came just a few days after his latest project, the revival of Oh What a Lovely War at Stratford East, opened to enthusiastic notices, probably sealing a West End transfer. The way the show turned out was a good example of the kind of creative partnerships he enjoyed and nurtured throughout his career. For more than 30 years, he worked as an "insider" producing link between such London...
- 2/19/2014
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Christopher Malcolm, the much-loved stage and screen actor and producer, has died. The Scottish-born actor was 67.We knew him best as 48-kill rebel ace Zev Senesca – Aka ‘Rogue 2’ – in The Empire Strikes Back, without whom Han and Luke would still be wandering Hoth. He also popped up in Bruce Beresford’s Aussie-com The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie, played vigilante Kirk Matunas in Highlander and was dad to Jennifer Connelly's Sarah in Labyrinth, but it was for his work on, and around, the stage that Malcolm was best known.Born on August 19, 1946 in Aberdeen, his father was a farmer but it was his mother’s passion for amateur theatre that kindled a life-long interest in the art. The Malcolm family moved to Canada ten years later and it was in British Columbia that he sacrificed university for his first acting gigs.Returning to the UK, he scored roles in the...
- 2/19/2014
- EmpireOnline
A striking presence on stage and in the great days of British film, she played the prison governor of TV's Within These Walls
Followers of postwar cinema may well recall Googie Withers's striking presence in It Always Rains On Sunday, an unusually intense film for the Ealing Studios of 1947. A bored wife, she gives shelter to an ex-lover, now a murderer on the run, played by John McCallum, soon to be her real-life husband. The lovers were shown as unsympathetically as they might have been in French film noir, and the weather was bad even by British standards.
What Withers, who has died aged 94, brought to that performance was to define her strength in some of her most powerful roles. Too strong a face and too grand a manner prevented her being thought conventionally pretty, but she was imposingly watchable because of an obvious vigour and sexuality. Thus equipped,...
Followers of postwar cinema may well recall Googie Withers's striking presence in It Always Rains On Sunday, an unusually intense film for the Ealing Studios of 1947. A bored wife, she gives shelter to an ex-lover, now a murderer on the run, played by John McCallum, soon to be her real-life husband. The lovers were shown as unsympathetically as they might have been in French film noir, and the weather was bad even by British standards.
What Withers, who has died aged 94, brought to that performance was to define her strength in some of her most powerful roles. Too strong a face and too grand a manner prevented her being thought conventionally pretty, but she was imposingly watchable because of an obvious vigour and sexuality. Thus equipped,...
- 7/16/2011
- by Dennis Barker
- The Guardian - Film News
Creamed corn and the Technicolor yawn ... when did vomiting cease to be a movie taboo?
You might not want to read this over breakfast. Not long ago, in the course of a single day, I watched four films. The first three featured projectile vomiting, while the fourth showed a woman throwing up into a toilet bowl, after which she had to fish her mobile phone out of the puke. And, as an afterthought, her chewing gum as well.
Vomit has become such a recurring motif in today's cinema that it has almost ceased to make an impact, unless it comes with a gimmick, like the turbo-powered, Pepto-Bismol-coloured puke in Gentlemen Broncos, or someone being sick on a squirrel in Hot Tub Time Machine.
At what point did vomiting cease to be a movie taboo? The first instance of explicit vomiting I could think of was in The Wages of Fear...
You might not want to read this over breakfast. Not long ago, in the course of a single day, I watched four films. The first three featured projectile vomiting, while the fourth showed a woman throwing up into a toilet bowl, after which she had to fish her mobile phone out of the puke. And, as an afterthought, her chewing gum as well.
Vomit has become such a recurring motif in today's cinema that it has almost ceased to make an impact, unless it comes with a gimmick, like the turbo-powered, Pepto-Bismol-coloured puke in Gentlemen Broncos, or someone being sick on a squirrel in Hot Tub Time Machine.
At what point did vomiting cease to be a movie taboo? The first instance of explicit vomiting I could think of was in The Wages of Fear...
- 5/6/2010
- by Anne Billson
- The Guardian - Film News
Kill Devil Hills - The scary season has arrived.
In the spirit of movies that make you fear going to the movies comes The Hills Run Red on DVD. Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrinck) is a film geek obsessed with an ’80s film called The Hills Run Red. The movie was quickly yanked from theaters and no prints or videotapes of the film exist. He finds a clue to the movie by locating one of its stars played by Sophie Monk. After a lapdance, she agrees to take Tad and his two friends to the shooting location. Tad doesn’t realize there might be a sequel in production.
Star Tad Hilgenbrinck and director Dave Parker called up the Party Favors hotline to chat about their grisly horror film about a gruesome horror film recently released on DVD by Warner Premiere.
Tad has been in Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and Lost Boys: The Tribe,...
In the spirit of movies that make you fear going to the movies comes The Hills Run Red on DVD. Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrinck) is a film geek obsessed with an ’80s film called The Hills Run Red. The movie was quickly yanked from theaters and no prints or videotapes of the film exist. He finds a clue to the movie by locating one of its stars played by Sophie Monk. After a lapdance, she agrees to take Tad and his two friends to the shooting location. Tad doesn’t realize there might be a sequel in production.
Star Tad Hilgenbrinck and director Dave Parker called up the Party Favors hotline to chat about their grisly horror film about a gruesome horror film recently released on DVD by Warner Premiere.
Tad has been in Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and Lost Boys: The Tribe,...
- 10/21/2009
- by UncaScroogeMcD
There are two essential books that celebrate region-specific horror films both well-known and obscure. One is Stephen Thrower’s Nightmare USA (with a companion volume planned). The other is They Came From Within, Caelum Vatnsdal’s history of Canadian horror movies. What these two books suggest is that the best of the cinema’s independent horror films are really regional works. Three of the most famous horror films of all time, Night of the Living Dead, Carnival of Souls, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are really regional films, independently financed and shot far from Hollywood with local actors and crew members. Thus they have a flavor not found in mainstream genre movies, spices of quirkiness, unpredictability, and rigorous bleakness that mainstream movies can’t or won’t allow themselves.
As far as I know there isn’t a book about Australian genre cinema yet, but now there is a film:...
As far as I know there isn’t a book about Australian genre cinema yet, but now there is a film:...
- 10/7/2009
- by dkholm
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