John Barry Humphries AO CBE (1934 - 2023)

Born 17 Feb 1934 in Kew, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Died 22 Apr 2023 at age 89 in Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Barry Humphries AO CBE is Notable.

Well, HELLO possums!

Australian actor, artist, author, comedian and satirist, best known as his alter ego "Dame Edna Everage".

Life Events

John Barry "Barry" Humphries was born on the 17th February 1934, in Kew, Victoria, Australia, the son of John Albert Eric "Eric" Humphries and Louisa Agnes Brown.

Barry grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Camberwell, where the family lived in what was then classed as a "modern" home. His construction manager father spent little time with him, so the young Barry learnt to amuse himself, often spending hours playing at dress-ups in his back yard. (He had a box full of various types of "costumes".) It was also a time when he discovered that entertaining people gave him "a great feeling of release", because "making people laugh was a very good way of befriending them".

His mother's giving away his books because he had "already read them" caused him to later become a voracious reader, as well as a collector of rare books.

Barry received his education firstly at Camberwell Grammar School, and later at the Melbourne Grammar School, where he matriculated with brilliant results in English and Art. He also studied (without ever graduatiing) law, Philosophy, and Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne – who, some 50 years later, granted him an honorary doctorate.

After departing from the University, Barry joined the newly formed Melbourne Theatre Company, at which time he created the best known, and most beloved, of his characters : Dame Edna, who was, at the time, "an average Australian housewife – Mrs Norm Everage – from Moonee Ponds" (a Melbourne suburb).

Barry Humphries AO CBE was featured in a media genealogy show.

In 1959 Barry moved to London, where he remained throughout the 1960s, becoming friends with a number of the elite of the British comedy scene, as well as a number of fellow Australian expatriate comedian-actors. It was also during this time that he contributed to Private Eye, a satirical magazine , with his best-known work being the cartoon strip The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie (a character later brought to life on the screen by fellow Australian Barry Crocker).

The 1970s saw a return to Australia, where Mrs Edna Everage made her movie debut in The Naked Bunyip, and the Adventures of Barry McKenzie also saw its debut. Despite being panned by Australian film critics, "Bazza" became a huge hit with audiences.

Over the decades, Barry acted in, or voiced characters for, numerous movies, including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), Blinky Bill the Movie (2015), and The Magical Land of Oz (2019) an Australian wildlife documentary; but he also kept up with his one-man satirical stage revues, in which he appeared as Edna Everage and other memorable characters of his creation. In 2012 he announced his retirement from live performing, but made a return in 2013.

Barry married four times. His first marriage was to Brenda Wright^[1] occurring when he was just 21. It lasted less than two years and they divorced in 1958. He next married Angela Tong in April 1959^[2] with whom he had two daughters (Tessa, in 1963, and Emily, in 1965). Rosalind and Barry divorced in 1971. In the late 1970s, Barry met Australian painter Diane Millstead, then in her early 30s and they married on 16 June 1979 at London's Marylebone Registry Office. His third marriage produced two sons (Oscar, in 1981, and Rupert, in 1982). Barry and Diane divorced in 1989. In June 1990, Barry married Lizzie Spender.

He battled alcoholism for a number of years, eventually swearing off alcohol completely.

Barry, a lover of avant-garde music, also became a patron of musicians, composers, and performing artists, and underpinned more than one Foundation set up to support those aspiring to a life in the performing arts.

Barry's effect on audiences is noted in many of the news reports of the day. From the 1960s and 1970s the following snippets give just a glimpse:

Barry Humphries

Although his show is milder and kinder than the previous ones it is far too crude still for people with an average taste.

Barry Humphries might have been unique six years ago, when he first introduced his troupe of characters, but since then Mavis Bramston has just about worked them out.

His Mrs. Everage and Sandy Stone are not witty any more. Gordon Chater has done them better.

Yet Barry Humphries' faithful fans still find him very amusing.^[3]

BARRY HUMPHRIES

Barry (Edna Everage) Humphries is back in Australia and is due for a short Canberra season next week. Humphries has become somewhat of a phenomenon in Australian theatre. Each of his re-appearances in his homeland invokes an orgy of enthusiastic adjectives acclaiming his brilliance 'the greatest Australian humourist since Roy Rene and many others.

The following quote from Manning Clark is both typical and atypical in that it comes not from a critic nor a press handout, but from a noted Australian historian whose critical observations and whose grasp of Australian cultural development gives him, perhaps, more authority: "....a superb clown, mimic and wit...a great artist who has the gift to help us all to recognise what we are. His subject is not just frantic desperate search for pleasure, not the inanities of suburbia, but something more. He portrays the myth by which we live: he wears the masks we wear to cover up the great emptiness."^[4]

BARRY HUMPHRIES

In his return season of “At Least You Can Say You’ve Seen It” Mr. Barry Humphries has reaffirmed himself as one of Australia’s most polished and funniest entertainers.

From the time he comes on the stage as Dame Edna talking about the décor of tiled bathroom and her husband’s problems and the foreigners in the audience who do not understand English but love bright colors and movement, Mr. Humphries had the audience in stitches.^[5]

John Barry "Barry" Humphries passed away on the 22nd April 2023 in Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia.

The Characters of Barry Humphries

Research Notes

Second wife is Dr Rosalind Hollinrake.^[6]

Third wife Diane Millstead is recognised in the Centre for Australian Art.^[7]

Fourth wife Lizzie is the daughter of British poet Sir Stephen Harold Spender (1909-1995) and concert pianist, Natasha (Litvin) Spender (1919-2010)

Sources

1. ↑ VIC BDM:

   Event: marriages

   Registration number 19808 / 1955

   Family name: HUMPHRIES

   Given name(s) Jno Barry

   Spouse's family name: WRIGHT

   Spouse's given name(s) Brenda Eilene

2. ↑ VIC BDM:

   Event: marriages

   Registration number 4855 / 1959

   Family name: HUMPHRIES

   Given name(s) John Barry

   Spouse's family name: TONG

   Spouse's given name(s) Angela Rosalind

3. ↑ Milder Show review — "Barry Humphries" The Australian Jewish Times (Sydney, NSW : 1953 - 1990) 29 August 1968: 2. Web. 16 Jan 2022 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263112957>.
4. ↑ Barry's Back — "BARRY HUMPHRIES" Woroni (Canberra, ACT : 1950 - 2007) 26 September 1968: 12. Web. 16 Jan 2022 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140138950>.
5. ↑ At Least You Can Say You’ve Seen It — "BARRY HUMPHRIES" The Australian Jewish Times (Sydney, NSW : 1953 - 1990) 23 January 1975: 15. Web. 16 Jan 2022 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263227007>.
6. ↑ Inside Story, An exact illusion of reality, 1 May 2021, retrieved 23 Apr 2023 from https://insidestory.org.au/an-exact-illusion-of-reality/
7. ↑ Centre for Australian Art, Australian Prints + Printmaking:

   NAME Diane Millstead

   CULTURE Australian

   GENDER Female

   BIRTH DATE 1948

   BIRTH PLACE Melbourne, Victoria, Australia View on map

   MOVEMENTS West Germany about 1968 for some years.

   OCCUPATIONS Artist (painter) | Artist (theatre) | Cartoonist

   SUMMARY Worked: West Germany, Australia, England

   CONTEXT Australia

   BIOGRAPHY Married Barry Humphries 1979.

• Wikipedia : Barry Humphries
• Wikidata: Item Q734221, en:Wikipedia
• Barry Humphries with his wife Diane Millstead and their children Rupert and Oscar, December 1984. (Photo by John Cleave/The People/Mirrorpix/Getty Images) retrieved 23 Apr 2023 from https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/barry-humphries-with-his-wife-diane-millstead-and-their-news-photo/855042584?adppopup=true