Barry Humphries

At 90 years old, Barry Humphries has this physical status:

John Barry Humphries, (born 17 February 1934), is an Australian comedian, actor, satirist, and author.

Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson are two of his most well-known alter egos who write and perform on-stage and television.

He is also a film producer and script writer, a writer on London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning author, and a masterful landscape painter.

Anne Pender, a biographer, praised Humphries in 2010 as not only the most influential actor of our time, but also the most important comedian to debut since Charlie Chaplin."

Originally born as a dowdy Moonee Ponds housewife who caricatured Australian suburban complacency and insularity, Dame Edna Everage has evolved over four decades to become a satire of fame – a lavishly dressed, acid-tongued, internationally celebrated Housewife "Gigastar."

Humphries' other parody characters include Sir Les Patterson, the "priapic and inebriated cultural attaché" who has "continued to bring international discredit to Australian arts and culture; Morrie O'Connor, a male filmmaker who has lent as much to the Australian vernacular as he has borrowed from it; and failed Australian bloke Barry McKenzie.

Early life

Humphries was born in Melbourne, Victoria, on February 17th, 1934, the son of Eric Humphries (né John Albert Humphries), a building manager, and his wife Louisa Agnes (née Brown). His grandfather immigrated to Australia from Manchester, England, and was a migrant. His father, Mr. Well-to-do, and modern home, on Christowel Street, Camberwell, was one of Melbourne's new "garden suburbs." His early life set the tone for his eventual stage career; his parents bought him everything he wanted; but his father, in particular, got no time with him; Humphries spent hours in the back garden, spending hours pretending to dress-up.

His parents dubbed him "Sunny Sam" and his early childhood was both happy and uneventful. However, Humphries began to defythes of everyday suburban life by becoming "artistic," much to the dismay of his parents, who despite their affluence, distrust "art." When he was nine, he was a major event. His mother gave all his books to The Salvation Army, cheerfully saying, "But you've read them, Barry."

Humphries responded by becoming a voracious reader, a painter, a theatre enthusiast, and a surrealist. He created his first sustained character, "Dr Aaron Azimuth," agent provocateur, dandy, and Dadaist, dressing up in a black cloak, black homburg, and mascaraed eyes.

Education

Humphries was first educated at Camberwell Grammar School and was awarded a spot in the Gallery of Achievement. Humphries was sent to Melbourne Grammar School, where he promoted sport, detested mathematics, shirked cadets "on the basis of conscientious objection" and matriculated with impressive results in English and Art as his father's building business flourished. In a Who's Who's Who entry, Humphries described this education as "self-educated, attended Melbourne Grammar School."

Humphries spent two years at the University of Melbourne, where he studied Law, Philosophy, and Fine Arts. He was a Private in the Melbourne University Regiment at the time, and was serving a time in the Australian Army's CMF. He did not graduate from college (though he would be awarded an honorary doctorate more than a decade later). During this period, he became Australia's most influential promoter of the deconstructive and absurdist art movement, Dada. The Dadaist pranks and performances he mounted in Melbourne were experiments in anarchy and visual satire, which have now become part of Australian folklore. A pair of Wellington boots with custard was on display in a museum titled "Pus in Boots"; a misticide drug named "Platytox" was claimed to be safe against the platypus, a popular and protected species in Australia. He was part of a group in Melbourne that produced a string of Dada-influenced recordings from 1952 to 1953. "Wubbo Music" (Humphries has claimed that "wubbo" is a pseudo-Aboriginal word meaning "nothing") is one of Australia's oldest recordings of experimental music. Other exhibits include "Che Bang," a meat wrapper, and "Eye and Spoon Race," a spoon with a sheep's eye.

Humphries was known for his incisive public pranks. Humphries was portrayed as a Frenchman with an accomplice disguised as a blind man; the accomplice will board a tram and Humphries would follow shortly. Humphries will insist that he get out of his way, "You disgusting blind person," yelling "Get out of my way, you disgusting blind man," kicking him brutally in the shins, and then hopping off the tram and making his escape in a waiting car at the appropriate time.

His infamous "sick bag" prank was perhaps the more extreme. This involved the turning of a Tin of Heinz Russian Salad, which would then be converted into an air-sickness bag. He would vomit loudly and forcefully into the luggage at the right time on the flight. He'll begin to eat the contents, to the apprehension of passengers and crew. In an inner-city garbage can, one April Fools' Day Humphries served a roast dinner and a glass of champagne. Humphries regarded the group as a greasy, dishevelled man later in the morning as many businesspeople were queuing at a nearby hotel. He stepped to the can, opened the lid, and proceeded to lift the roast and glass of champagne and wine from the glass. He found a good seating area and started to eat the meal, much to the surprise of those watching. Such performances were the first signs of a lifelong fascination with the bizarre, painful, and subversive.

Personal life

Humphries has been married four times. Brenda Wright's first marriage took place when he was 21 and lasted less than two years. Tessa and Emily's two children, as well as two sons, Oscar and Rupert, from his second and third marriages to Rosalind Tong and Diane Millstead respectively, are his two daughters. Oscar's elder son was editor of Apollo and a contributing editor at The Spectator. He now works as an art curator. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Spender, his fourth wife since 1990, is the daughter of British poet Sir Stephen Spender and the concert pianist Natasha Spender. They live in a terraced townhouse in West Hampstead, the husband's home for forty years.

Humphries' friends and families became increasingly dependent on alcohol during his sojourn in London in the 1960s, and by the end of the decade, his colleagues and family were concerned that his addiction might cost him his career or even his life. His reputation as "a dissolute, guilt-ridden, self-pitying boozer," was undoubtedly one of the principal reasons for his first marriage's failure and was a factor in the second's demise.

On a return to Australia in the early 1970s, Humphries' alcoholism hit a crisis point. His parents were finally admitted to a private hospital to'dry out' after a heavy binge, and he was discovered bashed and unconscious in a gutter. Since then, he has abstained from alcohol completely and has attended Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings occasionally. He was one of many friends who tried in vain to assist Peter Cook, who died from alcohol-related illnesses.

Humphries, a good friend of John Betjeman before he died in 1984, but Betjeman was a good friend of the English poet until Belinda's death. When visiting Australia, Betjeman discovered some of Humphries' early recordings and wrote a highly favorable review of them in an Australian newspaper. Their friendship was based in part on a common interest, such as Victorian architecture, Cornwall, and the music hall.

Humphries stars in the 2013 film Chalky about his longtime buddy and colleague Michael White, who arranged several of Humphries' first Dame Edna shows in the United Kingdom.

Arthur Boyd, the author and former politician Jeffrey Archer, whom Humphries visited during Archer's stay in jail, and comedian Spike Milligan are among Humphries' most notable friends.

Humphries has spent a large part of his life immersed in music, literature, and the performing arts. According to a self-proclaimed 'bibliomaniac', his house in West Hampstead, London, contains 25,000 books, many of which are first editions of the late 19th and early twentieth centuries. The telephone book of Oscar Wilde, Memoirs of a Public Baby by Philip O'Connor, an autographed copy of Humdrum by Harold Acton, Wilfred Childe's complete works, and several volumes of Herbert Read's pre-war surrealist poetry are among the collection's more valuable and rare items.

He is a well-known art collector who has acquired many of his favorite paintings four times as a result of his three divorces. He owned the world's biggest private collection of Charles Conder's paintings at one time, and he is a passionate advocate for Flemish symbolist painter Jan Frans De Boever, who is relishing his role as the De Boever Society's "President for Life." He himself is a landscape painter, and his works are in private and public collections both in his homeland and abroad. Humphries has also been the subject of several portraits by artist friends, including Clifton Pugh (1958, National Portrait Gallery) and John Brack (in the role of Edna Everage, 1969, Art Gallery of New South Wales).

He is a lover of avant-garde music and a supporter of, among other things, French composer Jean-Michel Damase and the Melba Foundation in Australia. Humphries is a patron and active promoter of the Tait Memorial Trust in London, a charity that helps young Australian artists in the United Kingdom. When Humphries appeared on the BBC's Desert Island Discs radio programme in 2009, he made the following choices: "Mir ist die Ehre wider reaching" from Strauss' "Looking Up"; "Der Leiermann's "Mel's Doorstep"; and "They are not long the sneling and the joking" from Schubert's "Woogle"; "They are not long the weeping and the "They are from Schubert's on the's's "Mi" from Humph; "Mi; "Mi; "Mi" from Straus; "Looking" from Straus; "Looking"; "D" s ("Mi"; "Mir"..."; "Auf"; "Mir von Poul "D" from Schubert's; "Me" from Schubert's; "Mo" from Schubert's" from Schubert's;

"A conservative contrarian, who many in his generation were left behind, Humphries maintained a bohemian delight in transgression, making him a radical," cultural historian Tony Moore writes about Humphries' personal politics: "A conservative convertori Though many in his generation were moving left, Humphries maintained a bohemian delight in transgression that makes him a radical."

Asperger's syndrome is present in Humphries.

Humphries' comments were deemed as transphobic in 2018. The remarks included a remark referring to gender affirmation surgery as "self-mutilation" and transgender identity as a whole as a "fashion"; how many different kinds of lavatory can you have? Following the comedian's name, the Barry Award, a comedy festival award in Melbourne, would be renamed the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award next year.

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Early career in Australia

Humphries had written and performed sketches in university journals, so after graduating from university, he joined the newly formed Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC). Edna Everage, his first incarnation of what would become his most well-known character, was at this time. "Olympic Hostess," the first stage sketch starring Mrs Norm Everage, premiered at Melbourne University's Union Theatre on December 12, 1955.

Humphries' book More Please (1992), a non-winning autobiography, relates that he had developed a character like Edna in the back of a bus when touring country Victoria with the MTC at the age of 20. He cited Peter O'Shaughnessy, his then mentor, that without his "nurturing and promotion," Edna Everage's character would have been born in the bud after 1956 and never came to flower, while Sandy Stone's character would never have existed as a presence on the stage."

Humphries moved to Sydney in 1957 and joined the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, Australia's largest venue for revue and satirical comedy for over the next decade. His first appearance at Phillip Street was in the satirical revue Two to One, starring veteran Australian musical actor Max Oldaker, with a cast including Humphries and future Number 96 actor Wendy Blacklock. Though he had expected Edna's debut Melbourne appearance to be a one-off, Humphries decided to revive "Olympic Hostess" for Phillip Street, and its success enabled him to begin a fifty-year career as "Housewife Superstar" (later Megastar, then Gigastar).

Around the Loop, the next Phillip Street revue, teamed Oldaker, Gordon Chater, Blacklock and Humphries, as well as newcomer June Salter. Humphries revived the Edna character (for what he said would be the last time) and the revue proved to be a big hit, despite eight weeks of playing eight shows a week for 14 months. Humphries was living near Bondi, and when out walking one day, he had the opportunity to talk with an elderly man with a booming voice and a pedantic demeanor; this experience inspired the creation of Sandy Stone, another of Humphries' most enduring characters.

In Australia's first performance of the Samuel Beckett play at the Arrow Theatre in Melbourne, directed by Peter O'Shaughnessy, who played Vladimir, Humphries appeared as Estragon in Waiting for Godot in September 1957.

Humphries and O'Shaughnessy continued to work together in the Rock'n'Reel Revue at the New Theatre in Melbourne, where Humphries brought the characters of Mrs Everage and Sandy Stone into the hearts of Melbourne audiences. Humphries' debut as a commercial producer in Suburbia, which included liner notes by his friend, Modernist architect and writer Robin Boyd, in the same year.

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Awards received

• 1975: Douglas Wilkie Medal
• 1979: Comedy Performance of the Year, Society of West End Management, London (now known as the Laurence Olivier awards) for A Night with Dame Edna
• 1990: TV Personality of the Year
• 1993: J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography for More, Please
• 1993: Mo Award: Australian Show business Ambassador
• 1994: Honorary Doctorate at Griffith University
• 1997: Sir Peter Ustinov Award for Comedy presented at the Banff World Television Festival
• 1997: Honoured Artists Award, Melbourne City Council
• 1999: British Comedy Awards – Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2000: Special Tony Award for a live theatrical event at the 55th Annual Tony Awards for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour
• 2000: Special Achievement Award by the Outer Critics Circle for The Royal Tour
• 2000: Best Play from the National Broadway Theatre Awards for The Royal Tour
• 2003: Honorary Doctorate of Law at his alma mater, University of Melbourne
• 2007: JC Williamson Award for his life's work in the Australian live performance industry.
• 2011: Oldie of the Year for "his wonderful split personality which has entertained us for so many years"
• 2013: Britain-Australia Society Award for contribution to the relationship between Britain and Australia
• 2014: Aardman Slapstick Comedy Legend Award – lifetime achievement award.
• 2016: Honorary Doctorate at the University of South Australia.
• 2017: Honorary Fellow of King's College London.

Eponymous awards

• Barry Award (1998)