Humphries, the comedian who created Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, died on Saturday aged 89 in Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, after a series of health problems.

Barry Humphries has been remembered after his death at the age of 89.James Brickwood

“He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit,” his family said in a statement.

The master satirist has been remembered in a flood of tributes from around the world from writers, comedians and political leaders.

Read Andrew Hornery’s report on the death of an Australian legend here.

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2.16pm on Apr 23, 2023

Today’s headlines at a glance

By Ben Cubby

Thank you for joining our live coverage following the death of Barry Humphries.

Humphries, the comedian who created Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, died on Saturday aged 89 in Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, after a series of health problems.

Here are the headlines today:

Humphries was remembered in a flood of tributes from comedians, artists, political leaders and ordinary people around the world.
“He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit,” his family said in a statement.
Leading politicians including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke of Humphries’ ego-puncturing wit and his role in taking a uniquely-Australian larrikin spirit to the world.
The Victorian government has spoken to Humphries’ family and is considering a state funeral.
King Charles III, a friend of Humphries and a fan of his stage personnas, has contacted the family to share his grief.
Comedians praised him as “one of the greatest Australians” and artists who painted his many portraits spoke of a kind and otherwordly man with a fine appreciation of art and literature.
The Melbourne Comedy Festival posted a statement about Humphries’ contribution but said there would be no special tribute at the event’s closing tonight.

1.55pm on Apr 23, 2023

No tribute to Humphries, says festival, but ‘nothing can detract’ from contribution

By Karl Quinn

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has acknowledged the passing of Barry Humphries, a man who played a crucial role in establishing what has become one of the world’s largest such events but who had in recent years become something of a persona non grata.

“We are saddened to hear of the passing of comic legend Barry Humphries,” the festival said in a statement posted on Saturday night, as news broke that the comedy legend had died in Sydney.

Barry Humphries at the Melbourne Comedy Festival with Peter Cook.Melbourne Comedy Festival

“Having started his career in Melbourne, Barry’s early support, along with Peter Cook, helped kick off and raise the profile of the Festival nationally and internationally. With Festival founder John Pinder, Barry was part of a creative generation who celebrated and developed a global platform for Australian comedy.

“He will be remembered by legions of fans around the world for his wit, inimitable characters and biting satire. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Vale Barry.”

News of Humphries’ death broke just hours after the festival announced Gillian Cosgriff’s Actually, Good had won the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award for Most Outstanding Show – an award that was, until 2019, known as the Barry, in honour of the city’s most famous comedy export.

But following a number of negative comments made by Humphries about transgender people, the festival renamed the award. As chance would have it, English transgender comedian Jordan Gray was among the nominees for this year’s top prize.

The festival posted its announcement to its own website and to a number of social media platforms. It was, however, conspicuously absent from Twitter, where trans rights issues are often hotly and viciously debated.

With the festival in its final day, and 316 performances scheduled, there were no specific plans to pay tribute to Humphries, though in a statement a spokesperson for the festival said “we don’t have control over how individual artists tribute Barry Humphries”.

At a media call at the Spiegeltent on Sunday morning, festival director Susan Provan said Humphries “made an extraordinary contribution to Australian comedy”. She added that “he particularly made a very positive contribution to the Melbourne Comedy Festival, particularly in our early days … and was here to help us celebrate our 30th birthday. He made an amazing contribution for which he will always be celebrated.”

Asked if his legacy had been tarnished by some of the controversies around his views in recent years - Humphries had also been known to make disparaging comments about Asian immigrants on occasion - Provan said “nothing can ever detract from his great contribution as an artist. He was remarkable. That will always be with us.”

1.31pm on Apr 23, 2023

Put out your gladioli: Dame Edna farewelled in Moonee Ponds

By Wendy Tuohy

On Everage Street in the west Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds, there was a pop of outrageous red on Sunday morning.

A single bunch of gladioli was propped against a pole with a loving note. A local had written: “There were two Dames from Moonee Ponds, you Dame Edna and my Nonnina [Granny].”

A bunch of gladioli on Everage Street, Moonee Ponds.Darrian Traynor

The Flower Merchant shop in Puckle Street, the main drag made famous from the early days of Dame Edna’s stage life, had only a few gladdies left, after local businesses made an early morning rush for the blooms to place tributes to Humphries on their counters.

1.27pm on Apr 23, 2023

Victorian government talks to family about possible state funeral

By Nell Geraets

The Victorian government is speaking to the family of Barry Humphries about how best to pay tribute to the comic legend - including the possibility of a state funeral.

“We’re in conversation with his family in relation to the best way to honour his legacy and his contribution to Victoria, so there’ll be more information to come,” Victoria’s minister for tourism, sports and major events, Steve Dimopoulos, said on Sunday.

Humphries as Dame Edna in Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne in 2018..Penny Stephens

When asked about the possibility of a state funeral, the minister did not rule it out, noting that the decision ultimately depends upon the family’s wishes.

“A range of things are being discussed,” Dimopoulos said. “Often with these things, the primary mover is the family … It could be that [a state funeral], or it could be many other things to honour his legacy.

After offering his condolences to Humphries’ loved ones, Dimopoulos described the comedian as an “extraordinarly talented” Victorian and a bold figure on stage.

“Of course, [when] bold sometimes you offend, but he was bold and compelling to watch,” the minister said.

“[He was] extraordinarily imaginative and creative – the characters he created that almost seemed to exist outside of him in your consciousness … He took something from his mind, he put it into a cultural landscape and we’ll never forget it.”

12.54pm on Apr 23, 2023

“He was looking across time’

By Helen Pitt

Artist Louise Hearman, who won the 2016 Archibald Prize with a painting of Barry Humphries, recalls “what an extraordinary genius he was, and a very kind person.

“He wrote me the most beautiful letter after he saw my survey show at the MCA which was the same year as the Archibald portrait - saying you are the best painter in, well, the world.”

Louise Hearman’s winning 2016 Archibald Prize portrait of Barry Humphries.Art Gallery of NSW/Nick Kreisler.

“There was always something about the way he looked at you - he was looking across time.”

“We used to listen to his record Wildlife in Suburbia [Humphries’ first commercial recording] and my mum used to see him around Melbourne in the 1950s - everyone was staggered with the way he looked. He was tall and striking, almost like an apparition.

“I would never presume to really know him because he was so many people,” Hearman said. “He was a shape-shifter. I was lucky enough to spend some time with him and honoured to have known him a little bit.

“It is sad for Australia because we don’t have the person to make us see the funny side of us anymore.”

12.41pm on Apr 23, 2023

Cat-eye glasses and wisteria wigs

By Nell Geraets

Barry Humphries’ Dame Edna Everage has left an undeniable mark on Australian culture.

Whether it’s her lilac-coloured hair, bedazzled cat-eye glasses or endearing “hello possums” catchphrase, Dame Edna managed to etch herself into our cookbooks, street names and hearts.

In 2007, Melbourne city renamed Brown Alley to Dame Edna Place in honour of the legendary character. And a street in Moonee Ponds (where Dame Edna was said to live) was named Everage Street.

A year later, MAC cosmetics released a Dame Edna makeup collection, replete with wisteria blue eyeshadow, “kanga rouge” red lipstick and “varicose violet” nail polish.

She has featured in Katherine Sabbath’s Bake Australia Great cookbook, which includes all things Sabbath considers quintessentially Aussie, and appeared in the 2012 spinoff film for one of the country’s most iconic television shows, Kath & Kim (Kath & Kimderella) - one of many film and television cameos.

Proving she truly suits everything, Dame Edna entered the world of entomology in 2020, when a species of brightly iridescent Australian soldier fly was named Opaluma ednae after the striking Dame herself.

Dame Edna’s various glasses in Hamer Hall.Justin McManus

In October last year, the Dame’s glasses were revealed as part of the Victorian government-backed Australian Performing Arts Collection in Hamer Hall – a collection that gathers celebrity paraphernalia considered deeply embedded in Australia’s cultural landscape.

12.22pm on Apr 23, 2023

A touch of Moonee Ponds glamour

Dame Edna’s brushes with celebrity were many, varied and usually decorated with a bunch of gladioli.

From Queen Elizabeth to Luciano Pavarotti, Gloria Estefan to Gough Whitlam, many a celebrity was treated to a touch of Moonee Ponds glamour, and many a formal situation was defused by Humphries’ feline smile.

“Here’s the Jubilee Girl, possums, ” Humphries said in 2002 while co-hosting the party at a concert to mark the Queen’s 50th Jubilee.

But Dame Edna was equally at home at an AFL grand final - she sang Up there Cazaly at the MCG when the Sydney Swans won in 2005.

Here are some of the career highlights and celebrity encounters that Humphries’ alter ego found herself in over the decades.

11.47am on Apr 23, 2023

Humphries “popularised the larrikin Australian voice”, says Minns

Humphries the urbane larrikin in 1973.The Age

NSW premier Chris Minns has paid tribute to Barry Humphries as “a true legend” whose biting satire helped export the Australia larrikin character around the globe.

As he sent his condolences to Humphries family on Sunday, Minns said the comedian had “popularised the larrikin Australian voice and took it to the entire world”.

Humphries’ “biting satire”, he said, “often poked fun at Australia and Australians but had a deeper meaning.

“It was his voice that went to the rest of the world that really in some ways popularised that Australian character, that story, that funny story, that larrikin adventurism that we saw from his pretty fearless humour over the years,” he said.

“We’ve lost a true Australian legend, one of the funniest people that’s ever lived. Not just one of the funniest Australians but one of the funniest people in the whole world.”

11.20am on Apr 23, 2023

Storrier recalls working with a master

By Helen Pitt

Artist Tim Storrier, who had been friends with Humphries for over 50 years, said the satirist was “as sharp as ever” when he visited him in hospital recently.

“The last time I saw him I gave him three books: Smike to Bulldog, the letters between Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts, one a little book on the banquet years in Paris and the other one an old copy of the painting techniques of Gauguin. Barry’s wide knowledge of literature, music and art was always informing and vastly entertaining.”

Storrier, who won the 2014 Archibald Packing Room Prize with a portrait of Humphries as Sir Les Patterson, said painting that portrait was one of the funniest undertakings of his career.

“I had to wait for him to go into character, which with Sir Les was not straightforward. It was hilarious because of the banter. If you were talking to Barry it was a danger zone because you never knew where it was going to go. Some remark always had you in stitches.”

Storrier said Humphries was a keen and competent painter himself, and used to go plein air painting with John Olsen.

“There’s an unspoken triumph in his life too as he was a recovering alcohol hadn’t had a drink for 40 years. That’s the private Barry.

“But the reason the public Barry will be mourned is he made everybody laugh which is such a rare thing. The whole nation will miss him because he showed us in such a funny way to ourselves and the world. He was a Vaudeville clown we won’t see the likes of again.”

11.04am on Apr 23, 2023

Kathy Lette pays tribute to ‘loyal and loving’ friend

“We’ve been worried for the last week or so, trying to prepare ourselves,” author Kathy Lette told Nine’s Today program on Sunday morning. “We’re all in pieces, we’re all heartbroken.”

“[It is} a great loss for the world, he’s been taking our cultural temperature with a satirical thermometer for, what, nearly 70 years,” she said.

“He so expert at picking pomposity with that sharp, lethal wit of his. We’ve needed him to keep us sane, to keep us laughing at life’s adversities.”

Barry Humphries dead at 89: master comedian behind Dame Edna Everage remembered

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