Biography
At one time hailed as the strongest proponent of Dada in Australia, the multi-talented Barry Humphries has excelled as a character actor in Europe and Australia and has become one of the best loved landscape painters Down Under, but his fame rests on the Melbourne housewife he first created in connection with the Olympic Games back in 1956. Since then, Dame Edith Everage has commandeered the actor's life, blooming into an international …
Career Milestones
| Appeared in numerous West End (London) theatrical productions during the 1960s | ||
| Created the comic strip character of Barry McKenzie in British satirical magazine Private Eye | ||
| Had his first Dada exhibition while a university student | ||
| Joined Sydney's Philip Street Theatre, where he appeared as Estragon in "Waiting for Godot", the first Australian production of a Samuel Beckett play | ||
1956 | Created the character of Mrs. Everage, a Melbourne housewife who would evolve into the celebrated Dame Edna, for a sketch in connection with Melbourne's Olympic Games | |
1958 | Created the character of Sandy Stone, a kind of eustralian Beckett figure, as a scathing satire of suburban boredom | |
1959 | Sailed for Venice, Italy | |
1967 | Acted in Stanley Donen's "Bedazzled", starring the team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore | |
1967 | Starred as Fagin in the Piccadilly Theatre's revival of Lional Bart's musical "Oliver!" with Phil Collins as the Artful Dodger | |
1969 | Introduced Mrs. Everage to the British stage in his one-person "Just a Show", which led to a short-lived BBC series, "The Barry Humphries Scandals" | |
1972 | Teamed with director Bruce Beresford to write screenplay for "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie", introducing the beer-swilling, Australian lout to screen audiences; played three charactes including the very proper Aunt Edna to Barry Crocker's McKenzie | |
1974 | Reprised Dame Edna in Beresford's "Barry McKenzie Holds His Own", again co-scripting with the director; also appeared as three additional characters | |
1975 | Acted in third film with Beresford, "Side By Side" | |
1977 | Brought Dame Edna to New York for the unmitigated disaster of "Housewife/Superstar" | |
1977 | Last film (to date) with Beresford, "The Getting of Wisdom", playing Reverend Strachey | |
1979 | Won the Society of West End Theatres Award for his "A Night With Dame Edna" | |
1982 | Awarded the Order of Australia | |
1984 | Part of the excellent cast of "Doctor Fischer of Geneva" (BBC-2), including James Mason, Alan Bates and Cyril Cusack, among others; aired on PBS the following year | |
1987 | Appeared as Dame Edna in Phillipe Mora's "The Marsupials: The Howling III" | |
1987 | Co-scripted George Miller's "Les Patterson Saves the World", playing both Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage | |
1991 | Portrayed Rupert Murdoch in "Selling Hitler", a five-part British black comedy detailing the great Hitler diaries hoax of 1983 | |
1991 | Wrote and appeared in NBC comedy special, "Dame Edna's Hollywood" (followed by 1992 and 1993 NBC specials of the same name); also wrote lyrics for "Dame Edna's Nicenesss Theme" | |
1994 | Played Clemens Metternich in Bernard Rose's "Immortal Beloved", starring Gary Oldman as Beethoven | |
1996 | Portrayed theater director Humphrey Beal in John Duigan's "The Leading Man" | |
1996 | Reteamed with Mora for "Pterodactyl Women from Beverly Hills" | |
1997 | Contributed the voice of Kangaroo to animated "Napoleon" | |
1997 | Made cameo appearance in Stefan Elliott's "Welcome to Woop Woop" | |
1998 | Appeared in "Spice World" | |
1998 | Brought Dame Edna to the US stage for the first time since 1977, receiving rave notices from the San Francisco press like "a marvel of comic endurance" and "savagely entertaining"; city proclaimed November 26 as "Dame Edna Day" | |
1998 | Performed "Edna, the Spectacle" at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket | |
1999 | Appeared for Australian audiences sans Edna regalia in "Remember You're Out", playing different characters | |
1999 | Tackled the Great White Way in "Dame Edna: The Royal Tour" | |
2001 | Contributed humor column to Vanity Fair | |
2001 | Had recurring role of Claire Otoms on the Fox comedy "Ally McBeal" | |