Legendary Australian actor and comedian Barry Humphries dies at 89. Source: Eva Rinaldi, Wikimedia Commons
Legendary Australian entertainer Barry Humphries, best known for his character of Dame Edna, has died at the age of 89.
Humphries had been in hospital with deteriorating health due to a broken hip. He died in Sydney, surrounded my loved ones.
His family said in a statement, “He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit.”
Many members of the entertainment industry are mourning Humphries’ death.
Actor and comedian Rob Brydon, a friend of Humphries, spent time with him in hospital just days before his passing.
“He was, as ever, making me laugh. His talent shone until the very end,” Brydon said.
Singer-songwriter Leo Sayer, and friend of Humphries, called him “an incredibly inventive, gifted, kind and funny man, whose cunning wordplay changed the Australian language forever, and the rest of the world’s, too, I’m sure.”
“I’m simply reeling with the very sad news that I’m not going to see my dear friend Barry Humphries ever again,” Sayer said.
Matt Lucas, star of Little Britain, said Humphries was “quite simply… the best.”
Fellow British actor and comedian and Lucas’s co-star, said seeing Humphries live was “like being struck by magic.”
While Humphries career took him across the world to England and Hollywood, he never lost his connection to Australia and the Australian entertainment industry.
Magda Szubanski, who worked alongside Humphries in the Kath and Kim movie, said to Humphries, “You blazed a glorious trail across the globe and we were blessed to be in your slipstream.”
Humphries was also a major contributor to the establishment of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF), and even had one of the world’s most prestigious comedy awards, for best show at the MICF, named after him.
However, the Barry Award was renamed in 2019 after Humphries made some comments that many, particularly in the transgender community, found deeply offensive.
These comments included calling gender-affirmation surgery “self-mutilation.”
MICF director Susan Provan said, “some years ago the award for most outstanding show was re-named to reinforce the equality and diversity that our Festival community has always championed.”
“We can celebrate Barry’s artistic genius while not much liking some of his views.”
British-Australian television personality Miriam Margolyes, who was friends with Humphries for 65 years, said that “it’s quite difficult to talk because I loved him and I admired him. He stood for all the things that I admire… but we sharply disagreed politically. And it’s joyous to me that it’s possible to do that and still love somebody.”
