Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries, in full John Barry Humphries, byname Dame Edna Everage, (born February 17, 1934, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), Australian actor best known for his character Dame Edna Everage, a sharp-tongued housewife and talk show host. Humphries attended Melbourne University but left to pursue acting. He made his theatrical debut in 1953 at the Union Theatre in Melbourne and subsequently toured with a theatre company. His London stage debut was in The Demon Barber (1959), and he later appeared in various productions of the musical Oliver! as well as in several one-man stage shows.

In 1955 he created the character Edna Everage for a skit he was performing. Humphries’ character arose out of his desire to lampoon the people and standards of his parents’ generation. Edna was at times condescending, insulting, and intrusive but still likable and sincere. While in character, Humphries refused to acknowledge Edna’s fictional status, claiming that “Barry Humphries” was her manager. However, in interviews given out of character, Humphries discussed Edna, as well as his various other incarnations, as fictional. According to his biographical accounts of Edna, she was “born” Edna Beasley and began performing anecdotal material at small venues in her hometown of Moonee Ponds, a Melbourne suburb. Like Humphries, she had four children. - Encyclopedia Britannica