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Barry Humphries at The Lucky One World Premiere At Bondi Juction, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Eva Rinaldi –

Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about Barry Humphries

John Barry Humphries is a distinguished Australian theatre personality and comedian best known for his characterizations like ‘Dame Edna Everage’ and ‘Sir Les Patterson’. A multi-talented personality, he is an actor, comedian, satirist, author, scriptwriter, landscape painter, and film producer.

For nearly five decades, he has been successfully working in stage productions including one-person shows, television shows, and films. His portrayal of Edna, a dowdy Australian housewife, for around fifty years has brought him international fame and stardom.

1. Barry Humphries early life was in Kew, a suburb in Melbourne, Australia

Barry Humphries taking the cast and crew of Dame Edna: The Royal Tour out to dinner in Chicago in 2001. Photo by WTCA –

He was born on February 17, 1934, in Kew, a suburb in Melbourne, Australia in an affluent family to Eric Humphries and Louisa Humphries. His father worked as a construction manager.

He spent a happy early childhood with his parents, who fondly called him ‘Sunny Sam’ bringing him all that he wished for. He would spend hours in the back garden dressing in different characters with his box full of character dresses, such as a sailor or a Red Indian.

2. Barry liked entertaining people since his childhood

Barry Humphries. Photo by WTCA –

 He liked entertaining people since his childhood and these small aspects of his early age set the stage for pursuing a successful career in the entertainment world.

He attended the ‘Camberwell Grammar School’ in Canterbury, Melbourne, and thereafter studied at ‘Melbourne Grammar School’ in South Yarra and Caulfield, Melbourne.

3. While in school, he was not a sports enthusiast, he avoided cadets and he disliked mathematics

Barry Humphries at The Lucky One World Premiere At Bondi Juction, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Eva Rinaldi –

 He was not a sports enthusiast, avoided cadets, and disliked mathematics.

 In his matriculation, he came out with flying colors in English and Art. He attended ‘Queen’s College’ affiliated with ‘The University of Melbourne’ and studied Philosophy, Fine Arts, and Law, but dropped out after two years.

4. He was involved with a group that created several recordings in Melbourne

Barry Humphries at the The Lucky One World Premiere At Bondi Juction, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Eva Rinaldi –

He became a prominent exponent of ‘Dada’, a nonsensical and deconstructive art movement that evolved in Zurich during ‘World War I’. From 1952 to 1953, he was involved with a group that created several recordings in Melbourne that was inspired by ‘Dada’.

5. Humphries began his acting career as a stage artist

Barry Humphries at the The Lucky One World Premiere At Bondi Juction, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Eva Rinaldi –

Humphries began his acting career as a stage artist and with time emerged as a star of the West End musical theatre, in London. He made his film debut with a cameo in ‘Bedazzled’ a hit film of 1967 and went on to play several other supporting and cameo roles.

6. Humphries has penned down novels, autobiographies, treatise, scripts and plays

Barry Humphries plaque at the Sydney Writers Walk series at Circular Quay. Photo by Snapandrattle33 –

 A prolific writer, Humphries has penned down novels, autobiographies, treatise, scripts and plays. In 1993 he earned the ‘J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography’ for ‘More Please’, his first autobiographical work. He received several awards including ‘British Comedy Awards’ (1999) and ‘Tony Award’ (2000).

He was honoured as ‘Officer of the Order of Australia’ (‘AO’) in 1982 and ‘Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)’ in 2007.

7. He was fabulous with his eye-catching and provocative public pranks

A video camera recording button. Photo by Jakob Owens on

He was fabulous with his eye-catching and provocative public pranks that would exhibit his enthusiasm in weird and bizarre stuffs, which probably helped him in portraying various quirky and comic characters with great élan.

One such prank would be the mischievous ‘sick bag’ gag. He would carry a tin of ‘Heinz Russian Salad’ with him in flight and would secretly pour it in an air-sickness bag. Later he would pretend to vomit in the bag and then to the dismay of the passengers and crew members, he would go ahead to eat the stuff.

8. Humphries joined the newly established ‘Melbourne Theatre Company’ (MTC’) in 1953

A film being showcased. Photo by Jeremy Yap on

He joined the newly established ‘Melbourne Theatre Company’ (MTC’). It was set up by John Sumner in 1953.

In 1955 he first conceived and shaped up the character of Edna Everage for a skit. It was first characterised in the stage show ‘Olympic Hostess’ at the ‘Union Theatre’ of ‘Melbourne University’ on December 12, 1955.

He relocated to Sydney in 1957 and joined ‘Philip Street Revue Theatre’ that eventually emerged as a prominent theatre showcasing lampoon and satirical comedy. His first performance there was in a satirical revue called ‘Two to One’ that also starred seasoned music star Max Oldaker.

9. He revived the ‘Olympic Hostess’ in ‘Philip Street Revue Theatre’

A movie theatre. Photo by Myke Simon on

He revived the ‘Olympic Hostess’ in ‘Philip Street Revue Theatre’ and the character of Edna seemed to be a hit that saw it run eight shows a week for fourteen months.

Over the years he did several stage performances touring around Australia, Germany, Netherlands and Scandinavia and in the Middle and Far East.

In 1964, suggested by Peter Cook, publisher of satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’, Humphries created a cartoon strip ‘The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie’, drawings of which were made by artist Nicholas Garland of New Zealand.

 The comic strips compiled into a book were published in London but saw a ban in Australia. The film ‘The Adventures of Barry McKenzie’ (1972) and its sequel ‘Barry McKenzie Holds His Own’ (1974) were based on the book starring Australian singer Barry Crocker in the lead.

10. He made his film debut with a cameo in the film ‘Bedazzled’

A camera shooting a film. Photo by Chris Murray on

In 1967 he made his film debut with a cameo in the film ‘Bedazzled’. He featured in many other films in supporting and cameo roles such as ‘Percy’s Progress’ (1974), ‘The Great Macarthy’ (1975), ‘Side by Side’ (1975), ‘The Getting of Wisdom’ (1977), ‘Dr. Fischer of Geneva’ (1985) and ‘Napoleon’ (1995).

He lent his voice in films such as ‘Finding Nemo’ (2003) as ‘Bruce’; ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ (2012) as ‘Great Goblin’ and in ‘Justin and the Knights of Valour’ (2013) as ‘Braulio’.

His forte however remained the one-man satirical stage revues where he mostly portrayed the characters of Edna Everage, Les Patterson and Sandy Stone. Some of his 2½ hours monologue shows include ‘A Night with Dame Edna’ (1979); ‘An Evening’s Intercourse with Dame Edna’ (1982); ‘Edna, The Spectacle’ (1998); ‘Back with a Vengeance’ (2007) and ‘Dame Edna Live: The First Last Tour’ (2009).

His television appearances include two series comedy talk show ‘The Dame Edna Experience’ (1st series September-December 1987 and second series November-December 1989); social history series ‘Barry Humphries’ Flashbacks’ (1999) and comedy chat show ‘The Dame Edna Treatment’ (2007).