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BARRY HUMPHRIES CBE |
| After writing & performing songs & sketches in university revues, Barry Humphries joined the newly formed Melbourne Theatre Company. In 1956, he created the character of Mrs Everage - a Melbourne housewife who has since become the internationally celebrated megastar Dame Edna. |
| Barry's other satirical characters include the legendary comic strip hero & the original Crocodile Dundee, Barry McKenzie, trade union con-man Lance Boyle & the drooling ogre Sir Les Patterson. |
| During the 60s in London, Humphries appeared in numerous West End productions. Most notably were the musicals Oliver! & Maggie May by Lionel Bart as well as stage/radio productions by his friend Spike Milligan, in particular The Bed Sitting Room. In 1967 he starred as Fagin in the Piccadilly Theatre's revival of Oliver! with a young Phil Collins as The Artful Dodger. In 1997, Barry returned to the role of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's award-winning revival at the London Palladium. |
| Barry gained particular notoriety when he first brought Dame Edna Everage to the British stage at the Fortune Theatre in 1969 for his one-man Just a Show. It polarized British critics & led to the BBC television series, The Barry Humphries Scandals, which in turn paved the way for Monty Python. |
| In the mid 70s, Barry starred at the Apollo Theatre in London in Housewife, Superstar! Since then he has presented London with more theatrical offerings including A Night with Dame Edna, for which Barry won the Society of West End Theatres Awards, An Evening's Intercourse, two seasons of Back with a Vengeance, Look at Me When I'm Talking to You & Edna, The Spectacle at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He has made numerous theatrical tours in Germany, Scandinavia & in the Far & Middle East. |
| Numerous television appearances in Australia & the UK include; The Bunyip - a children's comedy for Channel 7 in Melbourne plus two highly successful series of his talk show, The Dame Edna Experience for London Weekend Television featuring a host of star guests including Liza Minnelli, Robin Williams, Cher & Kin Basinger. These popular programmes have since been repeated all over North America & Europe winning him the Golden Rose of Montreux in 1991. |
| His other television shows as Dame Edna include; A Night on Mount Edna, Dame Edna's Neighbourhood Watch, Dame Edna's Work Experience, Dame Edna's Hollywood & Dame Edna Kisses it Better. |
| As Sir Les Patterson, Barry hosted a satirical chat show, A Late Lunch with Sir Les for Channel 4 & wrote & presented the BBC2 documentary Sir Les & the Great Chinese Takeaway which took him to Hong Kong just prior to the British handover in 1997 giving, in his own words, "an impartial, impersonal, unbiased view of the historic event." |
| Barry Humphries is the author of several books, novels, autobiographies & plays. His autobiography won the JR Ackerley Prize for Biography in 1993 & he is the subject of two critical & biographical studies; The Real Barry Humphries & Dame Edna Everage & the Rise of Western Civilisation. Barry was given The Order of Australia in 1982 & was endowed with an Honorary Doctorate of Griffith University (Australia) in 1994. |
| Dame Edna - The Royal Tour hit Broadway in 2000 scoring a smash hit & winning rave reviews. As a result Humphries won the inaugural Special Tony Award for a Live Theatrical Event & two National Broadway Theatre Awards for Best Play & Best Actor in 2001. |
For more information on Barry Humphries, Contact Arena. Tel: 0113-239-2222 |