John Barry Humphries AO CBE was a comedian, actor, novelist, satirist, and drag performer from Australia. He was best known for creating and portraying Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson on stage and on television. His biographer Anne Pender characterized Humphries in 2010 as not only “the most significant theatrical figure of our time… [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin” for his delivery of Dadaist and absurdist humor to millions.
The notorious comedian died on April 22, 2023, at the age of 89. Continue reading to discover his cause of death.
Barry Humphries cause of death: How did Barry Humphries die?
Humphries died on April 22, 2023, at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, as a result of complications from hip surgery. He was 89 years old at the time. He had been injured in a fall in February.
Humphries was born on February 17, 1934, in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, Victoria, the son of construction manager Eric Humphries (1905-1972) and his wife Louisa Agnes (1907-1984). In the late 1800s, his grandpa, John George Humphries, immigrated to Australia from Manchester, England. Barry grew up in a “clean, tasteful, and modern suburban home” on Christowel Street in Camberwell, one of Melbourne’s new “garden suburbs” at the time.
His early home life shaped his subsequent theatrical career; his father, in particular, spent little time with him, and Humphries spent hours in the back garden dressing up.
