Dame Edna creator Barry Humphries dies in Sydney at 89

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Tony Award-winning comedian Barry Humphries, internationally renowned for his garish stage persona Dame Edna Everage, a condescending snob whose evolving character has delighted audiences over seven decades, has died. He was 89. His death in the Sydney hospital where he spent several days with complications following hip surgery was confirmed by his family. Humphries had lived in London for decades and returned to native Australia in December for Christmas. The character of Dame Edna began as a dowdy Mrs. Norm Everage, who first took to the stage in Humphries’ hometown of Melbourne in the mid-1950s. She reflected a postwar suburban inertia and cultural blandness that Humphries found stifling. Edna is one of Humphries’ several enduring characters.