He found fellow students difficult, 'a wrestling maelstrom of human maggots'. His dad was a prosperous constructor of mock-Elizabethan villas and his mum was the original of Edna – a snob who never wanted her son to associate with foreigners, Catholics, Jews or anyone 'common'.Ĭlaiming to have been 'self-educated', Humphries attended Melbourne Grammar School and Melbourne University, though he didn't graduate. His family had emigrated from Lancashire in the late 19th Century during the Australian Gold Rush. Star attraction: As Dame Edna Everage with Liza Minnelli backstage at one of his stage shows in 2005 His lifelong maxim was 'I defend to the ultimate my right to give deep and profound offence' – which bewildered most who tried to get close to him. ![]() Sir Les derived from Humphries' Private Eye comic strip, created in 1964, about a thirsty, lecherous Australian at large who, after indulging in 'ice-cold tinnies' of Foster's lager, was always needing to 'strain the potatoes', 'shake hands with the wife's best friend' and 'drain the dragon'.Īmid all this revulsion, obesity, drunkenness and profanity, it comes as no surprise to learn Humphries, born in Melbourne in 1934, hailed from a genteel and respectable background, against which he felt a need to rebel. He would inform audiences about taxpayer-funded trips to research sauna construction in Thailand, accompanied by willing secretaries. As for Sir Les, standing at the front of the stage, his spittle flying into the stalls, belching and scratching, Humphries portrayed a character who was miraculously politically incorrect. Humphries always pretended that Edna was a different person from himself, a separate being, whom he didn't much like – feared, even. Dench, she said, was an Aboriginal word meaning watering hole. Edna assured us she was better than the actress Judi Dench because, 'I'm afraid, I'm taller'. Novelist Jeffrey Archer was told if he couldn't laugh at himself, he was missing out 'on the joke of the century'. ![]() Former Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos and Boris Johnson turned up to be humiliated. Guests on Edna's chat show, such as actresses Ursula Andress, Gina Lollobrigida or Liza Minnelli, fell down trapdoors. His other best-known vulgarian character was snaggle-toothed Sir Les Patterson, stalwart of the Australian diplomatic corps, with his 'enormous incumbency' Mischief-maker: Behind the diamante spectacle frames was Barry Humphries (pictured).
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