‘Dame Edna Everage’ star Barry Humphries dies in hospital aged 89

Australian comedy legend Barry Humphries has died at the age of 89 in a Sydney hospital.

He was in hospital for treatment following a recent health battle that left him in “agony” and in and out of care.

Humphries was famous for his character Dame Edna Everage which he performed dressed as a woman. The entertainer died surrounded by family following recent health issues caused by a broken hip.

Relatives had rushed to his bedside at St Vincent’s Hospital amid conflicting reports surrounding his health yesterday.

A family statement issued to the Sydney Morning Herald thanked fans and hospital staff for their “support and good wishes”.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among those to pay tribute on Twitter, describing Humphries as “great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind”.

British comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted that Humphries was a “comedy genius”.

Fellow comedian Matt Lucas described the Australian as “quite simply the greatest”.

Photo / Supplied

“I wonder if all geniuses are as lovely as Barry Humphries,” he said. “Thank you for delighting and inspiring us. Quite simply, you were the greatest.”

Humphries had been battling crippling pain after ongoing complications due to hip replacement surgery.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald last month that he’d been in “agony” since breaking his hip.

“It was the most ridiculous thing, like all domestic incidents are. I was reaching for a book, my foot got caught on a rug or something, and down I went,” he explained, revealing he was undergoing “very painful” rehabilitation sessions.

St Vincent’s Hospital had said yesterday he was “responsive and stable,” following an earlier report - apparently also from the hospital, and first aired on ABC Radio - that he had gone into an “unresponsive state.”

“St Vincent’s Hospital in the last hour have gone public and said in fact he’s alert and he’s cracking jokes with the nursing staff, so they seem like two very extreme ends of the spectrum,” entertainment reporter Peter Ford said on 6PR, referring to the earlier report of him being unresponsive.

“When I heard the initial report about being unresponsive it didn’t totally surprise me, given the gravity of the situation and the fact that I do know they have been increasing his morphine levels over the last couple of days. But to hear the other suggestion that he in fact awake and cracking jokes with nursing staff does surprise me a lot. I hope that’s the truth but we can only just wait and watch and see.”

The comedian was best known for Dame Edna Everage - a garish stage persona featuring a condescending and imperfectly veiled snob whose evolving character delighted audiences over seven decades.

Humphries was born in 1934 and began working as a comedian in the early 1950s, joining the Melbourne Theatre Company.

The character of Dame Edna began as a dowdy Mrs. Norm Everage who first took to the stage soon after.

Purple-haired Melbourne housewife, Edna Everage, quickly became his signature act, which he performed dressed as a woman and would develop the catchphrase “Hello possums!”.

His career took off when he moved to London in the 1960s.

Humphries also appeared in several films including the 1967 Peter Cook movie Bedazzled and continued through 1972′s The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, 1981′s Shock Treatment, 1997′s Spice World and 2003′s Finding Nemo.

Humphries’ other famous character was Sir Les Patterson, a drunk and disheveled Australian cultural attache.

Humphries, a law school dropout, found major success as an actor, writer and entertainer in Britain in the 1970s, but the United States was an ambition that he found stubbornly elusive.

A high point in the United States was a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway show “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.”

Humphries was married four times. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, Elizabeth Spender, and four children.