Dame Edna Everage star Barry Humphries has died at the age of 89.
The Australian comedian, who also played alter-ego Sir Les Patterson, was taken to hospital in a serious condition following complications from hip replacement surgery. He died on Saturday evening, according to David Faktor, a spokesman for St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney.
He told the PA news agency: "I can confirm Barry Humphries passed away this evening Sydney time, around 7pm on Saturday evening."
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A family statement issued to the Sydney Morning Herald thanked fans and hospital staff for their "support and good wishes". A veteran of stage and screen, Barry Humphries entertained generations through his Dame Edna Everage alter ego and as the lecherous Sir Les Patterson.
He was born John Barry Humphries on February 17, 1934, in the suburb of Kew in Melbourne, the son of a construction manager and housewife. Both his parents distrusted art and he soon rebelled, creating his very first character, the Dadaist and agent provocateur Dr Aaron Azimuth, while still an adolescent.
He spent two years at the University of Melbourne, where he studied law, philosophy and fine arts, and embraced Dadaism in full. The pranks and performances he mounted during this period helped solidified his reputation on the comedy circuit.
It was when he joined the newly formed Melbourne Theatre Company that his most memorable character was formed, Dame Edna Everage. Originally a drab Melbourne housewife satirising Australian suburbia, Dame Edna evolved into an increasingly boisterous and eccentric character, with "wisteria hue" hair and cat eye glasses.
Barry moved to London on the cusp of the 1960s, where he would appear in West End shows such as Maggie May and Oliver!. In 1970, he returned to Australia, where Dame Edna made her film debut in John B Murray's The Naked Bunyip.
Across the years, he appeared in numerous films and television series but it was his freewheeling one-man shows that earned the greatest acclaim. Typically more than two-and-a-half hours long, they featured impersonation, musical numbers, improvisation and his myriad characters.
In 2003, Humphries voiced the shark Bruce in Pixar's Finding Nemo, using an exaggerated Australian accent. And in 2011, he travelled to New Zealand to perform the role of the Goblin King in the first instalment of Sir Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit.
Barry married four times. He has two daughters and two sons from his second and third marriages.
According to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald, Barry suffered a fall while in Sydney in the early months of this year, resulting in a hip replacement for the 89-year-old. The publication quoted him as saying: "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."
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