The death of Australian entertainer Barry Humphries has sparked an outpouring of tributes for the treasured national icon at home and around the globe.
Humphries died on Saturday, aged 89, at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney where he was being treated for complications stemming from hip surgery earlier this year.
Humphries, who continued touring up until the last year of his life, was a man of many faces led by his comedic alter egos Housewife Gigastar Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led the tributes on Saturday night.
“For 89 years, Barry Humphries entertained us through a galaxy of personas, from Dame Edna to Sandy Stone,” Mr Albanese posted on Twitter.
“But the brightest star in that galaxy was always Barry.
“A great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind, he was both gifted and a gift.
“May he rest in peace.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Australia had lost its “finest cultural raconteur, its most brilliant satirist, and its greatest cultural comedian”.
News Corp reports that King Charles III, who was in stitches during a Humphries performance in 2013, was “saddened” and was writing privately to Humphries’ family.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson said Humphries was “one of the greatest ever Australians”.
“A comic genius who used his exuberant alter egos, Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, to say the otherwise unsayable.”
Unsurprisingly, multiple tributes came from Humphries’ fellow travellers in the world of entertainment, including British comedians Ricky Gervais and Matt Lucas and Australians Adam Hills, Rove McManus, Marty Fields and Jason Donovon.
All praised his genius, intelligence and generosity.
Gervais took to Twitter to say: “Farewell, Barry Humphries, you comedy genius.”
London-based Hills said he was “one of the greatest comedians of our time”.
“He was nothing but an utter gentleman to me, and occasionally a Dame,” Hills wrote on social media.
“A God of comedy. What a massive loss,” Fields posted.
“Thank you for delighting and inspiring us. Quite simply, you were the greatest,” Lucas tweeted, alongside a picture of himself and Humphries.
Tweet from @AlboMP
Welsh comedian Rob Brydon, who is in Australia and was with Humphries just three days ago, posted: “RIP Barry Humphries. A true great who inspired me immeasurably. It was a delight to call him my friend … His talent shone until the very end.”
Also in Australia for a series of performances, British comedian Jimmy Carr said: “A bit bittersweet doing gigs in Australia this evening, Barry Humphries has passed and no one will ever be as good at crowd work again.”
