Comedy star Barry Humphries has died aged 89, as tributes flood in for comic.

The star died  in Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital today, with his family and loved ones by his side.

The entertainment world is now remembering the huge star in the in Australia and around the world. 

He was best know for his drag persona of Dame Edna Everage and she remains Humphries' most identifiable invention.

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However, for many fans the character who began life as a Melbourne housewife in the 1950s was not even his greatest work, some now say.

John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE, was born in the Melbourne suburb Kew in 1934, to construction manager Eric Humphries and his wife Louisa. The family was well off and Barry was raised in Camberwell, one of the city's new garden suburbs.

Humphries made his London stage debut in The Demon Barber in 1959 and went on to appear in several productions of Oliver!. He lived and worked in London throughout the 1960s.

Humphries returned to Australia in the 1970s and with producer Phillip Adams and director Bruce Beresford he created The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, which became the country's most successful locally-made film. 

 

Typically more than two-and-a-half hours long, they featured impersonation, musical numbers, improvisation and, of course, 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.

In March 2012, Humphries announced his retirement from live entertainment, stating that he was “beginning to feel a bit senior”, but promised an extensive farewell tour, which was later extended.

Humphries married four times.