Barry Humphries: A life in pictures

In a purple wig, garish outfits and outrageous spectacles, Barry Humphries was instantly recognisable as Dame Edna Everage.

Modelled on a suburban housewife in 1955, over the decades Dame Edna morphed into extravagant global megastar with a barbed wit.

She was one of a series of characters Humphries played during a career which took him from his native Australia, to the UK and the US.

After beginning his career in his native Australia, Humphries moved to London and quickly befriended some of the leading lights of the British comedy scene. In 1966, Humphries (top right) appeared in BBC TV's The Late Show alongside comedians and actors including John Bird (top left) and John Wells (bottom left)

The following year he appeared as Long John Silver in a production of Treasure Island, with Spike Milligan as Ben Gunn, and Willie Rushton as Squire John Trelawney

Edna Everage began life as a dull housewife with politically incorrect views on foreigners, a satire of Humphries' experience of growing up in the Conservative suburbs of Melbourne

By the mid-1970s Edna was a "dame" and Humphries ensured she dressed to turn heads at the Royal Ascot race meeting. This hat - modelled on the Sydney Opera House - is now part of the collection of the V&A

• Dame Edna Everage star Barry Humphries dies at 89

• Barry Humphries: The man behind Dame Edna

Dame Edna hosted the very first episode of ITV's An Audience With... in 1980. She went on to host two more episodes of the long-running show

Backstage at the Queen's Jubilee concert at the London Palladium in 1987, Princess Diana met Humphries' alter ego as Cilla Black and Noel Edmonds look on

Actress Emily Perry was among several who played Dame Edna's long-suffering companion (and former bridesmaid) Madge Allsop

In 1997 Humphries returned to a role he last played 30 years earlier - Fagin in the West End musical production of Oliver!

Dame Edna was a favourite on the celebrity circuit. She is seen here with The Spice Girls for Comic Relief in March 1997

The dame appeared with fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman on US chat show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, in 2003

Australian conservationist and presenter Steve Irwin was on hand when a baby koala at Australia Zoo was named after Dame Edna in June 2003

Another of Humphries' alter egos was Sir Les Patterson - a lewd, chain-smoking drunk who claimed to be a "wit, sage, raconteur, [and] late cultural attaché to the Court of St James"

Humphries was made CBE by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2007. During Golden Jubilee celebrations five years earlier, as Dame Edna, he had introduced the Queen as the "the Jubilee girl"

Dame Edna took part in the Great Red Nose Day Bake Off in 2015. She was up against Lulu, Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders

Humphries' final tour last year, The Man Behind The Mask, saw him recount tales from his career, and featured cameo appearances by Dame Edna and Sir Les

All images are subject to copyright.