2. Dame Edna Everage, Entertainer
Dame Edna is a character created and played by Australian dadaist performer and comedian, Barry
Humphries, famous for her lilac-coloured or "wisteria hue" hair and cat eye glasses or "face furniture," her favourite flower,
the gladiola ("gladdies") and her boisterous greeting: "Hello Possums!" As Dame Edna, Humphries has written several books
including an autobiography, My Gorgeous Life, appeared in several films and hosted several television shows (on which Humphries
has also appeared as himself and other alter-egos).
Humphries has regularly updated Edna, originally a drab Melbourne housewife
satirising Australian suburbia. The character adopted an increasingly outlandish wardrobe after being performed in London in the 1960s,
and grew in stature and popularity. Following film appearances and an elevation todamehood in the 1970s, the character evolved
to "Housewife and Superstar", then "Megastar" and finally "Gigastar". Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Dame Edna became increasingly
known and popular in North America after multiple stage and television appearances.
