Australian comedian Barry Humphries, best known for his beloved drag character Dame Edna Everage, has died at age 89.

BBC News reports that Humphries died in a Sydney hospital, where he’d been suffering from complications from hip surgery he underwent in March after suffering a fall.

A statement from Humphries’ family remembers him as “completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit.”

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His fans, the statement added, were “precious to him,” and that his characters, “which brought laughter to millions, will live on.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese issued a statement upon news of Humphries’ death. “A great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind, he was both gifted and a gift,” said Albanese.

A leading figure in the British comedy scene of the 1960s, Humphries’ other popular characters included drunken Australian politician Sir Les Patterson, yet Dame Edna loomed large in his career. In fact, the persona ultimately took on a life of its own, particularly in the hilarious talk show “The Dame Edna Experience”, which debuted in the late 1980s and saw Dame Edna poking fun at some of the world’s biggest stars.

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Humphries first introduced the character in 1955, and Dame Edna remained his most popular creation as he continued to bring her to life over the course of six decades, most recently in the 2019 TV special “Dame Edna Rules the Waves”.

Hiding behind a coiffed lilac-hued wig and bejewelled glasses, Dame Edna was known for her catchphrase — “Hello, possums!” — and hilariously skewering celebrities, who typically delighted in the experience of becoming the butt of Dame Edna’s jokes.

As Humphries revealed in an interview, Dame Edna was originally conceived as a housewife, based on his own mother.

“In those days, Edna was, well, a frump,” Humphries said. “She stood at her kitchen sink, like so many other women in 1955, wrist-deep in grey water, peas and mutton fat floating thereon.”

Over the years, the character became increasingly flamboyant, fancying herself a worldwide superstar whose faux biography (written by Humphries), My Gorgeous Life, became a bestseller in Australia and the U.K.

Beyond Dame Edna, Humphries occasionally shed the character for various movie roles, which included providing the voice of Bruce the shark in “Finding Nemo”, and playing the Goblin King in “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”.

Humphries is survived by his fourth wife, Liz Spender, and four children.

News of Humphries passing was met with numerous tributes on social media.

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