In Brief: “Dame Edna” dies, and more

Barry Humphries, the Australian satirist best known for his onstage and TV drag persona Dame Edna Everage, and for his character Sir Les Patterson, died on Saturday at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, where he had earlier been admitted due to ongoing complications from hip surgery, according to ABC Australia. Humphries created the Dame Edna character in the 1950s but gained worldwide fame through television programs in the 1980s and 1990s. He also voiced the kangaroo in the 1995 live-action children’s film Napoleon and he recurred on Ally McBeal in 2001-02 as eccentric lawyer Claire Otoms, both credited as Dame Edna Everage…

Dick Van Dyke, the 97-year-old stage, screen and TV sitcom star, is set to make his daytime drama debut in the long-running NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives sometime this fall. Van Dyke credits his gym partner, Days actor Drake Hogestyn, with whom he’s been casually joking about joining the show for years, for getting him the gig, “I have played old men before, but comedy old men,” the legendary actor tells Access, adding that his dramatic turn as a mysterious new character with amnesia is an exciting change of pace.”…

Peaky Blinders star Joe Cole has been tapped to star in the real-time BBC thriller series Nightsleeper, according to Deadline. He’ll co-star with Alexandra Roach in the drama from Nick Leather. Filming is underway in Glasgow, Scotland…