| Austin Powers is a character created by Canadian comic Mike Myers (although law suits have allegedly been filed suggesting Dana Carvey's involvement in the genesis of the character, as well as that of Dr. Evil) for the eponymous movies. Austin is an International Man of Mystery, a British secret agent, equal parts Jason King, James Bond and Peter Sellers. He has silly false teeth, NHS glasses, and wears crushed velvet suits, frilly shirts and Union Jack underpants. His accent is apparently based on Myers' parents and people he has met living in Liverpool.
Powers was cryogenically frozen in the 1960's and thawed out in the 1990's to pursue his nemesis Dr. Evil (see the nodes of the individual films for more details). The 'joke' was that Powers' 1960's attitudes (as the archetypal swinger) clashed with 1990's culture. As it turned out this idea was a bit crap, and Dr. Evil gets most of the laughs and the screen time.
Myers originally planned to knock out a Powers movie every few years to allow him to fund more experimental material, which largely has yet to materialise. | 
