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Geoffrey Rush
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| Geoffrey Rush | |
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 Rush at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival |
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| Born | Geoffrey Roy Rush 6 July 1951 Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Menelaus (1988–present) |
Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is one of 20 (as of June 2009[update]) people to have won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and an Emmy Award, and has also won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Australian Film Institute awards.1
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Early life
Rush was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, the son of Merle (née Kiehne), a department store sales clerk, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force.23 His parents divorced when he was five, and his mother subsequently took him to live with her parents in the suburbs.4 Before he began his acting career, Rush attended Everton Park State High School. He also has an Arts Degree from the University of Queensland.5 While at university he was talent-spotted by Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane, where he began his career. In 1975, Rush took off for Paris for a couple of years, and studied mime and pantomime at the famous L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq School of Mime, before returning to Australia to resume his stage career.3 In 1979, he shared an apartment with actor Mel Gibson for four months, while they co-starred in a stage production of Waiting for Godot.345
Stage career
Geoffrey Rush made his theatre debut in Queensland Theatre Company's production of Wrong Side of the Mood. He worked with the company for four years, appearing in roles ranging across classical plays to pantomime, from Juno and the Paycock to Hamlet on Ice. Following these early years in Brisbane, Rush left to Paris where he studied further.
Rush has appeared on stage for Company B, and for the Queensland Theatre Company and the Brisbane Arts Theatre, as well as in many other theatre venues, and has worked as a theatre director.
His credits include William Shakespeare's plays, The Winter's Tale (with the South Australia Theatre Company in 1987 at The Playhouse in Adelaide), and Troilus and Cressida (at the Old Museum Building in 1989). He also appeared in an on-going production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest as John Worthing (Ernest) (in which his wife, Jane Menelaus, appeared as Gwendolen).
In September 1998, Rush played the title role in the Beaumarchais play The Marriage of Figaro for the Queensland Theatre Company. This was the opening production of the Optus Playhouse, at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre at South Bank in Brisbane. A pun on Geoffrey Rush's name (and the circumstances), was used in the opening prologue of the play with the comment that the "Optus Playhouse was opening with a Rush".
In 2007, he starred as King Berenger in a production of Eugène Ionesco's Exit the King at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne and Company B in Sydney, directed by Neil Armfield.
Geoffrey Rush made his Broadway debut in a restaging of Exit the King under Malthouse Theatre'stouring moniker Malthouse Melbourne. This restaging featured a new American cast including Susan Sarandon. The show opened on 26 March 2009 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
Other cast includes Lauren Ambrose, Andrea Martin, William Sadler, and Brian Hutchison. Geoffrey won the Outer Critics Circle Award, Theatre World Award, and Drama Desk Award, as well as the Distinguished Performance Award from the Drama League Award, and was the winner of the 2009 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.
Film career
Rush's film debut was in the Australian film Hoodwink in 1981. His next film was Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck, the following year. In 1996, he starred in Shine, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the first Australian-born actor to win an Oscar.
In 1998, he appeared in three major films: Les Misérables, in which he played Inspector Javert; Elizabeth, in which he played the suspicious Sir Francis Walsingham, for which he won a BAFTA Award; and Shakespeare in Love in which he played Philip Henslowe, the acting company manager who remained calm in the midst of chaos (and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor).
In 1999, Rush departured from his usual dramatic stint and took the lead role as Steven Price in the horror flick House on Haunted Hill. In 2000, he received his third Academy Award nomination, for Quills, in which he played the Marquis de Sade.
Rush's career continued at a fast pace, with nine films released from 2001 through 2003. He starred in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, as Captain Hector Barbossa, also appearing in its sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Rush reprised his character's voice for the enhancements at the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom theme parks, which involved an Audio-Animatronic with Rush's likeness being installed (including one at Tokyo Disneyland).citation needed He also voiced Nigel the pelican in Finding Nemo.
Rush played actor Peter Sellers in the television film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. For this performance, he won an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Mini-series or Movie, a SAG Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture made for Television. In 2005, he starred in Steven Spielberg's film Munich as Ephraim, a cold Mossad officer.
In 2006, Rush hosted the Australian Film Institute Awards for the Nine Network. He was the Master of Ceremonies again at the 2007 AFI Awards.
Rush has confirmed that he is returning as Captain Hector Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, starring Johnny Depp, who has signed on to return as Captain Jack Sparrow as of September 2008. The probable story will be them going to find the fountain of youth, a story revealed at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
In the beginning of 2009, Rush appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps featuring some of Australia's great actors. He, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-winning character.6
He is the third actor from the Commonwealth to win the Academy Award for Best Actor after Sir Sidney Poitier, Peter Finch and in 2000 Russell Crowe.
Personal life
Geoffrey Rush moved to Melbourne in the early 1990s via Brisbane and Sydney.7 Rush lives in Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne.8 He has become involved in the preservation of heritage and architecture, becoming a figurehead for a campaign for the preservation of Camberwell Railway Station from demolition by developers9 and championing a National Trust of Australia (Victoria) poll for the Victorian Heritage Icons Awards.10
He is also Patron of the Spina Bifida Foundation of Victoria, a charity which was co-founded by his late father-in-law, Malcolm Menelaus, a well-respected Australian orthopaedic surgeon.
Since 1988, Rush has been married to actress Jane Menelaus, with whom he has a daughter, Angelica (born 1992) and a son, James (born 1995).1112131415
Australian stamp honour
Geoffrey Rush is among the people who are featured on the series of "Australian Legends" 55 cent stamps.
Filmography
Other awards
- Awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Queensland, in Australia.
- Awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in the 2001 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to the arts especially through a distinguished acting career.
- 2003 — Australian Film Institute Awards - Global Achievement Award
- 2004 — Brisbane International Film Festival - Chauvel Award
- 2003 — Hollywood Film Festival for Supporting Actor of the Year
References
- ^ imdb Awards page
- ^ Geoffrey Rush biography. Film Reference.com.
- ^ a b c Geoffrey Rush Biography. Tiscali.film & tv.
- ^ a b Geoffrey Rush biography. Yahoo! Movies.
- ^ a b Geoffrey Rush, 1997Academy award winner. Alumni at University of Queensland.
- ^ Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman Happy to Be Licked — On Stamps People.com, February 4, 2009
- ^ Tavis Smiley's interview transcript with Geoffrey Rush
- ^ Rush to flat earth
- ^ Actor Rush lifts lid on Camberwell station plan from theage.com.au
- ^ 2006 Heritage Icon announced | National Trust of Australia (Victoria)
- ^ Geoffrey Rush Biography — Theatre, Television and Film Biographies
- ^ Geoffrey Rush Biography — Tiscali
- ^ Geoffrey Rush Biography — Tribute
- ^ Geoffrey Rush Biography — Hollywood.com
- ^ Geoffrey Rush interview — The Independent
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Geoffrey Rush |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Geoffrey Rush |
- Geoffrey Rush at the Internet Movie Database
- Geoffrey Rush at the Internet Broadway Database
- Geoffrey Rush — Australian Film Commission
- Geoffrey Rush — Stage acting credits
- The Cinematic Hats of Geoffrey Rush
- Professional photographs of Geoffrey Rush — National Library of Australia