Geoffrey Rush

Born  :Geoffrey Roy Rush
          6 July 1951 (1951-07-06) (age 59)
          Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
Occupation : Actor
Years active : 1981–present

Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor and film producer. As of November 2009, he is one of 25 people to have won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. As well as being nominated for 4 Academy Awards for acting (winning 1) and 5 BAFTA Awards (winning 3) he has also won 2 Golden Globe, and 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Rush was born in Toowoomba, Australia, the son of Merle (née Kiehne), a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force. His parents divorced when he was five and his mother subsequently took him to live with her parents in suburban Brisbane. Before he began his acting career, Rush attended Everton Park State High School. He also has an arts degree from the University of Queensland. While at university, he was talent-spotted by Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) in Brisbane. Rush began his career in with QTC in 1971, appearing in 17 productions.

In 1975, Rush went to Paris for two years and studied mime, movement and theatre at the famous L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, before returning to Australia to resume his stage career with QTC. 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.

From November 2011, Rush will play the role of Lady Bracknell in Melbourne Theatre Company's production of The Importance of Being Earnest. The production is a reworking of the hugely popular 1988 production in which Rush also appeared, playing the character Jack Worthing. Jane Menelaus will also appear in the remake as Miss Prism, having played Gwendolyn Fairfax in the 1988 production.


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 (Rush received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor).

In 1999, Rush took the lead role as Steven Price in the horror film House on Haunted Hill. In 2000, he received his third Academy Award nomination, for Quills, in which he played the Marquis de Sade.
Rush at the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, May 2007

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.

In 2010, Rush played Speech Therapist Lionel Logue in The King's Speech, a part that got him Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

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. 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. Rush is also preparing for a film version of The Drowsy Chaperone, an award-winning stage musical, in which he'll be portraying The Man in the Chair.

In the beginning of 2009, Rush appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps featuring some of Australia's internationally recognised actors. He, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series, in a contemporary portrait, and as one of their notable characters. Rush's film image is taken from Shine.

Filmography (48 titles)
2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (post-production)
Barbossa
2011 The Eye of the Storm (post-production)
Basil Hunter
2010 The Warrior's Way
Ron
2010 Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Ezylryb (voice)
2010 The King's Speech
Lionel Logue
2010 Lowdown (TV series)
Narrator / God
2009 Bran Nue Dae
Father Benedictus
2008 $9.99
Angel
2007 Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Sir Francis Walsingham
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Captain Hector Barbossa
2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Captain Hector Barbossa (uncredited)
2006 Candy
Casper
2005 Munich
Ephraim
2004 Kath & Kim (TV series)
Geoff
– Sitting on a Pile (2004) … Geoff
2004 The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
2003 Harvie Krumpet (short)
Narrator (voice)
2003 Intolerable Cruelty
Donovan Donaly
2003 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Barbossa
2003 Finding Nemo
Nigel (voice)
2003 Ned Kelly
Superintendent Francis Hare
2003 Swimming Upstream
Harold Fingleton
2002 The Banger Sisters
Harry Plummer
2002 Frida
Leon Trotsky
2001 Lantana
John Knox
2001 The Tailor of Panama
Harold 'Harry' Pendel
2000 The Magic Pudding
Bunyip Bluegum (voice)
2000 Quills
The Marquis de Sade
1999 House on Haunted Hill
Stephen H. Price
1999 Mystery Men
Casanova Frankenstein
1998 Shakespeare in Love
Philip Henslowe
1998 Elizabeth
Sir Francis Walsingham
1998 Les Misérables
Javert
1998 A Little Bit of Soul
Godfrey Usher
1997 Oscar and Lucinda
Narrator (voice)
1997 Frontier (TV mini-series)
Soldier Administrator David Collins
1996 Mercury (TV series)
Bill Wyatt
1996 Children of the Revolution
Welch
1996 Shine
David Helfgott - Adult
1996 Twisted Tales (TV series)
Harry Chisholm
– Bonus Mileage (1996) … Harry Chisholm
1996 Call Me Sal (short)
Wal
1995 Dad and Dave: On Our Selection
Dave Rudd
1994 Midday Crisis (short) (uncredited)
1987 Twelfth Night
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1982 Starstruck
Floor Manager
1981 Hoodwink
Detective 1
1981 Menotti (TV series)
1981 The Added Dimension
Man (as Geoff Rush)
1981 The Added Dimension
Man (as Geoff Rush)