Geoffrey Rush

Background

He was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, the son of Roy and Merle Rush. Before he began his acting career, he attended Everton Park State High School. He began his acting career with the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane. He also has an Arts Degree from the University of Queensland. While at university, he roomed with Mel Gibson.

Geoffrey Rush has appeared on stage for Company B, the Brisbane Arts Theatre, as well as in many other theatre venues, and has worked as a theatre director.

Geoffrey Rush also appeared in the William Shakespeare plays, "The Winter's Tale" with the South Australia Theatre Company in 1987 (at The Playhouse in Adelaide, South Australia), and "Troilus and Cressida" (at the Old Museum Building in 1989). He also appeared in an on-going production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" as "John Worthing".

Film career

Geoffrey Rush's film debut was in the Australian film Hoodwink in 1981. His next film was in Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck, the following year. In 1996, he starred in Shine, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. From that point on, his career skyrocketed.

In 1998 he appeared in three major films: Les Miserables, in which he played Inspector Javert; Elizabeth, in which he played the suspicious Sir Francis Walsingham; and Shakespeare in Love in which he played the acting company manager who remained calm in the midst of chaos (and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor).

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 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 movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, as Captain Hector Barbossa, also appearing in its sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and assumed to appear in the third title. 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.

Geoffrey Rush played actor Peter Sellers in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. For this performance, he won an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Mini-series or Movie.

In 2005, he starred in Steven Spielberg's film Munich as Ephraim, a cold Mossad officer.

In 2006, Rush hosted the AFI Awards for the Nine Network.

Personal life

Geoffrey Rush currently lives in Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne. 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 developers and championing a National Trust of Australia (Victoria) poll for the Victorian Heritage Icons Awards.

Since 1988, Rush has been married to Jane Menelaus, with whom he has a daughter, Angelica (b. 1992) and a son, James (b. 1995).

Awards won

Awards nominated

Filmography