Grand L. Bush

Grand L. Bush
Bush at a Los Angeles-area aquatic center in 2012
Born	(1955-12-24) December 24, 1955 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1976–2002
Spouse	Sharon Dahlonega Bush ​ ​ (m. 1994)​

Grand Lee Bush (born December 24, 1955) is an American actor of stage, television and major motion pictures.

Early life and education

Bush was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actor Robert Bush and his wife Essie Bush. Shakespearean-trained, Bush studied film and theatre at the Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy, University of Southern California and the Strasberg Academy in Hollywood. He continued his education by performing at the historic Globe Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the annual Shakespeare Festival in Garden Grove, California.

Career

In 1977 he landed a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Good Times. Bush later acted in other television episodics and miniseries, including Roots, before joining the cast of the rock musical Hair in 1979, in which he performed a solo. Bush also performed in other musical dramas, including the TV series Fame and the feature film Streets of Fire.

In 1983, Bush won a nomination for a Canadian Genie Award in the category of "Best Performance by a Foreign Actor" for his role in the feature film Hard Feelings.

Bush appeared in such blockbusters as Lethal Weapon, Hollywood Shuffle, Die Hard, and Colors, the latter of which sparked a friendship between Bush and director Dennis Hopper and Hopper directed Bush in a total of three feature films: Colors, Chasers, and Catchfire. Bush was cast in the 1989 James Bond feature film Licence to Kill. He portrayed a lieutenant in the horror film The Exorcist III and had a small role in Demolition Man. Bush also played actor Todd Bridges' father in Building Bridges, an autobiographical short film about the rise and fall of the child star of Diff'rent Strokes.

In 1994, Bush was cast in the role of Balrog in the action/comedy Street Fighter, directed by Steven E. de Souza. The ensemble cast also included Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na and Raúl Juliá. To prepare for his role, Bush trained with kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez in Bangkok, Thailand, and Brisbane, Australia.

More than 35 feature films in which Bush has appeared have been archived as Turner Classic Movies.

Personal life

In 1991, Bush met his future wife, Sharon Crews, on the set of Freejack, a science fiction feature that stars Emilio Estevez, Rene Russo and Mick Jagger. Crews was on assignment for Black Entertainment Television (BET) to interview Bush, et al., during the Atlanta, Georgia, location filming. They married in 1994.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Hair	Ensemble Dancer / Solo Artist: Flesh Failures
1979	Sunnyside	Teddy
1980	Stir Crazy	Slowpoke
1980	The Night the City Screamed	Herbert Lee
1982	Vice Squad	Black Pimp
1982	Night Shift	Mustafa	(as Grand Bush)
1982	Hard Feelings	Latham Lockhart
1984	Weekend Pass	Bertram
1984	Streets of Fire	Reggie / The Sorels
1985	Brewster's Millions	Rudy
1985	The Color Purple	Randy
1987	Lethal Weapon	Detective Dan Boyette
1987	Hollywood Shuffle	Mandingo / Ricky Taylor / Hood #5
1988	Colors	Larry "Looney Tunes" Sylvester
1988	Die Hard	FBI Agent Johnson
1989	Licence to Kill	DEA Agent Hawkins
1989	Lethal Weapon 2	Detective Jerry Collins
1990	Bad Influence	Club Bartender
1990	Catchfire	Bank Teller
1990	The First Power	Reservoir Worker
1990	The Exorcist III	Sergeant Mel Atkins
1990	Secret Agent 00 Soul	Ben Douglas
1991	Wedlock	Jasper
1992	Freejack	Boone
1993	Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence	Willie
1993	Demolition Man	Young Officer Zachary Lamb
1994	Chasers	Vance Dooley
1994	Street Fighter	Balrog
1994	Forrest Gump	Black Panther Leader
1997	Turbulence	US Marshal Al Arquette
1997	Favorite Son	Reverend Ross
2000	Building Bridges	Todd Bridges' Dad / Jim
2001	Shark Hunter	Rob Harrington
2002	New Alcatraz	Sergeant Quinn

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	Good Times	Leon	2 episodes
1977	Barnaby Jones	Doc Evans	Episode: "Gang War"
1978	Lou Grant	Henry Spence	Episode: "Sports"
1978	The Incredible Hulk	Mike	Episode: "Never Give a Trucker an Even Break"
1978	CHiPS	Paul	Episode: "High Flyer"
1980	B.J. and the Bear	Cameraman	Episode: "Siege"
1981	Trapper John, M.D.	Treetop	Episode: "Finders Keepers"
1982	Police Squad	The Champ	Episode: "Ring of Fear (A Dangerous Assignment)"
1982	The Jeffersons	George Nylund	Episode: "Appointment in 8B"
1983	The Renegades	Jewel	Episode: "Back to School"
1984	Airwolf	General Ali Butami	Episode: "And They Are Us"
1986-1993	Hunter	Officer Meyers/Billy/Blade	5 episodes
1986	Outlaws	Lt. Albert Ross	2 episodes
1987	Hard Copy	Cash Conover	2 episodes
1987	Simon & Simon	Doug Raney	Episode: "Deep Water Death"
1987	Werewolf	Seaman	Episode: "Nightwatch"
1989	China Beach	Mac	Episode: "The World: Part 2"
1989	Murder, She Wrote	George Gordon	"Night of the Tarantula"
1992-1993	Renegade	Harry Wells	3 episodes
1996	Nash Bridges	Alex Peyton	Episode: "Til Death Do Us Part"
1997-1998	The Visitor	FBI Agent Douglas Wilcox
1998-1999	Walker, Texas Ranger	Andros/Simon Trivette	2 episodes
1999	The Pretender	Detective Rusk	Episode: "Murder 101"
1999	Chicago Hope	Colonel Oswald Morton	Episode: "White Rabbit"
2000	Any Day Now	Officer Royce	Episode: "It's A Good Thing I'm Not Black"
2000	18 Wheels of Justice	Eric Hodges	Episode: "Con Truck"
2001	Sheena	Kiptalami Chief	Episode: "Between a Rock and a Hard Place"

External links

• Grand L. Bush at IMDb
• Grand L. Bush at AllMovie