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In 2007, he starred as King Berenger in a production of [[Eugene Ionesco]]'s ''[[Exit the King]]'' at the [[Malthouse Theatre]] in Melbourne and [[Company B]] in Sydney, directed by [[Neil Armfield]].
In 2007, he starred as King Berenger in a production of [[Eugene 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 as King Berenger in Eugene Ionesco's tragicomedy, ''[[Exit the King]]''. The show opened on March 26, 2009 at the [[Ethel Barrymore Theatre]]. The show also stars Academy Award-winner [[Susan Sarandon]].
Geoffrey Rush made his [[Broadway]] debut as King Berenger in Eugene Ionesco's tragicomedy, ''[[Exit the King]]''. The show opened on March 26, 2009 at the [[Ethel Barrymore Theatre]]. The show also stars Academy Award-winner [[Susan Sarandon]].


Other cast includes [[Lauren Ambrose]], [[Andrea Martin]], [[William Sadler]], and [[Brian Hutchison]]. Geoffrey won the [[Outer Critics Circle]], [[Theater World]], and [[Drama Desk Awards]], as well as the Distinguished Performance Award from the [[Drama League]], and has been nominated for the 2009 T[[ony Award for Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play]].
Other cast includes [[Lauren Ambrose]], [[Andrea Martin]], [[William Sadler]], and Brian Hutchison. Geoffrey won the [[Outer Critics Circle Awards]], [[Theater World Award]], and [[Drama Desk Awards]], as well as the Distinguished Performance Award from the [[Drama League Award]], and has been nominated for the 2009 [[Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play]].


===Film career===
===Film career===

Revision as of 21:21, 31 May 2009

Geoffrey Rush
Born
Geoffrey Roy Rush
OccupationActor
Years active1981–present
SpouseJane Menelaus (1988-present)

Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He moved to Melbourne in the early 1990s via Brisbane and Sydney[1] and currently lives in the suburb of Camberwell, Victoria.[2]

Life and career

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.[3][4] His parents divorced when he was five, and his mother subsequently took him to live with her parents in the suburbs.[5] Before he began his acting career, Rush attended Everton Park State High School. He began his acting career with the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane. 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.[4] He also has an Arts Degree from the University of Queensland.[6] 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.[4][5][6]

Stage career

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 The Importance of Being Earnest as John Worthing[citation needed].

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 Eugene 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 as King Berenger in Eugene Ionesco's tragicomedy, Exit the King. The show opened on March 26, 2009 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The show also stars Academy Award-winner Susan Sarandon.

Other cast includes Lauren Ambrose, Andrea Martin, William Sadler, and Brian Hutchison. Geoffrey won the Outer Critics Circle Awards, Theater World Award, and Drama Desk Awards, as well as the Distinguished Performance Award from the Drama League Award, and has been nominated for 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. From that point on, his film career skyrocketed.

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; 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 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. 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 is interested to return in Pirates of the Caribbean 4 as Captain Hector Barbossa starring Johnny Depp who has signed on as of September 2008. If he does a probable story will be them going to find the fountain of youth, a prospect raised in 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.[7]

Personal life

Rush lives in Camberwell, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.[2] 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[8] and championing a National Trust of Australia (Victoria) poll for the Victorian Heritage Icons Awards.[9]

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).[10] [11] [12] [13] [14]

Australian stamp honour

Geoffrey Rush is among the people who are featured on the series of "Australian Legends" 55 cent stamps.

Filmography and awards

Year Film Role Other notes
1981 Hoodwink Detective 1
Menotti TV Series
1982 Starstruck Floor Manager
1987 Twelfth Night Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1996 Shine David Helfgott (adult) Academy Award for Best Actor;
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role;
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama;
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Mercury Bill Wyatt TV series
Children of the Revolution Zachary Welch
1997 Frontier Soldier Administrator David Collins TV mini-series
Oscar and Lucinda Narrator voice
1998 A Little Bit of Soul Godfrey Usher Nominated - Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Elizabeth Sir Francis Walsingham BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Les Misérables Inspector Javert
Shakespeare in Love Philip Henslowe Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor;
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role;
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1999 Mystery Men Casanova Frankenstein
House on Haunted Hill Stephen H. Price
2000 Quills Marquis de Sade Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor;
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role;
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
The Magic Pudding Bunyip Bluegum voice
2001 The Tailor of Panama Harold 'Harry' Pendel
Lantana John Knox
2002 Frida Leon Trotsky
The Banger Sisters Harry Plummer
2003 Swimming Upstream Harold Fingleton Nominated - Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Ned Kelly Superintendent Francis Hare
Finding Nemo Nigel voice
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Captain Hector Barbossa Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor;
Nominated - Golden Satellite Award fest Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Villain
Intolerable Cruelty Donovan Donaly
Harvie Krumpet Narrator voice
2004 The Life and Death of Peter Sellers Peter Sellers Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film;
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie
2005 Munich Mossad case officer Ephraim Nominated - Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actor
2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Captain Hector Barbossa uncredited cameo
Candy Casper Nominated - Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Captain Hector Barbossa
Elizabeth: The Golden Age Sir Francis Walsingham
2008 $9.99 Angel voice
2009 The Warrior's Way Ron
Bran Nue Dae Father Benedictus
2010 Guardians of Ga'Hoole voice

References

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1997
for Shine
Succeeded by
Preceded by Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1996
for Shine
Succeeded by
Preceded by BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1999
for Elizabeth
Succeeded by
Preceded by Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
2005
for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
Succeeded by