Rush, Geoffrey (1951-…), an Australian actor, won a 1997 Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the motion picture Shine (1996). Shine tells the true story of an Australian concert pianist, David Helfgott, who developed a mental illness in adolescence and spent 13 years in institutions before returning to performing.
Geoffrey Roy Rush was born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Australia. He attended the University of Queensland and in 1970 joined a professional theater group. In 1975, he went to Paris to study mime and movement.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s, Rush built a successful stage career in Australia, winning acting awards for his performance in a 1989 production of The Diary of a Madman, based on an 1835 short story by the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. He also directed a number of plays.
Rush made his motion-picture acting debut in the Australian film Hoodwink (1981). Rush portrayed Sir Francis Walsingham in the two films Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). He also starred as the pirate Barbossa in the popular Pirates of the Caribbean series, which began in 2003. Rush’s other notable films include Starstruck (1982), Oleanna (1993), Hamlet (1994), Dad and Dave—On Our Selection (1995), Children of the Revolution (1996), Les Miserables and Shakespeare in Love (both 1998), House on Haunted Hill and Quills (both 2000), Lantana and The Tailor of Panama (both 2001), Bran Nue Dae (2009), The King’s Speech and The Warrior’s Way (both 2010), The Eye of the Storm (2012), and The Best Offer and The Book Thief (both 2013).
In 2009, Rush won a Tony Award as best actor for his performance in Eugene Ionesco’s 1962 play Exit the King. In 2010, he starred in Australian productions of The Drowsy Chaperone (1998) and a revival of The Diary of a Madman. In 2012, he won the Australian of the Year award. Beginning in 2017, Rush portrayed the German-born American physicist Albert Einstein in the television series Genius.
