Geoffrey Rush

Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor.

Known for his eccentric leading roles across both stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award, making him the only Australian to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, in addition to three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Rush was born on 6 July 1951 in Toowoomba, Queensland, the son of Merle (Bischof), a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force.

His father was of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, and his mother was of German descent.

He has an older sister.

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, and graduated from the University of Queensland with a bachelor's degree in Arts.

While at university, he was talent-spotted by Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) in Brisbane.

Rush started his professional acting career with the Queensland Theatre Company in 1971.

Rush began his career with QTC in 1971, appearing in 17 productions.

He studied for two years at the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq starting in 1975.

Rush starred in international productions of Waiting for Godot, The Winter's Tale and The Importance of Being Earnest.

In 1975, Rush went to Paris for two years and studied mime, movement and theatre at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, before returning 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.

Rush made his theatre debut in the QTC's production of Wrong Side of the Moon.

He worked with the QTC for four years, appearing in roles ranging across classical plays and pantomime, from Juno and the Paycock to Hamlet on Ice.

Following these, Rush left for Paris where he studied further.

Rush made his film debut in the Australian film Hoodwink in 1981.

His next film was Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck, the following year.

Rush's acting credits include William Shakespeare's plays The Winter's Tale (with the State Theatre Company of South Australia in 1987 at The Playhouse in Adelaide) and Troilus and Cressida (at the Old Museum Building in 1989).

He also appeared in an ongoing production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest as John Worthing (Ernest) (in which his wife, Jane Menelaus, appeared as Gwendolen).

In the 1990s Rush appeared in small roles on television dramas, including a role as a dentist in a 1993 episode of the British television series Lovejoy.

Rush also continued his work in theatre.

In 1994, Rush played Horatio in a production of Hamlet alongside Richard Roxburgh, Jacqueline McKenzie and David Wenham in the Company B production at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney.

He gained prominence for his role in Shine (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor; his other Oscar-nominated roles were for Shakespeare in Love (1998), Quills (2000), and The King's Speech (2010).

Rush made his film breakthrough with his performance in 1996 with Shine, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Rush had once learned the piano up until aged fourteen but took up piano lessons again thirty years later for the role in order not to require a hand double.

That same year, James L. Brooks flew him to Los Angeles to audition for the part of Simon Bishop in As Good as It Gets and offered him the role, but Rush declined it (it went to Greg Kinnear).

His other notable films include in Elizabeth (1998), Les Misérables (1998), Frida (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Munich (2005), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and The Book Thief (2013).

In September 1998, Rush played the title role in the Beaumarchais play The Marriage of Figaro for the QTC.

This was the opening production of the Optus Playhouse at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre at South Bank in Brisbane.

A pun on 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 1998, he appeared in three major costume dramas.

He played Javert opposite Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.

The film directed by Bille August was an adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel of the same name.

Rush gained mainstream popularity for his role as Captain Hector Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (2003–2017).

Rush is also known for his performances in television receiving Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nominations for his portrayals of comedian Peter Sellers in the HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), and scientist Albert Einstein in National Geographic anthology series Genius (2017), winning for the former.

He made his Broadway debut in the absurdist comedy Exit the King in 2009, where he received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance.

He received a nomination for Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play for Diary of a Madman in 2011.

Rush is the founding president of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and was named the 2012 Australian of the Year.