Stage career

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'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 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.

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".

Rush has appeared on stage for the Brisbane Arts Theatre and in many other theatre venues. He has also worked as a theatre director. In 2007, he starred as King Berenger in a production of Eugène Ionesco's Exit the King at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne and Company B in Sydney, directed by Neil Armfield. For this performance, he received a Helpmann Award nomination for best male actor in a play.[11]

Rush made his Broadway debut in a re-staging of Exit the King under Malthouse Theatre's touring moniker Malthouse Melbourne and Company B Belvoir. This re-staging featured a new American cast including Susan Sarandon. The show opened on 26 March 2009 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Rush won the Outer Critics Circle Award, Theatre World Award, Drama Desk Award, the Distinguished Performance Award from the Drama League Award and the 2009 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.[12]

In 2010, Rush played Man in Chair in The Drowsy Chaperone on its Australian tour.

In 2011, Rush played the lead in a theatrical adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's short story The Diary of a Madman at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Rush won for this role Helpmann Award and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award.[13]

From November 2011, Rush played the role of Lady Bracknell in the Melbourne Theatre Company production of The Importance of Being Earnest.[14] Other actors from the 1988 production include Jane Menelaus, this time as Miss Prism, and Bob Hornery, who had played Canon Chasuble, as the two butlers.[15]

Film career

Rush made his film debut in the Australian film Hoodwink in 1981. His next film was Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck, the following year. In the coming years he appeared in small roles on television dramas, including a role as a dentist in a 1993 episode of the British television series Lovejoy. He made his breakthrough performance in 1996 with Shine, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. 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).[16]

In 1998, he appeared in three major films: Les Misérables, Elizabeth, and Shakespeare in Love. He received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the latter film.

In 1999, Rush took the lead role as Steven Price in the horror film House on Haunted Hill. In 2000, he received his third Academy Award nomination, for Quills, in which he played the Marquis de Sade, and he voiced the role of Bunyip Bluegum in The Magic Pudding.

Rush's career continued at a fast pace, with nine films released from 2001 to 2003. He starred in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, as Captain Hector Barbossa, reprising the role in its sequels, Dead Man's Chest, At World's End, On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Rush reprised his character's voice for the enhancements at the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom theme parks, which involved an audio-animatronic with Rush's likeness being installed (including one at Tokyo Disneyland). 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 the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie,[17] Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. In 2005, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's Munich as Ephraim, a Mossad agent.

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.

In the beginning of 2009, Rush appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps featuring some of Australia's internationally recognised actors. He, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series. Rush's image is taken from Shine.[18]

In 2010, Rush played speech therapist Lionel Logue in The King's Speech, a part that earned him a BAFTA and nominations for the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actor.

Rush returned as Captain Hector Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, starring Johnny Depp, in 2011. Rush is also preparing for a film version of The Drowsy Chaperone, an award-winning stage musical.[19] In addition, he voiced the alien Tomar-Re in the film adaptation of the Green Lantern comic book series.[20]

In 2011, Rush made a cameo in a commercial, The Potato Peeler, for the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), playing a Polish farmer. He spoke his lines in Polish for the part.[21]

In August 2011, Rush was appointed the foundation president of the newly formed Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.[22] He resigned from the post in December 2017 after Sydney Theatre Company announced they had received an accusation of inappropriate behaviour against him.[23]

In 2013, Rush appeared alongside Jim Sturgess in The Best Offer and the film version of the best-selling novel The Book Thief.

Personal life

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). Rush lives in Melbourne, in the suburb of Camberwell.[24]

Sexual harassment allegations

On 30 November 2017, the Sydney tabloid newspaper The Daily Telegraph published a front-page article alleging that Rush engaged in "inappropriate behaviour" onstage with a co-star during the Sydney Theatre Company's 2015 production of King Lear. The story contained no corroboration for the allegations, though the STC divulged to the Telegraph that they had received a complaint about alleged sexual harassment by Rush. The accuser, Eryn Jean Norvill, who had starred as Cordelia alongside Rush, alleged that the actor had touched her inappropriately without her consent and that he had followed her into a toilet during an after-party.[25]

The Telegraph's story was picked up by The Advertiser in Adelaide and The Courier-Mail in Brisbane - all published by subsidiaries of News Corp Australia - but not by the Herald Sun in Melbourne, where Rush currently lives, because of concerns that the Telegraph was "running with a yarn which is highly libellous".[26] Rush denied the allegations and, on 8 December 2017, announced that he had filed a defamation suit with the Federal Court of Australia, charging that the Telegraph "made false, pejorative and demeaning claims, splattering them with unrelenting bombast on its front pages".[27]

In court, the Telegraph argued that the story was "substantially true", but Rush's lawyers persuaded the judge to disallow the paper's truth defence on the grounds that the printed allegations the paper was defending were too "vague and imprecise" for Rush to rebut them for his own defence.[28] The Telegraph unsuccessfully attempted to subpoena the STC for documentation supporting its plea against Rush.[29] In an affidavit, Rush stated that as a result of the allegations, he had been suffering from anxiety, insomnia and loss of appetite, and felt that "his worth to the theatre and film industry is now irreparably damaged".[30]

In August 2018, after months of back-and-forth between the Telegraph and Rush himself, Norvill agreed to testify in court for the Telegraph, leading their original truth defense to be reinstated. Rush and his lawyers did not object, as they wanted to get the lawsuit resolved "as quickly as possible".[31] The court also promptly denied the Telegraph’s bid to bring a fellow cast member, Colin Moody, as a witness, ruling that it would "disadvantage" Rush and was submitted too late.[32]

During the opening week of the trial, various witnesses such as director Neil Armfield spoke in support of Rush. When testifying over a text sent by Rush to Norvill about him "thinking of you more than is socially inappropriate", Rush said that he was only using mentoring talk and that a drooling emoji sent to her, was the closest to one he wanted to send. Armfield testified that he did not recall saying to Rush that what he was "doing was bordering on creepy".[33]

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

AACTA / AFI Awards

BAFTA Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Helpmann Awards

Other awards

• Awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Queensland, in Australia.
• Awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in the 2001 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to the arts especially through a distinguished acting career.[37]
• 1994: Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards
• 2003: Hollywood Film Festival - Supporting Actor of the Year
• 2003: Australian Film Institute Award - Global Achievement Award
• 2004: Brisbane International Film Festival - Chauvel Award
• 2009: Australian Film Institute Longford Life Achievement Award
• 2011: Santa Barbara International Film Festival - Montecito Award
• 2012: Australian of the Year[38]
• Appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2014, Australia's highest civilian honour, for eminent service to the arts as a theatre performer, motion picture actor and film producer, as a role model and mentor for aspiring artists, and through support for, and promotion of, the Australian arts industry.[39]
• In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, Geoffrey Rush was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for his role as an "Influential Artist".

[ Source: Wikipedia ]