Geoffrey Rush: Yeh Best Start Believing in Talented Actors! He is one!
Throughout a career of more than 40 years in show business, he’s made movies playing the principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, a beloved Australian pianist, an unsympathetic police inspector, King George VI’s speech therapist, and even a ruthless, greedy pirate! Many of the characters that he portrayed were stubborn. Some used their stubbornness for the greater good while others used it for greed and selfishness…but we loved him for it nonetheless! I’m referring none other than Geoffrey Rush—an incredibly versatile actor!
Rush was born in Toowoomba, Queenland, Austrailia on July 6th, 1951. His father, Roy Bayden Rush, was an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force and his mother, Merle Bischof Rush, was a department store sales assistant. They unfortunately divorced when he was five years old and he went to live with his mother in Brisbane. He attended Everton Park State High School and graduated from University of Queensland with a Bachelor’s degree in Arts. While attending the university he was talent-spotted by the QTC (Queensland Theatre Company) who offered him to join their group. He accepted and officially began his career as an actor in 1971.
Rush made his debut with the QTC in a production called Wrong Side of the Moon. He was involved in the group for four years and briefly left the group to study mime in Paris for two years. After that, he returned to the QTC, where he appeared in Shakespearean productions such as The Winter’s Tale and Trolius and Cressida. He also appeared in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest, where he met his wife, Jane Maenelaus, whom he married in 1988. While appearing in each of these productions, Rush also appeared in the series Consumer Capers in 1979 and in the film Hoodwink in 1981, both of which were produced and distributed by Australia.
After appearing in various other Australian-produced films and television series (i.e., Starstruck (1982), Menotti (1980-1981), and Twelfth Night (1987), Geoffrey Rush made his American film debut in Shine (1996), in which he played Australian pianist David Helfgott. His performance in the film was universally praised and earned him both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Actor. In 1998, two years after “Shine,” Rush made four films: Les Miserables (not the musical) in which he played Inspector Javert opposite Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean and Uma Thurman as Fantine, A Little Bit of Soul which was produced in Australia, and Elizabeth, in which he played Sir Francis Walsingham, opposite Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I. Rush had previously narrated the film Oscar and Lucinda (1997), which also starred Blanchett, and he reprised the role of Francis Walsingham in the “Elizabeth,” sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), which reunited him again with Blanchett. He also appeared in Queensland Art Centre’s production of The Marriage of Figaro in ’98 and he made Shakespeare in Love the same year, playing theater entrepreneur and impresario Philip Henslowe, a role that earned him his second Oscar nomination, though first in the supporting category.
In 2000, Rush made the film Quills, opposite Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, and Michael Caine, where he played The Marquis de Sade, earning him a third Oscar nomination. Not long after making that film, Rush was approached by Director Gore Verbinski to play the role of Captain Hector Barbossa in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Verbinski wanted Rush for the role because he knew he could play the role with a simple villainy that would fit the story perfectly. Rush had previously worked with “Pirates,” co-star Orlando Bloom on the Australian film Ned Kelly, which also came out in 2003. It was Rush who gave Bloom the script for “Pirates,” and suggested he read it while they made “Ned Kelly.” 2003 proved another one of many busy years for Rush, as he was invited by Pixar Animation Studios to voice Nigel the Pelican in their next collaboration film with Disney at the time, Finding Nemo, released May 30th, a little over a month before “Curse of the Black Pearl’s,” July 9th release.
Geoffrey Rush reprised the role of Hector Barbossa in all four of Disney’s “Pirates,” sequels, Dead Man’s Chest (2006), At World’s End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011), and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). The year after he made “Curse of the Black Pearl,” he made the HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), impersonating Peter Sellers winning him his first Golden Globe since “Shine.” The role also won the Globe for Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. Before he made “On Stranger Tides,” he conquered Broadway in 2009, starring as King Berenger in the play Exit the King, a role that he had originated at the Malthouse Theatre in Australia. The Broadway production earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a play. In 2010, he took on the role of Lionel Logue in The King’s Speech (2010) which earned him his fourth Oscar nomination. Most recently, he portrayed Albert Einstein in the National Geographic Series Genuis (2017-present) and he also appeared in the Australian family adventure film Storm Boy (2019).
Geoffrey Rush has played some guys who have existed in real life, and some who also haven’t, in stage, television, and film. Disney lovers probably will always remember him best as Barbossa in the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” franchise, but looking back at all the biopics and period dramas he’s done, he’s just a great actor, period, and he brings a character to life brilliantly whether the character is real or made up. The Title of this Blog is taken from perhaps his most famous line from the “Pirates” series: Yeh best start believing in ghost stories Miss Turner! You’re in One!
