Barbara Rush


Barbara Rush was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. In 1954, she won the Golden Globe Award for most promising female newcomer for her role in the 1953 American science-fiction film It Came from Outer Space. Later in her career, Rush became a regular performer in the television series Peyton Place, and appeared in TV movies, miniseries, and a variety of other programs, including the soap opera All My Children and the family drama 7th Heaven, as well as starring in films such as The Young Philadelphians, The Young Lions, Robin and the 7 Hoods, and Hombre.

Early life and education

Rush was born in Denver on January 4, 1927. Her parents were Roy and Marguerite Rush. Her father was a lawyer for a Midwest mining company. She grew up in Santa Barbara, California. Rush attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated in 1948, starting her career in the university's theatre program. After graduating from UCSB, she moved to Los Angeles. She lived at the Hollywood Studio Club, a hostel for young women working in the film industry. She also took acting classes at the accredited Pasadena Playhouse School for Performing Arts, also known as the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts. Just two years after graduating from UCSB, Rush was contracted to do her first feature-length film, The Goldbergs, in 1950.

Career

Rush's career began on the stage in the 1940s and quickly expanded to film and TV. She performed on stage at the Lobero Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse before signing with Paramount Pictures. She made her screen debut in the 1950 movie, The Goldbergs. In 1951, she co-starred in the classic George Pal sci-fi film When Worlds Collide. In 1952, she starred in Flaming Feather with Sterling Hayden and Victor Jory. In 1953, she starred in the sci-fi thriller It Came From Outer Space, for which she won the 1954 Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Newcomer – Female" for her performance.
In the acclaimed 1956 drama, Bigger Than Life, Rush played the role of Lou Avery, the wife of James Mason's character, Ed Avery, a teacher who has a chronic, inflammatory disease that is incurable. He uses cortisone for symptom relief but then begins to abuse the medication, putting his family in peril. In the 1958 film The Young Lions, she played the love interest of reluctant soldier Dean Martin, and the following year she was cast in the 1959 movie The Young Philadelphians as the on-again,off-again, hot-cold girlfriend of ambitious lawyer Paul Newman.
Rush's characters were often those of willful women of means or as polished, high-society doyenne. She was occasionally cast as a villainess or femme fatale, such as Marian Stevens in the Rat Pack's 1964 gangster musical Robin and the 7 Hoods. Marian either seduces or attempts to seduce five different men to control the Chicago mobs from behind the scenes. In the 1967 Western drama Hombre, working with Paul Newman again, she played Audra Favor, the rich, younger, and condescending wife of a thief – and ends up being taken hostage and tied to a stake.
Rush began working in television in the 1960s. In 1964, she was billed as "Special Guest Star" for the episode, "The Form of Things Unknown", in the popular 1960s sci-fi series on ABC, The Outer Limits. She portrayed the devious Nora Clavicle in the popular TV series
Batman. Rush soon became a regular in TV movies, miniseries, and dramas such as Peyton Place and the daytime soap opera All My Children.
File:Jimmy McHugh, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Barbara Rush, and Louella Parsons, 1960.jpg|thumb|left|: Jimmy McHugh, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Barbara Rush and Louella Parsons from Modern Screen, 1960
Rush began her career on stage, which remained a part of her professional life until she retired. In 1970, she earned the Sarah Siddons Award for dramatic achievement in Chicago theatre for her leading role in Forty Carats.
In 1976, Rush played the role of Ann Sommers/Chris Stewart, the mother of female sci-fi action character Jaime Sommers in The Bionic Woman. In 1979, Rush played Eleonor, the love interest of captain Stubing in a double episode of The Love Boat
After appearing in the 1980 disco-themed film, Can't Stop the Music, Rush returned to television. She was cast as Eudora Weldon in the early 1980s soap opera, Flamingo Road. In 1983 and 1984 she played widow Elizabeth Knight in the two-part episode "Goliath” in the Knight Rider series.
In 1984 Rush returned to the theatre and brought her one-woman play, A Woman of Independent Means, to Broadway in New York City. In 1989 she toured with the national company of Steel Magnolias as the character M'Lynn.
During the 1990s and up to 2007 Rush continued to make guest appearances on television. In 1998, she was featured in the episode, "Balance of Nature", in the series reboot of The Outer Limits on Showtime. Rush was one of five actors who appeared in both the original series and the reboot, and the only actress to do so. In 2007, Rush played the recurring role of Grandma Ruth Camden in the long-running and very popular series 7th Heaven. After the series ended in 2007, it appears that she "retired" from TV and films and focused her energy on her first love – the stage. She occasionally appeared on stage at the Theatre Guild in Orange County, CA in the mid-2000s. She made her final film appearance in 2017 in a "horror short" titled Bleeding Hearts: The Arteries of Glenda Bryant. She starred alongside her niece, actress Carolyn Hennesy.

Personal life and death

Rush married actor Jeffrey Hunter in 1950; they divorced in 1955. She married publicist Warren Cowan in 1959 but divorced in 1969. Rush married sculptor Jim Gruzalski in 1970 after they met at an Engelbert Humperdinck concert. They divorced in 1973.
Rush had two children including daughter Claudia Cowan, a journalist with Fox News. Rush was also the aunt of actress Carolyn Hennesy.
Since 1997 Rush had lived in the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills, California, and was a neighbor of David Geffen. Her final residence was a care home in Westlake Village, California. Rush died there on March 31, 2024, at the age of 97, due to complications from dementia.

Acting credits

Filmography

  • The Goldbergs as Debby Sherman
  • Quebec as Madelon
  • The First Legion as Terry Gilmartin
  • When Worlds Collide as Joyce Hendron
  • Flaming Feather as Nora Logan
  • Prince of Pirates as Countess Nita Orde
  • It Came from Outer Space as Ellen Fields
  • Taza, Son of Cochise as Oona
  • Magnificent Obsession as Joyce Phillips
  • The Black Shield of Falworth as Meg
  • Captain Lightfoot as Aga Doherty
  • Kiss of Fire as Princess Lucia
  • World in My Corner as Dorothy Mallinson
  • Bigger Than Life as Lou Avery
  • Flight to Hong Kong as Pamela Vincent
  • Oh Men! Oh Women! as Myra Hagerman
  • No Down Payment as Betty Kreitzer
  • The Young Lions as Margaret Freemantle
  • Harry Black and the Tiger as Christian Tanner
  • The Young Philadelphians as Joan Dickinson
  • The Bramble Bush as Margaret 'Mar' McFie
  • Strangers When We Meet as Eve Coe
  • Dateline: San Francisco
  • Come Blow Your Horn as Connie
  • The Unknown as Leonora Edmond
  • Robin and the 7 Hoods as Marian
  • The Jet Set
  • Hombre as Audra Favor
  • Strategy of Terror as Karen Lownes
  • Suddenly Single as Evelyn Baxter
  • Cutter as Linda
  • The Eyes of Charles Sand as Katharine Winslow
  • The Man as Kay Eaton
  • Moon of the Wolf as Louise Rodanthe
  • Crime Club as Denise London
  • Peege as Mom
  • Superdad as Sue McCready
  • Fools, Females and Fun as Karen Markham
  • The Last Day as Betty Spence
  • Death Car on the Freeway as Rosemary
  • Can't Stop the Music as Norma White
  • Summer Lovers as Jean Featherstone
  • The Night the Bridge Fell Down as Elaine Howard
  • At Your Service as Barbara Stonehill
  • Web of Deceit as Judith
  • Widow's Kiss as Edith Fitzpatrick
  • My Mother's Hairdo as Fate
  • Bleeding Hearts: The Arteries of Glenda Bryant as Barbara Irons. Co-starred with niece Carolyn Hennesy.

    Theatre

  • The Golden Ball stage debut
  • Personal Appearance Lobero Theatre
  • The Little Foxes UC Santa Barbara
  • Antony and Cleopatra Pasadena Playhouse
  • Summer Stock with Anthony Perkins
  • The Madwoman of Chaillot with Jeffrey Hunter
  • The Voice of the Turtle, with Jeffrey Hunter
  • Always April
  • Forty Carats national tour
  • The Fourposter
  • The Unsinkable Molly Brown
  • Butterflies Are Free
  • Private Lives national tour with Louis Jourdan
  • Father's Day national tour with Carole Cook
  • Finishing Touches
  • Hay Fever
  • Kennedy's Children
  • Endangered Species
  • Same Time, Next Year national tour
  • The Night of the Iguana
  • Twigs
  • The Supporting Cast national tour with Carole Cook and Sandy Dennis
  • Blithe Spirit
  • Disabled Genius
  • Woman of Independent Means Broadway and national tour
  • Steel Magnolias national tour with Carole Cook, June Lockhart, and Marion Ross
  • Love Letters
  • The Vagina Monologues
  • A Delicate Balance
  • The Golden Age
  • ''Make Me A Place at Forest Lawn''