Shootout

Geoffrey Rush

Geoffrey Rush, one of today’s most respected actors, started his career in Australian theatre, and has since appeared in over 70 theatrical productions and more than 20 feature films.

Rush won an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for his captivating performance in HBO Films’ The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, in which he portrays the title character. This November he can be seen starring in Candy, opposite Heath Ledger, for director Neil Armfield. Rush was most recently seen in the box office giant Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, where he revisited his role as Captain Barbossa and the Academy Award nominated film Munich for director Steven Speilberg. Rush recently completed production on Universal Studio’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and is now filming Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End.

Rush caught the eye of many for his starring role in director Scott Hicks' feature film Shine. His role portraying David Helgott in Shine garnered him an Academy Award for Best Actor. He also won a Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, Film Critics’ Circle of Australia Award, Broadcast Film Critics, AFI and New York and Los Angeles Film Critics’ Awards. Rush also received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Philip Kaufman’s Quills and an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for Shakespeare in Love.

His other film credits include Intolerable Cruelty, Finding Nemo, Ned Kelly, Lantana, Frida, The Tailor of Panama, House on Haunted Hill, Mystery Men, Elizabeth, Les Miserables, A Little Bit of Soul, Children of the Revolution, On Our Selection, Twelfth Night, Oscar and Lucinda and Starstruck. Rush received a degree in English at the University of Queensland, before continuing at the Jaques Lecoq School of Mime, Movement and Theater in Paris. Returning to Australia, he starred in the theater productions King Lear, and appeared alongside Mel Gibson in Waiting for Godot.

He was a principal member of Jim Sharman’s pioneering Lighthouse Ensemble in the early 1980’s playing leading roles in numerous classics. His work on stage garnered many accolades, including the Sydney Critics Circle Award for Most Outstanding Performance, the Variety Club Award for Best Actor and the 1990 Victorian Green Room Award for his laud performance in Neil Armfield’s The Diary of a Madman. He also received Best Actor nominations in the Sydney Critics’ Circle Awards for his starring roles in Gogol’s The Government Inspector, Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and Mamet’s Oleanna. In 1994 he received the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award for his work in theatre.