Geoffrey Rush

Geoffrey Roy Rush AC (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is known for his eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award. He also received three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. Rush is the founding president of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and was named the 2012 Australian of the Year.

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

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). Other notable roles include in Elizabeth (1998), Les Misérables (1998), Frida (2001). He gained mainstream popularity for his role as Captain Hector Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (2003–2017). During this time he also acted in Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Munich (2005), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and The Book Thief (2013).

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.

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

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.