Barbara Rush was a prolific film, television and stage actress known for credits including the 1953 movie “It Came From Outer Space” and TV shows “Peyton Place” and “All My Children.”
- Died: March 31, 2024 (Who else died on March 31?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 97.
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Barbara Rush’s legacy
Rush made her film debut in “The Goldbergs” in 1950. In 1953, she starred in the 3-D sci-fi classic, “It Came From Outer Space.” She won a Golden Globe for most promising newcomer for her performance, although she attributed much of the film’s success to its writer, Ray Bradbury (1920–2012). “He was really the first one who talked about aliens as superior beings — not just monsters trying to kill us,” she told Cinephile in a 2015 interview.
Rush continued to star in A-list films throughout the 1950s, including “Magnificent Obsession” and “Taza, Son of Cochise,” both in 1954, for director Douglas Sirk. She starred alongside the biggest movie stars of the day, such as Kirk Douglas (1916–2020) and Kim Novak in “Strangers When We Meet” (1960). Her on-screen love interests included James Mason in “Bigger Than Life” (1956), Dean Martin (1917–1995) in “The Young Lions” (1958), and Paul Newman (1925–2008) in “The Young Philadelphians” (1959). She even palled around with the Rat Pack in “Robin and the 7 Hoods” (1964). However, the one breakout role that would make her an A-list movie star eluded her.
Rush later turned toward television, where she found great success as a featured guest star. Throughout the 1960s, she appeared on dozens of TV shows including “Peyton Place” and “The Fugitive.” She even played a villain, Nora Clavicle, on “Batman.”
In 1970, she returned to the stage, winning awards in Chicago for her performance in the play “Forty Carats.” She also developed her one-person show, “A Woman of Independent Means,” which she took to Broadway in 1984 and toured on and off in various forms for over a decade.
Rush balanced TV, stage and film work for the rest of her career. She appeared in “Can’t Stop the Music” (1980) alongside the Village People and made several appearances on such TV shows as “The Love Boat,” “Fantasy Island,” “Knight Rider,” and “Murder, She Wrote.” In her later years, she had longtime recurring roles on “All My Children” and “Flamingo Road” as well as playing grandmother Ruth Camden on “7th Heaven.”
Rush looks back at her old roles
“When you’re very young, you just think ‘Oh God,’ because you’re not what you expect to be, (but) I will go and see them now, and 20 or 30 years have elapsed, and I think, ‘Hey, I was pretty good in that,’ because now I’m objective.” –from a 2010 screening of “The Young Philadelphians”
Tributes to Barbara Rush
Full obituary: The Hollywood Reporter
