Barbara Rush was born on January 4 1927 in Denver, Colorado. Her family moved to Santa Barbara, California, where she and her father worked as ushers at the Lobero Theatre there. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and afterwards studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. It was in 1950 that she signed a contract with Paramount Pictures.
Barbara Rush made her film debut in The Goldbergs in 1950. Her first starring role was in the science fiction classic When Worlds Collide (1951). In the Fifties she appeared in such films as Quebec (1951), The First Legion (1951), Flaming Feather (1952), Prince of Pirates (1953), It Came from Outer Space (1953), Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), Magnificent Obsession (1954), The Black Shield of Farnsworth (1954), Captain Lightfoot (1955), Kiss of Fire (1955), World in My Corner (1956), Bigger Than Life (1956), Fight to Hong Kong (1956), Oh Men! Oh Women! (1957), No Down Payment (1957), The Young Lions (1958), Harry Black (1958), The Young Philadelphians (1959), The Bramble Bush (1960), and Strangers When We Meet (1960). She made her television debut in an episode of Lux Video Theatre in 1954. She guest starred on the shows Matinee Theatre, Suspicion, Lux Playhouse, Sunday Showcase, Playhouse 90, Checkmate, and Our American Heritage.
In the Sixties, Miss Rush had a recurring role on the TV show Saints and Sinners and a regular role on the nighttime soap opera Peyton Place. She made an unsold pilot titled The Barbara Rush Show that aired as an episode of the show Vacation Playhose. She guest starred on the shows Frontier Circus; Theatre '62; General Electric Theatre; The Eleventh Hour; The Dick Powell Show; Ben Casey; The Outer Limits; Kraft Suspense Theatre; Convoy; Dr. Kildare; The Fugitive; Laredo; Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre; Custer; Batman; Mannix; and Love, American Style. She appeared in the movies Come Blow Your Horn (1963), Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), and Hombre (1967).
In the Seventies she guest starred on the shows The Mod Squad; Night Gallery; Marcus Welby, M.D.; McCloud; Cade's County; Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law; Maude; Ironside; The Streets of San Francisco; The New Dick Van Dyke Show; Medical Center; Police Story; Cannon; Mannix; Ellery Queen; The Bionic Woman; ABC Weekend Specials; The Eddie Capra Mysteries; Fantasy Island, and The Love Boat. She appeared in the mini-series The Seekers. She appeared in the movies The Man (1972), Superdad (1973), and Can't Stop the Music (1980).
In the Eighties Barbara Rush was a regular on the nighttime soap opera Flamingo Road. She guest starred on the TV shows Cop Shop; Matt Houston; Knight Rider; Fantasy Island; Masquerade; Finder of Lost Loves; Glitter, Hotel; Magnum, P.I.; Murder, She Wrote; and Hooperman. She appeared in the movie Summer Loves (1982).
In the Nineties Miss Rush had recurring roles on the daytime soap opera All My Children and the TV series 7th Heaven. She guest starred on Paradise, Hearts Are Wild, Burke's Law, Relativity, and The Outer Limits. In the Naughts she continued to appear on 7th Heaven. She appeared in the short "My Mother's Hairdo." Her last appearance on was in the short "Bleeding Hearts: The Arteries of Glenda Bryant" in 2017.
Barbara Rush also had an extensive career on stage. She appeared on Broadway in A Woman of Independent Means in 1984. She also appeared in such productions as The Little Foxes, Antony and Cleopatra, Unsinkable Molly Brown, Butterflies are Free, Night of the Iguana, Blithe Spirit, Steel Magnolias, and Love Letters. She attended multiple TCM Classic Film Festivals over the years.
Following Barbara Rush's death, I heard someone describe her as a "classically beautiful character actress," and I think that is a very accurate description. She had the looks of a leading lady, but she could play a wide variety of roles with ease. For sci-fi fans she might be most familiar as the astronomer's daughter Joyce Hendron in When Worlds Collide and school teacher Ellen Fields in It Came from Outer Space. While she is remembered for those two sci-fi classics, she was also at home in more straight-forward dramas. She played the wife of drug-addicted teacher Ed Avery (James Mason) in Bigger Than Life. In The Young Philadelphians Barbara Rush played socialite Joan Dickson, who falls in love with middle class Princeton student Tony Lawrence (Paul Newman). Barbara Rush could and did play villainous roles. In Robin and the 7 Hoods she played the somewhat duplicitous Marian. In Hombre she played the aristocratic wife of an Indian agent who has her own agenda.
Of course, Barbara Rush was not only beautiful and talented. She was an altogether wonderful person. I never got to meet her, but I have many friends who did get to meet her at the TCM Classic Film Festival and other events. She was warm, friendly, and known for her kindness to her fans. And she was so very intelligent, as anyone who has seen an interview with her will know. She was generous with her stories of Old Hollywood. In the end Barbara Rush was the very definition of a lady, intelligent, elegant, kind, and so much more.
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