Barbara Rush
Active - 1950 - 1990 | Born - Jan 4, 1927 in Denver, CO | Genres - Drama, Mystery, Adventure, Romance, Crime | Height: 5’ 7”
Fresh out of the University of California, sprightly Colorado-born actress Barbara Rush attended the Pasadena Playhouse, walking several miles to and from her classes to save up enough money for her tuition. Before launching her film career, she married actor Jeffrey Hunter, the first of two desultory unions. She became a favorite of little boys of all ages due to her leading-lady stints in two of the most influential science fiction films of the 1950s, When Worlds Collide (1951) and It Came From Outer Space (1953).
After biding her time in idiotic programmers like Prince of Pirates (1953), she emerged as an A-list leading lady at the major studios, adept at both comedy (Oh Men! Oh Women! [1957]) and drama (The Young Lions [1958]). Easing into character parts in the 1960s, Rush was often cast as viper-tongued shrews, cheating wives, and abrasive alcoholics. She also surprised many of her fans by appearing as “special guest villain” Nora Clavicle on an outrageous 1968 episode of Batman, which proposed that the miniskirted policewomen of Gotham City could be cowed into submission simply by releasing mice into the community. Though she hasn’t been seen in many films in later years, Barbara Rush has continued to flourish as a stage actress and TV guest star.
Available Films:
Trivia:
Along with Leonard Nimoy, David McCallum, Cliff Robertson and Peter Breck, she is one of only five actors to appear in both The Outer Limits (1963) and The Outer Limits (1995) and the only woman to do so.
She is one of only seven actors to have played “Special Guest Villains” in Batman (1966) who are still alive, the others being Julie Newmar, John Astin, Joan Collins, Glynis Johns, Dina Merrill and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Along with Leonard Nimoy, David McCallum, Cliff Robertson and Peter Breck, she is one of only five actors to appear in both The Outer Limits (1963) and The Outer Limits (1995) and the only woman to do so.
She is one of only seven actors to have played “Special Guest Villains” in Batman (1966) who are still alive, the others being Julie Newmar, John Astin, Joan Collins, Glynis Johns, Dina Merrill and Zsa Zsa Gabor.