Johan Hedenberg

Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor. Born in 1951 in Toowoomba, Queensland, as the son of Roy and Merle Rush, he began his acting career with the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane. He graduated from the University of Queensland's arts department, where he shared a room with Mel Gibson during his student years. In the 1970s, he appeared in numerous plays with the QTC. His first film experience was in the 1981 film *Starstruck*. Until the mid-1990s, he continued to focus on theatre, but he gained worldwide attention in 1996. His portrayal of pianist David Helfgott in the 1996 film *Shine* earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. In subsequent years, his performances in *Shakespeare in Love* and *Quills* garnered him two more Oscar nominations. He played Captain Barbossa in the *Pirates of the Caribbean* series, starting with the first film in 2003. In 2005, his role as Peter Sellers in *The Life and Death of Peter Sellers* won him an Emmy Award. In 2010, his performance as Lionel Logue, the speech therapist who treated King George VI, in *The King's Speech*, earned him great acclaim and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has been married to Jane Menelaus since 1988 and has two children: Angelica (b. 1992) and James (b. 1995).