Barbara Rush, Classy Star of 1950s Melodramas, Dies at 97
The actress appeared in the films 'Magnificent Obsession,' 'Bigger Than Life' and 'The Young Philadelphians' and on TV's 'Peyton Place.'
She was number 320 on the list.
Barbara Rush, the classy yet largely unheralded leading lady who sparkled in the 1950s melodramas Magnificent Obsession, Bigger Than Life and The Young Philadelphians, has died. She was 97.
Rush, a regular on the fifth and final season of ABC’s Peyton Place and a favorite of sci-fi fans thanks to her work in When Worlds Collide (1951) and It Came From Outer Space (1953), died Sunday, her daughter, Fox News senior correspondent Claudia Cowan, confirmed to Fox News Digital.
“My wonderful mother passed away peacefully at 5:28 this evening. I was with her this morning and know she was waiting for me to return home safely to transition,” Cowan said. “It’s fitting she chose to leave on Easter as it was one of her favorite holidays and now, of course, Easter will have a deeper significance for me and my family.”
A starlet at Paramount, Universal and Fox whose career blossomed at the end of the Hollywood studio system, Rush also played opposite Frank Sinatra in Come Blow Your Horn (1963) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), the last of the Rat Pack movies. Filming on the latter was stopped twice, once when President Kennedy was assassinated and again when Sinatra’s son was kidnapped.
In Douglas Sirk’s 1954 remake of Magnificent Obsession, Rush portrayed the adorable sister of Oscar nominee Jane Wyman, whose character is blinded in an accident caused by a reckless playboy (Rock Hudson).
Rush, Hudson and Sirk had warmed to the task by collaborating on the tongue-in-cheek film Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), in which the actors played Native Americans, and the three would work together again in the Ireland-set love story Captain Lightfoot (1955).
Rush portrayed the harried wife of James Mason, whose life unravels when he becomes addicted to cortisone, in Nicholas Ray’s controversial Bigger Than Life (1956), and she exceled as a disappointed socialite driven away by would-be lawyer Paul Newman in The Young Philadelphians (1959).
Rush also was seen as the despairing wife whose husband (Kirk Douglas) is having an affair (with neighbor Kim Novak) in Strangers When We Meet (1960), and she romanced Dean Martin and Richard Burton, respectively, in The Young Lions (1958) and The Bramble Bush (1960).
Rush never received an Oscar or Emmy nomination; she was given a Golden Globe in 1954 as most promising female newcomer for her performance in It Came From Outer Space, where she played the fiancee of an astronomer (Richard Carlson) as well as her seductive alien duplicate.
But who needs trophies? She was acknowledged in the 1975 film Shampoo when Warren Beatty’s Beverly Hills hairstylist and ladies man asked for references when applying for a business loan, bragged, “Well, I do Barbara Rush.”
The high-society Hollywood figure was married to actor Jeffrey Hunter (The Searchers) and legendary showbiz publicist Warren Cowan.
Barbara Rush was born in Denver on Jan. 4, 1927. The family moved to Santa Barbara, and she and her dad worked as ushers at the Lobero Theatre. After graduation from UC Santa Barbara, she won a scholarship to the Pasadena Playhouse and was noticed by a talent scout.
Paramount Pictures signed her to a contract in 1950, and she married Hunter in December of that year in Boulder City, Nevada. They became one of Hollywood’s most glamorous couples until their acrimonious divorce in 1955.
Rush made her movie debut in 1950 in The Goldbergs, based on the popular radio series, and then appeared in the 1951 releases Quebec with John Drew Barrymore and in Sirk’s The First Legion opposite Charles Boyer.
Her first starring role for Paramount came in the interplanetary fantasy When Worlds Collide, in which she played an astronomer’s daughter in love with a pilot. She moved on to the low-budget horror studio Universal International Pictures, which promptly cast her in It Came From Outer Space, filmed in 3D.
Rush went on to star in Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957), a rare
comedy for her, in which she played the wife of a psychiatrist (David Niven);
in No Down Payment (1957), with Joanne Woodward and Hunter, by then her
ex-husband; in Harry Black and the Tiger (1958), opposite Stewart Granger; and
in Hombre (1967), back again with Newman.
In the Village People disco musical Can’t Stop the Music (1980), directed by Nancy Walker of Rhoda fame, Rush played the mother of Bruce Jenner’s character.
On Peyton Place, Rush starred as Marsha Russell, who falls in love with Ed Nelson’s character as the series concludes. A quarter-century later, she was in another primetime soap, NBC’s Flamingo Road, playing the rich Eudora Weldon, whose adoptive daughter (Morgan Fairchild) was a brat.
Rush also appeared as the villainess Nora Clavicle, a women’s rights activist bent on evil, on the third season of Batman and recurred as Grandma Ruth Camden (Stephen Collins’ mother) on 7th Heaven.
When choice movie projects eluded her, Rush focused on theater. She won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for her work in the one-woman show A Woman of Independent Means. She played a character at various stages of life from age 7 to her 70s and took the play from Van Nuys to Broadway and dozens of cities in between.
She also toured in such productions as 40 Carats, Private Lives (with Louis Jourdan), Twigs, Butterflies Are Free, The Unsinkable Molly Brown and I Found April.
After her split with Hunter, Rush was married to PR kingpin Cowan from 1959 to 1968 (their wedding ceremony took place at the Beverly Hills home of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh) and to sculptor James Gruzalski from 1970 to 1973.
Survivors also include her son, Christopher Hunter.
Filmography
The Goldbergs (1950) as Debby Sherman
Quebec (1951) as Madelon
The First Legion (1951) as Terry Gilmartin
When Worlds Collide (1951) as Joyce Hendron
Flaming Feather (1952) as Nora Logan
Prince of Pirates (1953) as Countess Nita Orde
It Came from Outer Space (1953) as Ellen Fields
Taza, Son of Cochise (1954) as Oona
Magnificent Obsession (1954) as Joyce Phillips
The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) as Meg
Captain Lightfoot (1955) as Aga Doherty
Kiss of Fire (1955) as Princess Lucia
World in My Corner (1956) as Dorothy Mallinson
Bigger Than Life (1956) as Lou Avery
Flight to Hong Kong (1956) as Pamela Vincent
Oh Men! Oh Women! (1957) as Myra Hagerman
No Down Payment (1957) as Betty Kreitzer
The Young Lions (1958) as Margaret Freemantle
Harry Black and the Tiger (1958) as Christian Tanner
The Young Philadelphians (1959) as Joan Dickinson
The Bramble Bush (1960) as Margaret 'Mar' McFie
Strangers When We Meet (1960) as Eve Coe
Deadline: San Francisco (1962 TV movie)
Come Blow Your Horn (1963) as Connie
The Unknown (1964 TV movie) as Leonora Edmond
Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) as Marian
The Jet Set (1966 TV movie)
Hombre (1967) as Audra Favor
Strategy of Terror (1969) as Karen Lownes
Suddenly Single (1971 TV movie) as Evelyn Baxter
Cutter (1972 TV movie) as Linda
The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972 TV movie) as Katharine
Winslow
The Man (1972) as Kay Eaton
Moon of the Wolf (1972 TV movie) as Louise Rodanthe
Crime Club (1973 TV movie) as Denise London
Peege (1973 short) as Mom
Superdad (1973) as Sue McCready
Fools, Females and Fun (1974 TV movie) as Karen Markham
The Last Day (1975 TV movie) as Betty Spence
Death Car on the Freeway (1979 TV movie) as Rosemary
Can't Stop the Music (1980) as Norma White
Summer Lovers (1982) as Jean Featherstone
The Night the Bridge Fell Down (1983 TV movie) as Elaine
Howard
At Your Service (1984 TV movie) as Barbara Stonehill
Web of Deceit (1990 TV movie) as Judith
Widow's Kiss (1996 TV movie) as Edith Fitzpatrick
My Mother's Hairdo (2006 short) as Fate
Bleeding Hearts (2017 short) as Barbara Irons
Theatre credits
The Golden Ball (1937) stage debut
Personal Appearance (1948) Lobero Theatre
The Little Foxes UC Santa Barbara, 1948 and 1975
Antony and Cleopatra (1950) Pasadena Playhouse
Summer Stock (1951) with Anthony Perkins
The Madwoman of Chaillot (1951) with Jeffrey Hunter
The Voice of the Turtle (1953), with Jeffrey Hunter
Always April (1969)
40 Carats (1969-1971,1972) national tour
The Four Poster (1971)
Unsinkable Molly Brown (1972)
Butterflies Are Free (1972, 1981)
Private Lives (1973) national tour with Louis Jourdan
Father's Day (1974) national tour with Carole Cook
Finishing Touches (1974, 1978)
Hay Fever (1975, 1980)
Kennedy's Children (1975, 1976)
Endangered Species (1976)
Same Time, Next Year (1976-1978) national tour
Night of the Iguana (1978)
Twigs (1980)
The Supporting Cast (1982) national tour with Carole Cook
and Sandy Dennis
Blithe Spirit (1982-1983)
Disabled Genius (1983)
Woman of Independent Means (1983-1988) Broadway and national
tour
Steel Magnolias (1988-1989) national tour with Carole Cook,
June Lockhart and Marion Ross
Love Letters (1990-1993)
Vagina Monologues (1995-1997)
A Delicate Balance (1993)
The Golden Age (1997)
Make Me A Place at Forest Lawn (2002-2007)
Television
Lux Video Theatre (1954-1956, 4 episodes) as Cathy / Ruth /
Charlotte / Joyce Gavin
Playhouse 90 (1957-1960, 2 episodes) as Liz / Clara
The Eleventh Hour (1962, 1 episode) as Linda Kincaid
Saints and Sinners (1962-1963, 4 episodes) as Lizzie Hogan
The Outer Limits (1964, 1 episode: "The Forms of Things
Unknown") as Leonora Edmond
Dr. Kildare (1965, 2 episodes) as Madge Bannion
The Fugitive (1965, 2 episodes) as Marie Lindsey Gerard
Custer (1967, 1 episode) as Brigid O'Rourke
Batman (1968, 2 episodes) as Nora Clavicle
Peyton Place (1968-1969, 75 episodes) as Marsha Russell
Mannix (1968–1975, 2 episodes) as Rebekah Bigelow / Celia
Bell
Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969-1972, 2 episodes) as Dorothy Carpenter
/ Nadine Cabot
Medical Center (1969-1974, 4 episodes) as Claire / Pauline /
Judy / Nora Caldwell
Love, American Style (1970, 1 episode) as Carol (segment
"Love and the Motel")
The Mod Squad (1971, 1 episode) as Mrs. Hamilton
Ironside (1971-1972, 2 episodes) as Lorraine Simms / Mme.
Jabez
Night Gallery (1971, 1 episode) as Agatha Howard (segment
"Cool Air")
Maude (1972, 1 episode) as Phyllis 'Bunny' Nash
The Streets of San Francisco (1973, 1 episode) as Anna
Slovatzka Marshall
The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1973-1974, 3 episodes) as Margot
Brighton
Cannon (1975, episode "Lady on the Run") as Linda
Merrick
The Bionic Woman (1976, 1 episode) as Ann Sommers / Chris
Stuart
The Eddie Capra Mysteries (1978, 1 episode)
Fantasy Island (1978-1984, 3 episodes) as Mildred Koster /
Kathy Moreau / Professor Smith-Myles
The Love Boat (1979, 2 episodes) as Eleanor Gardner
The Seekers (1979 miniseries) as Peggy Kent
Flamingo Road (1980-1982, 38 episodes) as Eudora Weldon
Knight Rider (1983, 1 episode) as Elizabeth Knight
Magnum, P.I. (1984-1987, 2 episodes) as Phoebe Sullivan /
Ann Carrington
Murder, She Wrote (1987, 1 episode) as Eva Taylor
Hearts Are Wild (1992, 1 episode) as Caroline Thorpe
All My Children (1992-1994, 35 episodes recurring) as Nola
Orsini
Burke's Law (1995, 1 episode) as Judge Marian Darrow
The Outer Limits (1998, 1 episode) as Barbara Matheson
7th Heaven (1997-2007, 10 episodes) as Ruth Camden
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