Barbara Rush (1927-2024)

American actress Barbara Rush (1927-2024) died last Sunday, 31 March 2024, at 97. The beautiful brunette actress was the epitome of poise, charm, style, and grace in Hollywood films of the 1950s. In 1954, she won the Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Female Newcomer for the Science-Fiction film It Came from Outer Space (1953). She played the female lead in such films as The Young Philadelphians (1959), The Young Lions (1958), and Hombre (1967). Later in her career, Rush guest-starred on TV in such series as Peyton Place, All My Children and 7th Heaven.


Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor, sent by mail in 1961. Barbara Rush in It Came from Outer Space (Jack Arnold, 1953).


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto. Milano, no. N. 120.

Brittle wives, conniving 'other women' or socialite girlfriend types

Barbara Rush was born in Denver, Colorado in 1927. She was the daughter of Roy Rush, a lawyer for a Midwest mining company, and Marguerite Rush. Barbara grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and enrolled at the University of California where she graduated in 1948.

She then worked with the University Players and took acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse. Soon talent scouts spotted her and, following a play performance, Paramount quickly signed her up in 1950. She made her film debut with The Goldbergs (Walter Hart, 1950).

Just before this, she had met fellow actor Jeffrey Hunter, an incredibly handsome newcomer who later became a 'beefcake' Bobbysoxer idol at Fox. The two fell in love quickly and married in December of 1950. Soon, they were on their way to becoming one of Hollywood's most beautiful and photogenic young couples. Their son Christopher was born in 1952.

While at Paramount, she was decorative in such assembly-line fare as the classic George Pal Sci-Fi film When Worlds Collide (Rudolph Maté, 1951), Quebec (George Templeton, 1951) opposite John Drew Barrymore, and the Western Flaming Feather (Ray Enright, 1952) starring Sterling Hayden. In 1953 she played the female lead in another Sci-Fi classic, It Came from Outer Space (Jack Arnold, 1953) for which she won a Golden Globe for 'Most Promising Newcomer – Female'.

Rush starred as the wife of James Mason in the acclaimed drama Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956), in which a school teacher's use of an experimental drug results in his threatening harm to his family. She was the love interest of reluctant soldier Dean Martin in the epic World War II drama The Young Lions (Edward Dmytryk, 1958) and of ambitious lawyer Paul Newman in The Young Philadelphians (Vincent Sherman, 1959). She also co-starred opposite Richard Burton, and Kirk Douglas. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "In most cases, she played brittle wives, conniving 'other women' or socialite girlfriend types. Despite the 'A' list movies, Barbara was piling up, the one single role that could put her over the top never showed its face."


Big autograph card.

A Woman of Independent Means

By the early 1960s, Barbara Rush's film career started to decline. She married publicist Warren Cowan in 1959 and bore a second child, Claudia Cowan, in 1964. That year, she played a villainess in the Rat Pack's gangster musical Robin and the 7 Hoods (Gordon Douglas, 1964). In the Western drama Hombre (Martin Ritt, 1967) starring Paul Newman, she played a rich, younger, condescending wife of a thief - and ends up taken hostage and tied to a stake.

TV became a viable source of income for Barbara, appearing in scores of guest parts on the more popular shows of the time while co-starring in standard mini-movie dramas. In 1965, she appeared in a two-part episode of The Fugitive titled 'Landscape with Running Figures' as Marie Gérard, wife of police detective Lt. Philip Gérard. She had fun playing a 'guest villainess' in the Batman (1966) series as temptress Nora Clavicle.

The stage also became a strong focus for Barbara. In 1970, she earned the Sarah Siddons Award for  'Forty Carats'. In 1984, she made her Broadway debut in the one-woman showcase 'A Woman of Independent Means', which earned her the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award during its tour.

Other showcases included 'Private Lives', (1973) 'Same Time, Next Year', (1976-1978) 'The Night of the Iguana' (1978), 'Steel Magnolias' (1988-1989), and Vagina Monologues (1995-1997). Among her later film appearances were parts in the disco-themed Can't Stop the Music (Nancy Walker, 1980) with The Village People, and the romantic comedy Summer Lovers (Randal Kleiser, 1982), starring Daryl Hannah.

The still-beautiful Barbara Rush occasionally graced the big and small screen in the later decades, including in a recurring role on TV's 7th Heaven (1997-2007). She died at a care home in Westlake Village, California, in 2024, at the age of 97. Rush married and divorced three times. Her husbands were Jeffrey Hunter (1950-1955), Warren Cowan (1959-1969), and actor Jim Gruzalski (1970-1973). She was the mother of Christopher Hunter and Fox News correspondent Claudia Cowan and aunt of actress Carolyn Hennesy.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1078. Photo: Universal International.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1084. Photo: Universal International.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.