Geoffrey Roy Rush AC (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. Rush is amongst 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting: an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting (of four nominations), three British Academy Film Awards (of five nominations), two Golden Globe Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. Rush is the founding President of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and was named the 2012 Australian of the Year. He is also the first actor to win the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics\' Choice Movie Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for a single performance in film for his performance as piano prodigy David Helfgott in Shine (1996).\n', '

Rush was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, the son of Merle (Bischof), a department store sales assistant, and Roy Baden Rush, an accountant for the Royal Australian Air Force. His father was of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, and his mother was of German descent. His parents divorced when he was five, and his mother subsequently took him to live with her parents in suburban Brisbane. Before he began his acting career, Rush attended Brisbane State High School, and graduated from the University of Queensland with a bachelor\'s degree in Arts. While at university, he was talent-spotted by Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) in Brisbane. Rush began his career with QTC in 1971, appearing in 17 productions.\n', '

In 1975, Rush went to Paris for two years and studied mime, movement and theatre at L\'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, before returning to resume his stage career with QTC. In 1979, he shared an apartment with actor Mel Gibson for four months while they co-starred in a stage production of Waiting for Godot.\n', '

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