Barbara Rush Dies: ‘Peyton Place’ & ‘All My Children’ Actress Was 97
Veteran actress Barbara Rush, best known for her recurring roles on Peyton Place and All My Children, as well as the 1953 film It Came From Outer Space, has died. She was 97.
The passing was confirmed by Rush’s daughter, Fox News Channel senior correspondent Claudia Cowan, who said, “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 added, “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.”
Born on January 4, 1927, in Denver, Colorado, Rush began her career in the University of California theater program, where she graduated in 1948. She’d go on to perform on stage at the Lobero Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse before signing with Paramount Pictures, where she made her on-screen debut in 1950’s The Goldbergs.
20th Century Fox / courtesy Everett Collection
She starred on the big screen throughout the 1950s, most notably in the 1951 sci-fi film When Worlds Collide, 1952’s Flaming Feather, 1954’s It Came From Outer Space, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female, and the critically-acclaimed 1956 drama Bigger Than Life opposite James Mason.
Rush transitioned to television in the 1960s, appearing in classic series such as The Eleventh Hour, Ben Casey, Batman, Dr. Kildare, The Fugitive, Marcus Welby, M.D., McCloud, Maude, Ironside, and Mannix.
From 1968 to 1969, she starred in 75 episodes of the popular ABC soap opera Peyton Place, where she played Marsha Russell. She would return to the world of soaps in 1992 when she joined the cast of ABC’s All My Children, portraying Nola Orsini for 35 episodes.
Her later roles included The WB’s 7th Heaven, where she played the recurring role of Grandma Ruth Camden, the 2006 short film My Mother’s Hairdo, and the 2017 short Bleeding Hearts.
As her on-screen career ended, Rush would continue to act on stage, making occasional appearances for the Theatre Guild in Orange County, California.
She is survived by her two children, Claudia Cowan and Christopher Hunter.
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