Richard Rush (director)

Richard Rush in 2006

Richard Rush (born April 15, 1929 in New York , NY , USA ) is an American film director , screenwriter and producer .

François Truffaut once called him one of the greatest talents in American cinema . Richard Rush is considered a pioneer of Hollywood greats like Jack Nicholson and Francis Ford Coppola .

Life

Richard Rush studied astronomy and physics at UCLA , but struggled with the math and majored in drama . It was the first semester of the film department. Rush later just called it a happy coincidence.

His work as a sound engineer at a young age helped him learn about the technical side of filmmaking. After making his directorial debut for Universal Studios in 1960's Too Soon To Love , which he also produced and for which he wrote the screenplay, he was considered the first director of "American New Wave".

Rush's next productions, including The wild bat of San Francisco ( Hell's Angels on Wheels ) from 1967 and Psych-Out 1968, both with Jack Nicholson, established his reputation as a filmmaker in a high speed. Getting Straight with Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen earned Universal Studios the highest grossing of the year in 1970 . Also Freebie and the Bean 1974 with Alan Arkin and James Caan was commercially successful. For The Long Death of Stuntman Cameron (The Stunt Man) starring Peter O'Toole from 1980, Rush was finally nominated at the Academy Awards for best director and for best screenplay. For nine years he had worked on the film, the production history of which is often compared to that of Orson Welles ' Citizen Kane . Amazingly, Rush's career came to a virtual standstill after this success.

In 1994 he shot the erotic thriller Color of Night with Bruce Willis , which was "awarded" as the worst film of the year at the "Razzie Awards" ( Golden Raspberry ). After that, Rush retired from commercial cinema. His most recent work was a DVD - documentation about the filming of The Stunt Man .

Filmography (selection)

as a director

1959: Sin beckons (Too Soon to Love)
1962: Without Moral (Of Love and Desire)
1967: Donner-Teufel (Thunder Alley)
1967: The Dangerous Adventures of Jerry Parker (El dedo del destino)
1967: A Man Called Dagger
1967: The Savage Seven
1967: The Wild Thugs of San Francisco (Hells Angels on Wheels)
1968: Psych-Out
1970: Getting Straight
1974: The Superschnüffler (Freebie and the Bean)
1980: The Long Death of Stuntman Cameron (The Stunt Man)
1994: Color of Night

as a screenwriter

1959: Sin beckons
1962: Without morals
1980: The long death of stuntman Cameron
1990: Air America

Web links

Richard Rush in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

^ Richard Rush in Tales from the Script . Eds. Peter Hanson, Paul Robert Herman. 1st edition. HarperCollins Publishers, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-06-185592-4 , p. 6.

personal data
SURNAME	Rush, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American film director, screenwriter and producer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 15, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York , NY , USA

[1] Richard Rush in Tales from the Script . Eds. Peter Hanson, Paul Robert Herman. 1st edition. HarperCollins Publishers, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-06-185592-4 , p. 6.