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GEOFFREY RUSH - David, as an adult
One of his country's most acclaimed and distinguished stage actors, Geoffrey Rush's career has spanned more than two decades and over 70 theatrical productions. In 1975 Rush studied for two years at the Jacques Lecoq School of Mime, Movement and Theater in Paris. On his return to Australia he played the Fool opposite Warren Mitchell's "King Lear" and co-starred with Mel Gibson in "Waiting for Godot." He was a principal member of Jim Sharman's "Lighthouse" ensemble in the early 80's, where he played leading roles in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Twelfth Night," and "The Marriage of Figaro." As a director, he has staged productions for the Queensland Theater Company, the Adelaide Festival, Belvoir Street, and Magpie Theater for Young People, for which he served as director for two years. Rush has also staged his own co-adaptation (with satirist John Clarke) of Aristophanes' "Frogs" at the Belvoir.
In 1989, Rush's lead performance in Neil Armfield's production of "The Diary of A Madman" earned him the Sydney Critics' Circle Award for Most Outstanding Performance, the Variety Club Award for Best Actor and a year later, the Victorian Green Room Award for Best Actor. This highly acclaimed production toured Moscow and St. Petersburg before a triumphant return season at the Adelaide Festival. For the next three years, Rush received Best Actor nominations in the Sydney Critics' Awards for his starring roles in such diverse plays as Gogol's "The Government Inspector," the Sydney Theater Company's production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," and Mamet's "Oleanna." In 1994 he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor as Horatio in the Belvoir production of "Hamlet."
Previous film credits include Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck, Neil Armfield's Twelfth Night, and, most recently, in starring roles opposite Leo McKern and Dame Joan Sutherland in George Whaley's On Our Selection (which also featured his Shine co-star Noah Taylor) and in the forthcoming Children of the Revolution with Judy Davis and Sam Neill. In 1994 Rush received the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award for his work in theater, one of Australia's most prestigious prizes, awarded annually to an individual who has shown himself to be an original artist, capable of initiative and daring in his work.
NOAH TAYLOR - David, as a young man
Noah Taylor, one of Australia's most talented and prolific young actors, is best known for his acclaimed performance as Danny Embling in The Year My Voice Broke and its sequel, Flirting, both directed by John Duigan. He began his career at the St. Martin's Youth Theatre in Melbourne. His stage credits include leading roles in such productions as "Pierrot Lunaire," "Bloody Mama," "Alien in the Park," "The Grim Reaper," "Baron in the Trees" and "Eric and Verna." Taylor's television credits include "A Long Way From Home," "Bangkok Hilton" (produced by Kennedy Miller and starring Nicole Kidman), "The Last Crop," "Inspector Morse - The Promised Land" (starring John Thor), "The Boys from the Bush" and "Jon's Jury."
On screen, Taylor has also starred in Lover Boy (directed by Geoffrey Wright - Romper Stomper), Prisoner of St. Petersburg, Dead to the World, Secrets (screenplay by Jan Sardi), The Nostradamus Kid and since Shine, he has also starred in the feature film True Love and Chaos.
Taylor was nominated for Best Actor by the AFI for his performance in The Year My Voice Broke and Best Supporting Actor for On Our Selection. He has won the Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor three times: in 1988 for The Year My Voice Broke, in 1991 for Flirting and in 1993 for The Nostradamus Kid.
German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl is known to international audiences for his performances in such films as Costa-Gavras' highly acclaimed The Music Box (co-starring Jessica Lange), Barry Levinson's Avalon, George Sluizer's Utz, Jim Jarmusch's Night On Earth, John Avildsen's The Power of One and Steven Soderbergh's Kafka.
A native of former East Germany, Mueller-Stahl appeared in 75 feature films and in an even greater number of plays prior to a blacklisting imposed by the government in retaliation for his endorsement of a manifesto critical of the regime. A renaissance man who is also an accomplished violinist, pianist, and painter, he used this "exile" to write the critically-acclaimed Ordered Sunday, a book which chronicles this difficult period in his life.
After emigrating to West Germany in 1980, Mueller-Stahl resumed his acting career under the aegis of the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who asked him to star in Lola. This was followed by Veronika Voss (also by Fassbinder), Patrice Chereau's L'Homme Blesse, Andrzej Wajda's A Love in Germany, Istvan Szabo's Academy Award-winning Colonel Redl and Agnieszka Holland's Angry Harvest, for which he won the Best Actor prize at the Montreal Film Festival.
Currently a resident of Los Angeles, Mueller-Stahl's most recent film was Bob Balaban's award-winning drama The Last Good Time, co-starring Olivia D'Abo, Maureen Stapleton, and Lionel Stander. Mueller-Stahl has recently finished working on In the Presence of Mine Enemy and Ogre, directed by Volker Schloendorff. He is currently working on post production of Good Morning Mr. Webster, a film he wrote and directed.
The youngest child of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson is a member of the British acting family that spans five generations and which includes her sister Vanessa, brother Corin, and nieces Natasha and Joely Richardson and Jemma Redgrave. Ms. Redgrave made her professional debut in 1962 in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Royal Court Theatre. She then successfully auditioned for Laurence Olivier and thus became one of the founding members of Britain's National Theatre, which lead to her future career on the London and Broadway stages and in movies and television.
Her first major film brought her the title role in the 1966 Georgy Girl, earning her a Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Award, followed by an Academy Award nomination. Other film credits include Tom Jones, Girl With Green Eyes, The Deadly Affair, Smashing Time, The Virgin Soldiers, The Last Of The Mobile Hotshots, Don't Turn The Other Cheek, The National Health, Every Little Crook And Nanny, Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex, The Happy Hooker, The Big Bus, Sunday Lovers, Morgan Stewart's Coming Home, and Getting It Right.
On Broadway, Redgrave starred in "Black Comedy," "Mrs. Warren's Profession," "Saint Joan," "Aren't We All," "Sweet Sue," and recently "Moon Over Buffalo." On television, Redgrave starred in the series "House Calls," "Centennial" and "Chicken Soup," and in the films "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane," "Death Of A Son," and "Calling The Shots."
Now settled in California with husband John Clark, a theatre producer/director, and their three children, she recently wrote and performed in a play about family relationships, based upon her upbringing as a Redgrave. Called "Shakespeare For My Father," it ran for over nine months on Broadway, earning her a Tony nomination. She was invited to perform it at the Melbourne Festival, and is currently touring the show in America.
The remarkable Sir John Gielgud is a highly distinguished and prolific performer who is considered, with Sir Laurence Olivier, as one of the finest actors of his generation. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, Gielgud played his first Hamlet in 1930 and quickly established himself as one of the most eminent Shakespearean interpreters of his time, as well as a respected director. He made his screen debut in 1924 in Who Is The Man? and other starring roles include Hitchcock's Secret Agent in 1936, Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar in 1953, and Olivier's Richard III in 1955. Since the late 1960's he has increasingly appeared in character roles.
Other film credits include: St Joan, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Becket (for which he was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of King Louis VII of France), Chimes At Midnight, The Loved One, Sebastian, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Shoes of The Fisherman, Lost Horizon, Galileo, 11 Harrowhouse, Murder on the Orient Express, Providence, Joseph Andrews, Orchestra Conductor, Oh What A Lovely War, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Elephant Man, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Scandalous, The Shooting Party, Plenty, The Whistle Blower, Bluebeard, Arthur, Arthur 2: On The Rocks, Prospero's Books, Shining Through, The Best of Friends, The Power of One and most recently, First Knight with Sean Connery and Richard Gere.
The more recent of his numerous television credits include the acclaimed series "Brideshead Revisited," "Wagner," "The Far Pavilions," "The Master of Ballantrae," "Oedipus," "War and Remembrance," "Quartermain's Terms," "A Man For All Seasons," "Dante and Virgil," "Scarlett" and "Inspector Alleyn."
Winner of the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his role as Dudley Moore's impeccable butler in Arthur, Gielgud has also written the theatre books - Early Stages (1939), Stage Directions (1963) and Distinguished Company (1972) and An Actor and His Time which is being republished this year.
GOOGIE WITHERS - Katharine Susannah Prichard
A veteran of numerous British films, since starting her screen career in the mid-1930's, Googie Withers returns to the screen with Shine. Born in India and educated in England, Withers made her stage debut in the West End in 1929 and subsequently played a number of lead roles before premiering on screen in 1934 in The Love Test. Other films include Accused, Crime Over London, Paradise For Two, Haunted Honeymoon, Bulldog Sees It Through, Jeannie, The Silver Fleet, On Approval, Pink String And Sealing Wax, It Always Rains On Sunday, Miranda, Once Upon A Dream, Derby Day and Devil On Horseback. Among the now-classic films she has appeared in are Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing, Dead Of Night and Night And The City. Since the late fifties, Withers has lived in Australia with her husband, actor/producer John McCallum and has worked principally in the theatre, starring in 35 plays in London, New York and throughout Europe and Australia. She starred in the films Nickel Queen in 1970, Time After Time in 1985 (for which she won an ACE Award for Best Actress). Following that with Hotel Du Lac, Northanger Abbey and Ending Up. Last year, the Australian film, Country Life (an adaptation of "Uncle Vanya") was released worldwide.