Biography
Deborah Rush (born April 10, 1954) is an American actress. She has worked in television, film and on Broadway. In 1984, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Michael Frayn's comedy Noises Off. She also acted in Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. In 2003 she acted in the comedy film American Wedding, as Mary Flaherty, Michelle Flaherty's mom. In December 2008, she joined the cast of the Broadway revival of Blithe Spirit.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Accommodations
2018
as Victoria Maason
Married with children and living in downtown Manhattan, a woman decides to quit accommodating everyone around her and goes on a creative journey to br...

Women Who Kill
2016
as Grace
Morgan and Jean work well together as true crime podcasters because they didn’t work well, at all, as a couple. However, when Morgan strikes up a new ...

Ava's Possessions
2015
as Joanna
Ava is recovering from demonic possession. With no memory of the past month, she must attend a Spirit Possessions Anonymous support group to figure ou...

Rhymes with Banana
2012
as Jane
A satire about two struggling actresses who escape into a fantasy world to cope with rejection and hone their craft. Convinced their mysterious new ne...

The Box
2009
as Clymene Steward
Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A...

Julie & Julia
2009
as Avis De Voto
Julia Child and Julie Powell – both of whom wrote memoirs – find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ...

Fling
2008
as Katherine
An attractive young couple's open relationship is stretched to the breaking point when each partner finds themselves falling in love with other people...

The Visitor
2008
as Upper Eastside Woman
A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.

The Good Life
2007
as Diane
A movie about the travails of Jason (Mark Webber), a young gas station attendant and movie projectionist living in Nebraska. His encounters with vario...

Half Nelson
2006
as Jo Dunne
Despite his dedication to the junior-high students who fill his classroom, idealistic teacher Dan Dunne leads a secret life of addiction that the majo...

Strangers with Candy
2006
as Sara Blank
A prequel to the critically acclaimed series featuring Jerri Blank, a 46 year old ex-junkie, ex-con who returns to high school in a bid to start her l...

American Wedding
2003
as Mary Flaherty
With high school a distant memory, Jim and Michelle are getting married — and in a hurry, since Jim's grandmother is sick and wants to see him walk do...

Bad Company
2002
as Mrs. Peterson
When a Harvard-educated CIA agent is killed during an operation, the secret agency recruits his twin brother.

The Good Girl
2002
as Gwen Jackson
A discount store clerk strikes up an affair with a stock boy who considers himself the incarnation of Holden Caulfield.

Three to Tango
1999
as Lenore
Oscar and Peter land a career-making opportunity when a Chicago tycoon chooses them to compete for the design of a cultural center. The tycoon mistake...

Earthly Possessions
1999
as Heidi Anderson
A bored homemaker planning to run away from her minister husband is taken hostage in a bank robbery. However, she sees the thrill in being involved in...

Advice From a Caterpillar
1999
as Diner Hostess
When it comes to romance, Missy's attitude has always been whatever. After all, her artistic career is flourishing, her spacious New York City loft is...

You've Got Mail
1998
as Veronica Cash
Book superstore magnate, Joe Fox and independent book shop owner, Kathleen Kelly fall in love in the anonymity of the Internet—both blissfully unaware...

In & Out
1997
as Ava Blazer
A midwestern teacher questions his sexuality after a former student makes a comment about him at the Academy Awards.

Reckless
1995
as Trish
On Christmas Eve, a relentlessly cheerful woman escapes from the killers hired by her husband, and embarks on a series of strange encounters.

Passed Away
1992
as Denise Scanlan
Thrown for a loop by the unexpected news that Dad has suddenly gone to his reward, the grieving eccentric Scanian clan are drawn together in a test of...

Unnatural Pursuits
1992
as Stephanie Didcot
An English playwright sacrifices his health waiting for his play's make-or-break opening on Broadway.

My Blue Heaven
1990
as Linda
FBI agent Barney Coopersmith is assigned to protect former Mafia figure turned informant Vincent Antonelli. In the witness protection program one is s...

She-Devil
1989
as 'People Reporter
A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.

Family Business
1989
as Michele Dempsey
Jessie is an aging career criminal who has been in more jails, fights, schemes, and lineups than just about anyone else. His son Vito, while currently...

Parents
1989
as Mrs. Gladys Zellner
Michael is a young boy living in a typical 1950s suburbanite home... except for his bizarre and horrific nightmares, and continued unease around his p...

Big Business
1988
as Binky Shelton
In the 1940s in the small town of Jupiter Hollow, two sets of identical twins are born in the same hospital on the same night. One set to a poor local...

Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread
1987
as Dr. Norris
Penn Jillette and Teller are called upon to display their unique brand of humor to save civilization from strange extraterrestrial beings who have inv...

Heat
1986
as D.D.
Reynolds plays an ex-soldier-of-fortunish character in Vegas, taking "Chaperone" jobs, fighting with the mob, and trying to get enough money together ...

A Midsummer Night's Dream
1985
as Hermia
Theseus has defeated Hippolyta in battle, and now claims her as his bride. But before the nuptials begin, a pair of young lovers flee into the forest ...

Compromising Positions
1985
as Brenda Dunck
An ex-newspaper woman who is now a suburban housewife can't resist getting involved in an investigation of the murder of a philandering dentist who ha...

The Purple Rose of Cairo
1985
as Rita
Cecilia is a waitress in New Jersey, living a dreary life during the Great Depression. Her only escape from her mundane reality is the movie theatre. ...

A Night in Heaven
1983
as Patsy
Faye Hanlon is a community-college professor with an emotionally depressed husband and an abundance of sexual frustration. Her sister drags her to a m...

Zelig
1983
as Lita Fox
Fictional documentary about the life of human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act l...

Split Image
1982
as Judith
An impressionable young man finds himself literally enslaved by a modern-day religious cult. In an effort to bring him back to reality, the boy's pare...

Alice at the Palace
1982
as Alice's Mother
Meryl Streep stars as Alice in this production of Elizabeth Swados' musical, which was adapted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the L...

Honky Tonk Freeway
1981
as Sister Mary Magdalene
Ticlaw, a small town in Florida, has only one attraction: a safari park. The government constructs a freeway that passes near Ticlaw, but decides not ...

Kiss Me, Petruchio
1981
as Bianca
A documentary about the 1978 stage production of The Taming of the Shrew by the New York City Shakespeare company at the Delacorte Theatre in Central ...

10
1979
as Dental assistant
A Hollywood songwriter goes through a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with a sexy blonde newlywed.

Oliver's Story
1978
as Girl in Bar
Oliver Barrett IV is emotionally devastated by the death of his wife Jenny, and, while he tries to lose himself in his work as a lawyer, the long hour...

Charles Ives: A Good Dissonance Like a Man
1977
A thoroughly researched biopic of Charles Ives, America's greatest and most innovative composer (and insurance executive), who combined strikingly fut...
The Next Big One: A Comedy with Three Potential Problems
N/A
as Aunt Mitty
Bee Mitty, a high-ranking employee at an omnipotent techfirm, must help Ian - her depressed, activist brother - move into their Auntie's house while a...