All My Children, Flamingo Road Actress Barbara Rush Dead at 97

Actress Barbara Rush has died at the age of 97. The actress appeared mostly in films and episodic television, but she played two memorable roles in the soap opera world — Nola Orsini on All My Children and Eudora Weldon on the short-lived Flamingo Road. Rush was the aunt of General Hospital star Carolyn Hennesy, who plays Diane Miller.

From Flamingo Road to Pine Valley

Rush was born on January 4, 1927, in Denver, Colorado. She studied theater at the University of California, Santa Barbara. One of her earliest credits was a role in the 1953 film It Came From Outer Space. Her performance in that movie earned Rush the following year a Golden Globe award for “Most Promising Newcomer – Female.”

“RIP, Auntie B.,” Hennesy posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Soap opera fans remember Rush for her tenure as the elegant and sophisticated Eudora Weldon, the adoptive mother of impulsive Constance (played by Morgan Fairchild) on Flamingo Road, which ran from 1980-82 on NBC. Also, Rush played Ted Orsini’s (Michael E. Knight, now, Martin, GH) mother, Nola, on AMC.

Her other credits include playing Chris Stuart, who passed herself off as Ann Sommers, mother of Jamie Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) on an episode of The Bionic Woman. She also played Masha Russell on Peyton Place.

The actress did a turn as Batman villainess Nora Clavicle, a powerful feminist who briefly got the upper hand on Batman (Adam West), Robin (Burt Ward), and Batgirl (Yvonne Craig).

However, Rush never forgot her love of the theater. She performed her one-woman play, A Woman of Independent Means, on Broadway in 1984.

Rush’s last TV credit is the role of Grandma Ruth Camden on 7th Heaven in 1996. The actress was wed three times. Her first husband was actor Jeffrey Hunter (Star Trek). Then, she wed publicist Warren Cowan. Her third husband was Jim Gruzalski, a sculptor. She had two children: a son, Christopher Hunter, and a daughter, journalist Claudia Cowan.

At the time of her death, Rush lived in the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Soap Hub sends sincere condolences to Hennesy and the rest of Rush’s family and friends at this difficult time.