Grand L Bush

Early life and education

Bush was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Essie and Robert Bush, who was an actor. Shakespearean-trained, Bush studied film and theatre at the Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy, University of Southern California and the Strasberg Academy in Hollywood. He continued his education by performing at the historic Globe Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the annual Shakespeare Festival in Garden Grove, California.

Personal life

Bush has been married to former television personality Sharon Crews since 1994.

Career

In 1983, Bush won a nomination for a Canadian Genie Award in the category of "Best Performance by a Foreign Actor" for his role in the feature film Hard Feelings. Bush's introduction to cinema began five years earlier in 1977 when he landed a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Good Times. Bush later acted in other television episodics and miniseries, including Roots, before joining the cast of the rock musical Hair in 1979, in which he performed a solo.

Bush also performed in other musical dramas, including the TV series Fame and the feature film Streets of Fire. Bush's most notable contributions to cinema were his performances in such box-office blockbusters as Lethal Weapon (starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover), Hollywood Shuffle, Die Hard (starring Bruce Willis) and Colors (starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall).

Colors, an American cult classic, sparked a friendship between Bush and director Dennis Hopper and Hopper directed Bush in a total of three feature films: Colors, Chasers, and Catchfire. Bush was cast in the 1989 James Bond feature film Licence to Kill, starring Timothy Dalton. Bush's character Hawkins is an ally of James Bond.

By 1990, Bush had become a veteran of stage, television and motion pictures. He was hand-picked by William Peter Blatty to perform opposite George C. Scott, who portrayed a lieutenant in the horror film The Exorcist III, written and directed by Blatty; Bush played his sergeant.

Bush has acted opposite Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man. Bush also played actor Todd Bridges' father in "Building Bridges", an autobiographical short film about the rise and fall of the child star of Diff'rent Strokes.

In 1994, Bush was cast in the role of Balrog in the action/comedy Street Fighter, directed by Steven E. de Souza. The ensemble cast also included Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na and Raúl Juliá. To prepare for his role, Bush trained with kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez in Bangkok, Thailand, and Brisbane, Australia.

Writer/producer Dean Devlin and Bush worked together on two television series (Hard Copy on CBS in 1987 and The Visitor on FOX in 1997). Bush and actor Robert Davi co-starred in three films together (Die Hard, Licence to Kill, and Maniac Cop 3). Bush has worked on two of Steven E. de Souza's films (Die Hard and Street Fighter).

Bush has guest-starred in a total of five projects on which Nicholas Corea is credited as either a writer, producer or director (The Renegades 1983, The Incredible Hulk, Airwolf, Renegade, and Walker, Texas Ranger).

More than 35 feature films in which Bush has appeared have been archived as Turner Classic Movies, including Street Fighter Extreme Edition.

Bush and actor Clarence Gilyard played brothers on Walker, Texas Ranger and co-starred in the film Die Hard. The Walker, Texas Ranger episode "Brothers in Arms" was written specifically for Bush by friend, Nicholas Corea, while Corea lay on his deathbed. Bush viewed the episode privately with Corea's widow.

In 1991, Bush met his future wife, Sharon Crews, on the set of Freejack, a science fiction feature that stars Emilio Estevez, Rene Russo and Mick Jagger. Crews was on assignment for Black Entertainment Television (BET) to interview Bush, et al., during the Atlanta, Georgia, location filming.