Barbara Rush—the film, television, and stage star known for her roles in the 1953 sci-fi flick It Came From Outer Space and the soap opera Peyton Place—died Sunday evening. The news was confirmed by her daughter, Fox News senior correspondent Claudia Cowan, in a statement to the outlet. “My wonderful mother passed away peacefully at 5:28 this evening. I was with her this morning and know she was waiting for me to return home safely to transition,” Cowan wrote. “It’s fitting she chose to leave on Easter as it was one of her favorite holidays and now, of course, Easter will have a deeper significance for me and my family.” Rush was 97.
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While Rush would go on to hold a truly staggering number of credits in film and television, her career started on the stages of Santa Barbara, where she grew up and eventually attended school at UCSB. In 1950, two years after her college graduation, Rush signed with Paramount Pictures and made her on-screen debut in The Goldbergs as Debby Sherman.
Her career took off from there. She went on to star in 11 films in the next five years alone, including When Worlds Collide, Flaming Feather, and It Came From Outer Space, for which she won the 1954 Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. Over the next 40 years, she would appear in as many films, including Oh Men! Oh Women! (1957), The Young Philadelphians (1959), Rat Pack film Robin And The 7 Hoods (1964), and Hombre (1967).
Somehow, Rush also found the time to rack up nearly as many credits in both television and theater. On stage, she became known for her roles in the national tours of 40 Carats, Same Time, Next Year, and Steel Magnolias, as well as her one-woman show, A Woman of Independent Means, which she brought to Broadway in 1984. She also appeared on soap operas like Peyton Place, All My Children, and 7th Heaven, as well as numerous other TV series such as The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, and more.
Rush is survived by her two children, Claudia Cowan and Jeffrey Hunter.