Deborah Rush

Deborah Rush is an American actress born on April 10, 1954, in Chatham Borough, New Jersey, to Joseph G. Rush, a newspaper editor, and Mary Conley Rush. She is married to Walter Cronkite III, son of the late television journalist Walter Cronkite, and the couple has two sons, Walter Cronkite IV and the late Peter Cronkite. Rush has built a career spanning Broadway, film, and television over several decades.

Rush made her Broadway debut in 1975 with the musical Dance with Me. Her subsequent stage work included productions of Hay Fever, Absurd Person Singular, and The Sisters Rosensweig, as well as Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. From 1983 to 1984, she played Brooke Ashton in Michael Frayn's comedy Noises Off, a performance that earned her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Work in 1984 and a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. In December 2008, she joined the Broadway revival cast of the farce Blithe Spirit, extending her stage career through 2009.

Rush's film work began in the late 1970s with appearances in Oliver's Story (1978), 10 (1979), and Honky Tonk Freeway (1981). In 1983, she appeared in Woody Allen's satirical mockumentary Zelig, and two years later in Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Her other film credits from the 1980s include Compromising Positions (1985), Heat (1986), Big Business (1988), Parents (1989), and Family Business (1989). She continued working in film through the 1990s in My Blue Heaven (1990), In & Out (1997), You've Got Mail (1998), and Three to Tango (1999). In 2002, she co-starred opposite Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl, and the following year appeared in American Wedding as Mary Flaherty, the mother of Michelle Flaherty. Rush played Ryan Gosling's mother in the 2006 drama Half Nelson and portrayed Avis DeVoto in Nora Ephron's 2009 biographical comedy-drama Julie & Julia.

On television, Rush appeared in the made-for-television productions Alice at the Palace and A Midsummer Night's Dream, both in 1982. She played Isabel Hazard in the 1994 miniseries Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III and held a recurring role on the ABC sitcom Spin City as Helen Winston, the eventual ex-wife of mayor Randall Winston. From 1999 to 2000, she was a regular cast member of the Comedy Central series Strangers with Candy, starring Amy Sedaris, and reprised her role in the 2005 prequel film of the same name. In 2010, Rush was a regular cast member of the short-lived Comedy Central sitcom Big Lake. She made guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Good Wife, Inside Amy Schumer, and The Blacklist. From 2013 to 2019, she held a recurring role on the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black, playing Carol Chapman, the mother of Piper Chapman.