Grand L. Bush

Grand L. Bush, born Grand Lee Bush on December 24, 1955 in Los Angeles, California, is an American retired actor whose career spanned over two and a half decades. Trained in Shakespearean performance, he studied film and theatre at Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy, the University of Southern California and the Strasberg Academy, and honed his stagecraft at the historic Globe Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum and the annual Shakespeare Festival in Garden Grove. His television breakthrough came in 1977 with a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Good Times, followed by memorable appearances in the miniseries Roots and the rock musical Hair in 1979, where he showcased a solo performance. Bush quickly became a reliable character actor in the 1980s, earning a Genie Award nomination for Hard Feelings and appearing in blockbuster action films such as Lethal Weapon, Hollywood Shuffle, Die Hard and Colors, the latter forging a lasting friendship with director Dennis Hopper, who later cast him in Chasers and Catchfire. In 1989 he stepped into the James Bond universe with Licence to Kill, and continued to diversify his roles with a turn as a lieutenant in The Exorcist III, a cameo in Demolition Man, and a heartfelt portrayal of Todd Bridges' father in the autobiographical short Building Bridges.

The 1990s saw Bush take on physically demanding work, most notably as Balrog in the action‑comedy Street Fighter (1994), for which he trained under kick‑boxing champion Benny Urquidez in Bangkok and Brisbane. Over his career he amassed more than thirty‑five feature film credits now archived by Turner Classic Movies, and his professional journey was anchored by a steady off‑screen partnership with journalist Sharon Crews, whom he met on the set of Freejack and married in 1994. Although he retired from acting in 2002, Bush’s body of work remains a vivid example of versatile support acting in Hollywood’s golden era of action and drama.