Tushka Bergen
About
Biography
Biography
The London-born, Australian-reared daughter of a conductor and a soprano, Tushka Bergen made her debut on stage in an opera at age nine where she was required to spit watermelon seeds at the audience. Two years later, she made her screen debut (billed as Tushka Benthaak) as a school girl in the German telefilm "Don Quichotte's Kinder/Don Quixote's Children" (1981). Returning to Australia, she worked under her birth name of Tushka Hose in small roles in the Jane Campion-directed short "A Girl's Own Story" (1984) and "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" (1985). The beauty found success on the small screen in the Australian TV miniseries "Always Afternoon," playing the daughter of Lisa Harrow. (She earned a nomination for an Australian TV award for the role).
Adopting the stage name of Tushka Bergen, the blonde beauty was cast as a teenager troubled by her father's impending remarriage in "The Place at the Coast" (1987). She was a turn-of-the-century heroine torn between two lovers in the period film "Outback/Minnamurra" (1989) and rose to prominence as Robert Sean Leonard's dance partner in "Swing Kids" (1993). Whit Stillman tapped her for the pivotal role of the "too attractive" Spanish girl Montserrat, who romances Taylor Nichols' Ted Boynton while maintaining her relationship with her anti-American boyfriend in "Barcelona" (1994). Trying her hand at US TV, Bergen played a young woman who discovers that her mother and her mother's lover are plotting to implicate her in a murder in the based-on-fact "Murderous Intent" (CBS, 1995). She returned to features to play an American songstress who falls for a schizophrenic in "Voices" (1995) and then appeared as a kidnap victim in "Turning April" before undertaking a cameo appearance in "Lovelife" (both 1997).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Short)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1978
Made professional debut on opera stage in Australia at age nine (date approximate)
1981
Made film debut at age 11 in the German film "Don Quichotte's Kinder/Don Quixote's Children"
1984
Billed as Tushka Hose, appeared in Jane Campion's short "A Girl's Own Story"
1985
Appeared in small role in "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome", billed as Tushka Hose
1987
Changed billing to Tushka Bergen; appeared under this name for first time in the Australian feature "The Place at the Coast"
1989
Starred opposite Jeff Fahey and Steven Vidler in the period romance "Outback/Minnamurra"
1993
Played Evey, the object of affection of Robert Sean Leonard, in "Swing Kids"
1994
Co-starred in Whit Stillman's "Barcelona"
1995
Made American TV-movie debut in "Murderous Intent" (CBS)
1997
Appeared as a kidnap victim in "Turning April"
1998
Starred as Anya in Michael Caccoyannis' film adaptation of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard"
1999
Co-starred opposite Treat Williams in the USA Networks production of "Journey to the Center of the Earth"
Family
