Colin Andrew Firth (born September 10, 1960) is an English film, television, and stage actor. Firth first gained wide public attention, especially in the United Kingdom, for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaption of Pride and Prejudice. He subsequently achieved film stardom with the international box-office success of Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), where he co-starred with Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant.

Early life

Firth was born in Grayshott, Hampshire, England, the son of Shirley Jean (née Rolles), a comparative religion lecturer, and David Norman Lewis Firth, a history lecturer and education officer for the Nigerian Government. Firth has a sister, Kate, and a younger brother, Jonathan, who is also an actor. Firth's parents were born and raised in India, because his maternal grandparents, Congregationalist ministers, and his paternal grandfather, an Anglican priest, performed missionary work abroad. Firth spent part of his childhood in Nigeria, where his father was teaching. He lived in St. Louis, Missouri when he was 11. He later attended the Montgomery of Alamein Secondary School, a state comprehensive school in Winchester, Hampshire, and then Barton Peveril College in Eastleigh, Hampshire. His acting training took place at the Drama Centre London.

Film career

In 1983, Firth starred as Guy Bennett in the award-winning London stage production of Another Country. In 1984, he made his film debut in the screen adaptation of the play, taking the role of Tommy Judd (opposite Rupert Everett as Bennett). In 1986 he starred with Laurence Olivier in Lost Empires, a TV adaptation of J. B. Priestley's novel, and in 1987 he appeared alongside Kenneth Branagh in the film version of J. L. Carr's novel, A Month in the Country. In 1989, he played the title role in the film Valmont.

It was through the 1995 BBC television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that Firth gained wider renown. The serial was a major international success, and Firth gained heartthrob status because of his role as Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. This performance also made him the object of affection for fictional journalist Bridget Jones (created by Helen Fielding), an interest which carried on into the two novels featuring the Jones character. In the second novel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the character even meets Firth in Rome. As something of an in-joke, when the novels were adapted for the cinema, Firth was cast as Jones's love interest, Mark Darcy. Continuing this in-joke there was a dog called Mr Darcy in the film St. Trinian's which Firth's character accidentally kills.

Firth had a supporting role in The English Patient (1996) and since then has starred in films such as Fever Pitch (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Relative Values (2000), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), Love Actually (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Last Legion (2007) with Aishwarya Rai, When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008), the film adaptation of Mamma Mia! (2008), Easy Virtue which screened at the Rome Film Festival to excellent reviews and most recently he starred in A Christmas Carol (2009), the 50th adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel A Christmas Carol using the performance capture procedure, playing Scrooge's (portrayed by Jim Carrey) optimistic nephew Fred.

He has also appeared in several television productions, including Donovan Quick (an updated version of Don Quixote) (1999) and Conspiracy (2001), for which he received an Emmy nomination. Colin Firth's most recent role is in the Toronto International Film Festival debuted film, Genova.

At the 66th Venice International Film Festival on Saturday Sept. 12, 2009. Colin Firth was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his role in Tom Ford's A Single Man as a college professor grappling with solitude after his longtime partner dies. Fashion designer Tom Ford made his director's debut with this movie.

Other work

Firth played William Shakespeare in a comedy special entitled Blackadder: Back & Forth. Edmund Blackadder runs into Firth's character while he is working on Macbeth, asks him to sign the script for him, and then punches him, saying "That is for every schoolboy and schoolgirl for the next 400 years!".

He was a guest host of Saturday Night Live in 2004 alongside musical guest Norah Jones.

Colin performed in theatre frequently between 1983 and 2000. He starred in Three Days of Rain as lead character Ned/Walker, as well as The Caretaker, Desire Under the Elms and Chatkzy.

He served as executive producer for the 2007 documentary produced by his wife, Livia Giuggioli, In Prison My Whole Life. The film questions the trial proceedings and evidence used against political activist and former Black Panther member, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row for the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner.

Firth is also a Jury Member for the digital studio Filmaka, a platform for undiscovered filmmakers to show their work to industry professionals.

Writer

Firth's first published work, "The Department of Nothing", appeared in Speaking with the Angel (2000). This collection of short stories was edited by Nick Hornby and was published to benefit the TreeHouse Trust, in aid of autistic children. Firth had previously met Hornby during the filming of the original Fever Pitch. Colin Firth contributed with his writing for the book, We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in 2009. The book explores the culture of peoples around the world, portraying both its diversity and facing threats. It counts with the contributions of many western writers, such as Laurens van der Post, Noam Chomsky, Claude Levi-Strauss; and also indigenous peoples, such as Davi Kopenawa Yanomami and Roy Sesana. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organization, Survival International.

Personal life

In 1989, Firth entered into a romantic relationship with actress Meg Tilly his co-star in Valmont. In 1990, she gave birth to a son, William "Will" Joseph Firth, and they made their home in British Columbia. He still stays in contact with Will and with Tilly's other children for whom he was a surrogate father. In 1994, after he and Tilly had separated, Firth became involved with actress Jennifer Ehle, his co-star in Pride and Prejudice. Firth lives in both London and Italy and is married to Italian film producer/director Livia Giuggioli. They have two sons, Luca (born March 2001) and Matteo (born August 2003).

Firth has been involved in a campaign to stop the deportation of a group of asylum seekers, because he believed that they might be murdered on their return to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Firth argued that "To me it's just basic civilisation to help people. I find this incredibly painful to see how we dismiss the most desperate people in our society. It's easily done. It plays to the tabloids, to the Middle-England xenophobes. It just makes me furious. And all from a government we once had such high hopes for". As a result of the campaign, a Congolese nurse was given a last-minute reprieve from deportation.

Firth has been a long-standing supporter of Survival International, a non-governmental organization that defends the rights of tribal peoples. Speaking in 2001, he said, "My interest in tribal peoples goes back many years... and I have supported [Survival] ever since." In 2003, during the promotion of the movie Love Actually, he spoke in defense of the tribal people of Botswana, condemning the Botswana government's eviction of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. He says of the Bushmen, "These people are not the remnants of a past era who need to be brought up to date. Those who are able to continue to live on the land that is rightfully theirs are facing the 21st century with a confidence that many of us in the so-called developed world can only envy."

Firth has also been involved in the Oxfam global campaign Make Trade Fair, in which several other celebrities participated as well in order to bring more attention to the issues involved. The campaign has focused on several trade practices seen as unfair to third world producers especially, including dumping, high import tariffs, and labour rights such as fair wages. Firth remains deeply committed to this cause, making efforts such as supporting fair trade coffee in his daily life, as he believes "[i]f you're going to sustain commitment to any of this, ... [y]ou've got to get involved on an ordinary every day basis." He has further contributed to this cause by opening (with a few collaborators) an eco-friendly shop in West London, Eco. The shop offers fair trade and eco-friendly goods, as well as expert advice on making spaces more energy efficient.

In October 2009 at the London Film Festival, Firth launched a film and political activism website, Brightwide.com, along with his wife Livia and a team headed by Paola De Leo, a former Director of Deutsche Bank and Head of the Global Major Donor Programme for Amnesty. In a 2006 interview with French magazine Madame Figaro, Firth was asked "Quelles sont les femmes de votre vie?" (Who are the women in your life?). Firth replied: "Ma mère, ma femme et Jane Austen" (My mother, my wife and Jane Austen). He was awarded an honorary degree on 19 October 2007 from the University of Winchester.

Singing career

Firth has performed songs in many of his films, the most recent being Mamma Mia!. He performs the song "Lady Come Down" alongside Rupert Everett in The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as one song in St. Trinian's with Everett which appeared in the credits, an adaptation of "Love Is in the Air".

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes	Premiere
1984	Another Country	Tommy Judd		May 1984 - Cannes
	Camille	Armand Duval	Made for TV Movie	11 December 1984 - USA
1985	1919	(young) Alexander Scherbatov		February 1985 - West Germany
	Dutch Girls	Neil Truelove	Made For TV Movie
1986	Lost Empires	Richard Herncastle	TV mini-series with Laurence Olivier	24 October 1986 - UK
1987	A Month in the Country	Tom Birkin		24 September 1987 - UK
	Pat Hobby:Teamed With Genius	Rene Wilcox	PBS Shorts Special
	The Secret Garden	adult Colin Craven	Hallmark Hall of Fame	30 November 1987 - USA
1988	Tumbledown	Robert Lawrence	Made for TV Movie Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actor	30 May 1988 - UK
1989	Apartment Zero	Adrian LeDuc		8 September 1989 - TIFF
	Valmont	Valmont		17 November 1989 - USA
1990	Femme Fatale	Joseph Prince
	Wings of Fame	Brian Smith		23 March 1990 - Netherlands
1991	Out of the Blue	Alan	Play for Television	22 August 1991 - UK
1993	Hostages	John McCarthy	Television - HBO	20 February 1993 - UK 1993 The Advocate
	The Hour of the Pig	Richard Courtois	aka The Advocate	25 September 1993 - Dinard
1994	Master of the Moor	Stephen Whalby	Made for Television - UK	2 September 1994 - UK
	Playmaker	Michael Condron/Ross Talbert	aka Death Date (Germany)	16 May 1994 - Cannes
	The Deep Blue Sea	Freddie Page	Play for Television - UK
1995	Circle of Friends	Simon Westward		15 March 1995 - USA
	Pride and Prejudice	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Television mini-series Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actor Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actor Nominated — National Television Award for Most Popular Male	24 September 1995 - UK
	The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd	Charles Holroyd	Play for Television - UK	14 October 1995 - UK
1996	The English Patient	Geoffrey Clifton	Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	6 November 1996 - USA
1997	A Thousand Acres	Jess Clark		19 September 1997 - USA
	Fever Pitch	Paul Ashworth		4 April 1997 - UK
	Nostromo	Charles Gould	Television mini-series	5 January 1997 - USA
1998	Shakespeare in Love	Lord Wessex	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	3 December 1998 - USA
1999	Blackadder: Back & Forth	William Shakespeare	short	6 December 1999 - UK
	Donovan Quick	Donovan Quick/Daniel Quinn	Made for Television - UK
	My Life So Far	Edward Pettigrew		23 July 1999 - USA
	The Secret Laughter of Women	Matthew Field		26 November 1999 - UK
	The Turn of the Screw	The Master	Masterpiece Theater	26 December 1999 - UK
2000	Relative Values	Peter Ingleton		23 June 2000 - UK
2001	Bridget Jones's Diary	Mark Darcy	European Film Awards Audience Award for Best Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	4 April 2001 - UK
	Conspiracy	Wilhelm Stuckart	Television - HBO Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor – Miniseries or a Movie Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film	21 May 2001 - US
	We Know Where You Live	Himself	Benefit for Amnesty International	16 June 2001 - UK
	Londinium	Allen Portland	Television - HBO a.k.a. Fourplay	2 September 2001 - USA
2002	The Importance of Being Earnest	Jack Worthing		17 May 2002 - USA
2003	Girl with a Pearl Earring	Johannes Vermeer	Nominated — European Film Awards Audience Award for Best Actor	31 August 2003 - Telluride
	Hope Springs	Colin Ware		14 March 2003 - UK
	Love Actually	Jamie Bennett	Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast	7 September 2003 - TIFF
	What a Girl Wants	Henry Dashwood		27 March 2003 - USA
2004	Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason	Mark Darcy		8 November 2004 - Netherlands
	Trauma	Ben Slater		19 January 2004 - Sundance
2005	Nanny McPhee	Cedric Brown		9 October 2005 - UK
	Where the Truth Lies	Vince Collins		13 May 2005 - Cannes
2006	Born Equal	Mark Armitage	Television movie - UK	4 December 2006 - UK
2007	The Last Legion	Aurelius		19 April 2007 - Russia
	And When Did You Last See Your Father?	Blake Morrison	Nominated — British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor	May 2007 - Cannes
	Then She Found Me	Frank		7 September 2007 - TIFF
	St. Trinian's	Geoffrey Thwaites		10 December 2007 - UK
2007	In Prison My Whole Life	Himself		23 October 2008 - UK
2008	The Accidental Husband	Richard Bratton		13 February 2008 - UK
	Mamma Mia!	Harry Bright	Nominated — National Movie Award for Best Performance Male	1 July 2008 - UK
	Easy Virtue	Jim Whittaker		8 September 2008 - Toronto Film Festival
	Genova	Joe
2009	A Christmas Carol	Fred		Released November 6, 2009
	Dorian Gray	Lord Henry Wotton
	A Single Man	George	Won - Volpi Cup for Best Actor, 66th Venice International Film Festival Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
	Main Street	Tom Phillips	in post-production
	St. Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold	Geoffrey Thwaites	filming
	Catalonia	George Orwell	in pre-production
2010	The King's Speech	King George VI	filming

Further reading

References

1. Actor Colin Firth is perhaps bes
2. Colin Firth's Lineage
3. Colin Firth Biography (1979-)and is married to donald dell
4. Real Magazine interview with Colin Firth (Aug 2002)
5. Colin Firth - Fresh Air interview 2001
6. Colin Firth: Bridget Jones' Sweetie Would Rather Play Bad Guys
7. British Actor Colin Firth : NPR
8. Globe and Mail - The Other Face of Colin Firth (May 18, 2002)
9. Colin Firth, Genova Interview. AOL Entertainment Canada
10. Filmaka Jury Member Colin Firth,Filmaka.com.
11. Colin Firth Career Timeline: Department of Nothing
12. Nick Hornby
13. Nick Hornby
14. Colin Firth Biography
15. Fever Pitch (1997)
16. Survival International - We Are One

External links