| Colin Firth | |
|---|---|
 |
| Firth at a ceremony to receive a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame in January 2011 | |
| Born | Colin Andrew Firth |
|---|---|
| 10 September 1960 |
| Grayshott, Hampshire, United Kingdom | |
| Occupation | Actor |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Spouse | Livia Giuggioli (1997–present) |
| Partner | Meg Tilly (1989-1994) |
Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English film, television, and stage actor.
Firth
gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr.
Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and
Prejudice. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for
his role in A Single Man, a performance that won him a BAFTA Award. At
the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011, Firth won the Academy Award for Best
Actor for his portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech, a
performance that also earned him the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen
Actors Guild Award for Best Actor.
Firth's
other major film credits include The English Patient, Shakespeare in
Love, Bridget Jones's Diary, Mamma Mia! and Love Actually. He received a
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.
Early life
Firth
was born in Grayshott, Hampshire, United Kingdom. His mother, Shirley
Jean (née Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at King Alfred's
College Winchester (now the University of Winchester), and his father,
David Norman Lewis Firth, was a history lecturer (also at King Alfred's)
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 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 (now Kings' School), a state comprehensive
school in Winchester, Hampshire, and then Barton Peveril College in
Eastleigh, Hampshire. While in Kings' School, he wanted to play the
guitar, but the school banned the guitar and saxophone, as they were
"not serious instruments", and he was told to play the baritone
euphonium instead. His acting training took place at the Drama Centre
London.
Film career
In
1983, Firth starred as Guy Bennett 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 Sir Laurence Olivier
in Lost Empires, a TV adaptation of J. B. Priestley's novel, then in
1987 he appeared alongside Kenneth Branagh in the film version of J. L.
Carr's A Month in the Country. In 1989, he played the title role in the
film Valmont, and was co-lead in the film Apartment Zero. Firth and
other young British actors who were becoming established film actors
such as Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Bruce Payne and Paul McGann were dubbed
the 'Brit Pack'.
 |
| Firth at the Nanny McPhee London premiere in October 2005 |
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),
Hope Springs (2003), Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Bridget Jones:
The Edge of Reason (2004), Nanny McPhee (2005), Where The Truth Lies
(2005), Then She Found Me (2007) with Helen Hunt, The Last Legion (2007)
with Aishwarya Rai, When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008), the film
adaptation of Mamma Mia! (2008), and Easy Virtue, which screened at the
Rome Film Festival to excellent reviews. In 2009, he starred in A
Christmas Carol, an adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel A Christmas
Carol using the performance capture procedure, playing Scrooge's
optimistic nephew Fred, alongside Jim Carrey, who played Scrooge.
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 in 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. This role has earned Firth career best reviews and Academy
Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA, and BFCA nominations;
he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in February
2010.
 |
| Firth at the 2009 Venice Film Festival |
Firth
starred in the 2010 film The King's Speech as King George the Sixth,
who is trying to overcome a stammer in order to rally against the
Nazis'. The film details him overcoming his speech impediment and
becoming king. At the Toronto Film Festival, the film was met with a
standing ovation. The TIFF release of The King's Speech fell on Colin's
50th birthday and was called the "best 50th birthday gift". On 16
January 2011, he won a Golden Globe for his performance in The King's
Speech in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion
Picture – Drama. The Screen Actors Guild recognized Firth with the award
for Best Male Actor for The King's Speech on 30 January 2011. In
February 2011, he won the best actor award at the 2011 BAFTA awards. He
received an Academy Award for Best Actor in a motion picture for The
King's Speech on 27 February 2011.
Firth
will appear in the 2012 adaptation of the John Le Carré novel Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy, directed by Tomas Alfredson, also starring Ralph
Fiennes, Gary Oldman, and Tom Hardy. He is in talks to join the cast of
Park Chan Wook's Stoker.
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.
Firth
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 Chatsky.
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.
Firth
competed with Jeff Bridges for the Academy Award for Best Actor two
consecutive years. Firth beat Bridges in 2011, a year after Bridges won
for his performance in Crazy Heart.
On 13 January 2011, he was presented with the 2,429th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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 Lévi-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 organisation, Survival International.
Personal life
 |
| Firth with wife Livia Giuggioli in January 2011 |
Firth
resides in Chiswick, London. In 1989, he 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 near the Lower Mainland of B.C., Canada. Firth remains in
contact with Will and with Tilly's other children, for whom he was a
stepfather. In 1994, after he and Tilly had separated, Firth became
involved with actress Jennifer Ehle, his co-star in Pride and Prejudice;
the two eventually broke up. Firth is married to Italian film
producer/director Livia Giuggioli and lives in both London and Italy.
They have two sons, Luca (born March 2001) and Matteo (born August
2003). Apart from his native English, Firth speaks Italian fluently.
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 organisation 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 "if you're going to sustain commitment to any of this, .you'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 of 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.
In
early 2010, Firth announced his support for the Liberal Democrats,
having previously been a Labour supporter, citing asylum and refugees'
rights as a key reason for his change in affiliation. In December 2010,
Firth retracted his support of the Liberal Democrats, citing their
U-turn on tuition fees as one of the key reasons for his
disillusionment. He clarified that while he no longer supports the
Liberal Democrats, he is currently without affiliation.
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
Film and television
Year Title Role Notes
1984 Another Country Tommy Judd
1984 Camille Armand Duval Made for TV Movie
1985 1919 (young) Alexander Scherbatov
1985 Dutch Girls Neil Truelove Made For TV Movie
1986 Lost Empires Richard Herncastle TV mini-series
1987 A Month in the Country Tom Birkin
1987 Pat Hobby:Teamed With Genius Rene Wilcox PBS Shorts Special
1987 The Secret Garden adult Colin Craven Hallmark Hall of Fame
1988 Tumbledown Robert Lawrence Made for TV Movie
Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
1989 Apartment Zero Adrian LeDuc
1989 Valmont Valmont
1990 Femme Fatale Joseph Prince
1990 Wings of Fame Brian Smith
1991 Out of the Blue Alan Play for television
1993 Hostages John McCarthy Television – HBO
1993 The Hour of the Pig Richard Courtois aka The Advocate
1994 Master of the Moor Stephen Whalby Made for television – UK
1994 Playmaker Michael Condron/Ross Talbert aka Death Date (Germany)
1994 The Deep Blue Sea Freddie Page Play for television – UK
1995 Circle of Friends Simon Westward
1995 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
1995 The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd Charles Holroyd Play for television – UK
1996
The English Patient Geoffrey Clifton Nominated—Screen Actors Guild
Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1997 A Thousand Acres Jess Clark
1997 Fever Pitch Paul Ashworth
1997 Nostromo Charles Gould Television mini-series
1998 Shakespeare in Love Lord Wessex Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1999 Blackadder: Back & Forth William Shakespeare short
1999 Donovan Quick Donovan Quick/Daniel Quinn Made for television – UK
1999 My Life So Far Edward Pettigrew
1999 The Secret Laughter of Women Matthew Field
1999 The Turn of the Screw The Master Masterpiece Theater
2000 Relative Values Peter Ingleton
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
2001 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
2001 We Know Where You Live Himself Benefit for Amnesty International
2001 Londinium Allen Portland Television – HBO
a.k.a. Fourplay
2002 The Importance of Being Earnest Jack Worthing
2003 Girl with a Pearl Earring Johannes Vermeer Nominated—European Film Awards Audience Award for Best Actor
2003 Hope Springs Colin Ware
2003 Love Actually Jamie Bennett Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2003 What a Girl Wants Henry Dashwood
2004 Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason Mark Darcy
2004 Trauma Ben Slater
2005 Nanny McPhee Cedric Brown
2005 Where the Truth Lies Vince Collins
2006 Born Equal Mark Armitage Television movie – UK
2007 The Last Legion Aurelius
2007 And When Did You Last See Your Father? Blake Morrison Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor
2007 Then She Found Me Frank
2007 St. Trinian's Geoffrey Thwaites
2007 In Prison My Whole Life Himself
2008 The Accidental Husband Richard Bratton
2008 Mamma Mia! Harry Bright Nominated—National Movie Award for Best Performance Male
2008 Easy Virtue Jim Whittaker
2008 Genova Joe
2009 A Christmas Carol Fred
2009 Dorian Gray Lord Henry Wotton
2009 A Single Man George Falconer Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor
Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year
San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Santa Barbara International Film Festival – Outstanding Performance of the Year
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Venice Film Festival – Volpi Cup
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male
Nominated—Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association for Best Actor
2009 St. Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold Geoffrey Thwaites
2010 The King's Speech King George VI Academy Award for Best Actor
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Eda Award for Best Actor
Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
British Independent Film Award for Best Actor
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor
Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Iowa Film Critics Award for Best Actor
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
London Film Critics Circle Award for Actor of the Year
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
North Texas Film Critics Award for Best Actor
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (Runner-Up)
Nominated—Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year
Nominated—San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Utah Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
2010 Main Street Tom Phillips
2010 Steve Steve with Keira Knightley
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