Firth, Colin (1960-…), is a popular British stage, television, and motion-picture actor. He is known for his skill in performing in both comedies and dramas. Firth received the Academy Award as best actor for his performance in The King’s Speech (2010). In that film, he portrayed King George VI of the United Kingdom as he struggled to overcome his nervous stammer on the eve of World War II (1939-1945).
Colin Andrew Firth was born on Sept. 10, 1960, in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. He began acting on the stage as a child. His first professional acting role was in 1983 as the openly gay spy Guy Bennett in Another Country at the West End theater in London. The following year, Firth portrayed Bennett’s Communist friend Tommy Judd in a motion-picture version of the play.
Firth has appeared in a number of television movies and miniseries. In 1986, he starred in the British television miniseries Lost Empires. In 1988, Firth won praise for his portrayal of Robert Lawrence, a severely wounded British soldier, in the British television movie Tumbledown. In 1995, Firth gained international notice for his portrayal of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy in the British TV miniseries Pride and Prejudice, based on the novel by the English author Jane Austen. Mr. Darcy is the eventual love interest of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel’s heroine. Firth’s other notable television films include Donovan Quick (2000), an updated version of the Spanish classic Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, and Conspiracy (2001).
Firth’s other notable theatrical movies include A Month in the Country (1987); Apartment Zero (1988); Valmont (1989); The English Patient (1996); Fever Pitch (1997); Shakespeare in Love (1998); Relative Values (2000); Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and its sequels, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016); The Importance of Being Earnest (2002); Hope Springs, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Love Actually (all 2003); Nanny McPhee (2005); The Last Legion, St. Trinian’s, and When Did You Last See Your Father? (all 2007); A Summer in Genoa, Easy Virtue, and Mamma Mia! (all 2008); A Single Man (2009); Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011); Arthur Newman (2012); The Railway Man (2013); and Before I Go to Sleep and Kingsman: The Secret Service (both 2014).
