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Colin Firth

Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September, 1960) is an English film, television and stage actor. Firth was first brought into wider public attention for his role as Mr. Darcy in the highly acclaimed 1995 television adaption of Pride and Prejudice.

Biography

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 now also an actor. Firth's parents were born and raised in India, because his maternal grandparents, Congregationalist ministers, and his paternal grandfather, an Anglican minister, performed missionary work abroad. Firth's name is pronounced very similarly to the Old English word collenferhð, meaning pride. 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 in North London. Colin Firth is widely regarded as "The English Mukesh".

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 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.

Following these earlier roles, it was in the 1995 BBC television adaptation of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice that Firth gained wider renown. The serial was a major international success, and Firth became known as a heartthrob because of his role as 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 Colin'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), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), Love Actually (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Last Legion with Aishwarya Rai (2007), and the film adaptation of Mamma Mia! (2008). He has also appeared in recent 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,.

Firth is also a Jury Member for the ongoing Filmaka amateur short film contest.

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.

In Mamma Mia Firth played Harry, one of Sophie's three possible fathers.

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, Will Firth. In 1994, Firth was involved with actress Jennifer Ehle, his co-star in Pride and Prejudice. Firth lives in both London and Italy and is currently married to Italian film producer/director Livia Giuggioli. They have two sons, Luca (born March 2001) and Matteo (born August 2003).

Recently, Firth has been involved in a campaign to stop the deportation of a group of asylum seekers, because he believes that they may be murdered on their return to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Firth has 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 also been a long-standing supporter of Survival International, a charity which 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 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).

Firth was awarded an honorary degree on 19 October 2007 from the University of Winchester.

Singing career

Colin has performed songs in many of his films- the most recent being Mamma Mia! (2008 film). He also performs along side Rupert Everett in The Importance of Being Earnest (2002 film). He also has one song in St. Trinian's with Rupert Everett which appeared in the credits, It is an adaptation of 'Love is in the air'.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" ! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes !! Debut/Premiere |- |rowspan="2"| 1984 || Another Country || Tommy Judd || || May 1984 - Cannes |- | Camille || Armand Duval || Made for TV Movie || 11 December 1984 - USA |- |rowspan="2"| 1985 || 1919 ||(young) Alexander Scherbatov || ||February 1985 - W. Ger. |- | Dutch Girls || Neil Truelove || Made For TV Movie || |- | 1986 || Lost Empires (TV mini-series) || Richard Herncastle || with Sir Laurence Olivier ||24 October 1986 - UK |- |rowspan="3"| 1987 || A Month in the Country || Tom Birkin || ||24 September 1987 - USA |- | 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 || 30 May 1988 - UK |- |rowspan="2"| 1989 || Apartment Zero || Adrian LeDuc || || 8 September 1989 - TIFF |- | Valmont || Valmont || ||17 November 1989 - USA |- |rowspan="2"| 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 |- |rowspan="2"| 1993 || Hostages || John McCarthy || Television - HBO || 20 February 1993 - UK |- | The Hour of the Pig || Richard Courtois || aka The Advocate || 25 September 1993 - Dinard |- |rowspan="3"| 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 || |- |rowspan="3"| 1995 || Circle of Friends || Simon Westward || ||15 March 1995 - USA |- | Pride and Prejudice || Fitzwilliam Darcy || Television mini-series || 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 || || 6 November 1996 - USA |- |rowspan="3"| 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 || || 3 December 1998 - USA |- |rowspan="5"| 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 |- |rowspan="3"| 2001 || Bridget Jones's Diary || Mark Darcy || || 4 April 2001 - UK |- | Conspiracy || Wilhelm Stuckart || Television - HBO || 21 May 2001 - US |- | Londinium a.k.a. Fourplay || Allen Portland || Television - HBO || 2 September 2001 - USA |- | 2002 || The Importance of Being Earnest || Jack Worthing || || 17 May 2002 - USA |- |rowspan="4"| 2003 || Girl with a Pearl Earring || Johannes Vermeer || || 31 August 2003 - Telluride |- | Hope Springs || Colin Ware || || 14 March 2003 - UK |- | Love Actually || Jamie Bennett || || 7 September 2003 - TIFF |- | What a Girl Wants || Henry Dashwood || || 27 March 2003 - USA |- |rowspan="2"| 2004 || Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason || Mark Darcy || || 8 November 2004 - Netherlands |- | Trauma || Ben Slater || || 19 January 2004 - Sundance |- |rowspan="2"| 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 |- |rowspan="4"| 2007 || The Last Legion || Aurelius || || 19 April 2007 - Russia |- | And When Did You Last See Your Father? || Blake Morrison || || May 2007 - Cannes |- | Then She Found Me || Frank || || 7 September 2007 - TIFF |- | St. Trinian's || Geoffrey Thwaites || || 10 December 2007 - UK |- |rowspan="4"| 2008 || The Accidental Husband || Richard Bratton || || 13 February 2008 - UK |- | Mamma Mia! || Harry Bright || || 1 July 2008 - UK |- | Easy Virtue || Mr. Whittaker || 7 November 2008 (UK) || 8 September 2008 - Toronto Film Festival |- | Genova || Joe || || |- |rowspan="3"| 2009 || A Christmas Carol || Fred || post-production |- | Dorian Gray || Lord Henry Wotton || filming || |- | The Meat Trade || TBC || Pre-Production, postponed filming || |-