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Colin Firth
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| Colin Firth | |
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 At the IIFA Awards in Yorkshire, 2007 |
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| Born | Colin Andrew Firth 10 September 1960 Grayshott, Hampshire, England |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Spouse(s) | Livia Giuggioli (1997-present) |
Colin Andrew Firth (born September 10, 1960) is an English film, television, and stage actor. Firth first gained wide public attention, especially in England, 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.
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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.123 Firth has a sister, Kate, and a younger brother, Jonathan, who is also an actor. Firth's parents were born and raised in India,4 because his maternal grandparents, Congregationalist ministers, and his paternal grandfather, an Anglican priest, performed missionary work abroad.5678 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.
The classically trained British actor spent four of his childhood years in Nigeria. His parents were missionaries and academics who preached the word and educated people of rural Jos. The Emmy nominee and star of Mamma Mia, The English Patient, and Conspiracy has been quoted as “feeling a natural kinship when he meets Nigerians and hears the music or the language”. He is also a life long supporter of Arsenal.
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) and most recently Easy Virtue which screened at the Rome Film Festival to excellent reviews.9
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.10
Firth is also a Jury Member for the ongoing Filmaka amateur short film contest.
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.
Writer
Firth's first published work, "The Department of Nothing", appeared in Speaking with the Angel (2000).11 This collection of short stories was edited by Nick Hornby12 and was published to benefit the TreeHouse Trust,13 in aid of autistic children. Firth had previously met Hornby during the filming of the original Fever Pitch.1415
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.16 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.17 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".18 As a result of the campaign, a Congolese nurse was given a last-minute reprieve from deportation.19
Firth has been a long-standing supporter of Survival International, a non-governmental organization which defends the rights of tribal peoples.20 Speaking in 2001, he said, "My interest in tribal peoples goes back many years... and I have supported [Survival] ever since."21 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."20
Firth has also been involved in the Oxfam global campaign Make Trade Fair,22 in which several other celebrities participated as well in order to bring more attention to the issues involved.23 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."24 He has further contributed to this cause by opening (with a few collaborators) an eco-friendly shop in West London, Eco.25 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.com26, 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,27 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 - USA | |
| 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 | in post-production | |
| Dorian Gray | Lord Henry Wotton | |||
| A Single Man | George | Won - Volpi Cup for Best Actor, 66th Venice International Film Festival | ||
| 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 |
Further reading
- Teeman, Tim (2007-09-20). "Colin Firth's Darcy Dilemma". The Times. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article2490180.ece. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
References
- ^ Actor Colin Firth is perhaps bes
- ^ Colin Firth's Lineage
- ^ Colin Firth Biography (1979-)and is married to donald dell
- ^ Real Magazine interview with Colin Firth (Aug 2002)
- ^ Colin Firth - Fresh Air interview 2001
- ^ Colin Firth: Bridget Jones' Sweetie Would Rather Play Bad Guys
- ^ British Actor Colin Firth : NPR
- ^ Globe and Mail - The Other Face of Colin Firth (May 18, 2002)
- ^ "Easy Virtue brings British humour to Rome Film Festival". www.reuters.com. http://easyvirtuereview.blogspot.com/. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
- ^ Colin Firth, Genova Interview. AOL Entertainment Canada
- ^ Colin Firth Career Timeline: Department of Nothing
- ^ Nick Hornby
- ^ Nick Hornby
- ^ Colin Firth Biography
- ^ Fever Pitch (1997)
- ^ Steiner, Susie (2001-03-31). "Twice Shy". The Guardian. http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,465976,00.html. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
- ^ Firth, Colin (2007-02-26). "We must stop a deportation that is likely to end in murder". The Independent. http://comment.independent.co.uk/letters/article2305539.ece. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- ^ Johnson, Andrew (2007-02-26). "Colin Firth makes plea for nurse 'facing murder' in Congo". The Independent. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2305575.ece. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- ^ "Firth's intervention saves nurse from deportation". The Independent. 2007-02-27. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2308458.ece. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- ^ a b "'Love Actually' star Colin Firth condemns Bushman evictions". Survival International. http://www.survival-international.org/news/24. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- ^ "Audio". Survival International. http://www.survival-international.org/news/audio.
- ^ "Make Trade Fair - Oxfam International". maketradefair.com. http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.php?file=dumped_colin.htm.
- ^ "Celebrities present 18 million-strong Make Trade Fair petition to World Trade boss in Hong Kong - Oxfam International". Oxfam International. http://www.oxfam.org/en/news/pressreleases2005/pr051212_bignoise.
- ^ "Colin Firth Profile in the Independent". firth.com. http://www.firth.com/articles/05indep_716.html.
- ^ "Colin Firth's New Eco-Store". timesonline.co.uk. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article2856825.ece.
- ^ "The Rebirth of Colin Firth". guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/sep/22/colin-firth-oscars.
- ^ "In Private with Colin Firth". Firth.com. http://www.firth.com/articles/06figaro_204.html.
External links
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