Colin Firth

Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer.

He was identified in the mid-1980s with the "Brit Pack" of rising young British actors, undertaking a challenging series of roles, including leading roles in A Month in the Country (1987), Tumbledown (1988) and Valmont (1989).

Playing Hamlet in the Drama Centre end-of-year production, Firth was spotted by playwright Julian Mitchell, who cast him as the gay, ambitious public schoolboy Guy Bennett in the 1983 West End production of Another Country.

In 1984, Firth made his film debut as Tommy Judd, Guy Bennett's straight, Marxist school friend in the screen adaptation of the play (with Rupert Everett as Guy Bennett).

It was the start of a longstanding public feud between Firth and Everett, which was eventually resolved.

He starred with Sir Laurence Olivier in Lost Empires (1986), a TV adaptation of J. B. Priestley's novel.

In 1987, Firth and other up-and-coming British actors such as Tim Roth, Bruce Payne and Paul McGann, were dubbed the 'Brit Pack'.

That year, he appeared with Kenneth Branagh in the film version of J. L. Carr's A Month in the Country.

Sheila Johnston observed a theme in his early work of playing those traumatised by war.

He portrayed real-life British soldier Robert Lawrence MC in the 1988 BBC dramatisation Tumbledown.

Lawrence was severely injured at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown during the Falklands War, and the film details his struggles to adjust to his disability whilst confronted with indifference from the government and public.

His portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice led to widespread attention, and to roles in more prominent films such as The English Patient (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), and Love Actually (2003), co-starring as Mark Darcy in the romantic comedy films Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), and Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), and Harry Bright in the musical comedy films Mamma Mia! (2008) and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again! (2018).

He is also known for his performances in television, including BBC's Conspiracy (2001) and HBO's The Staircase (2022), receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for each.

In 2009, Firth received international acclaim for his performance in Tom Ford's A Single Man, for which he won a BAFTA Award and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and received his first Academy Award nomination.

In 2010, his portrayal of King George VI in Tom Hooper's The King's Speech won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

He subsequently appeared as MI6 agent Bill Haydon in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and as secret agent Harry Hart / Agent Galahad in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and its sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017).

In 2011, Firth was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his services to drama.

That same year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and appeared in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

Firth was born in the village of Grayshott, Hampshire, to parents who were academics and teachers.

His mother, Shirley Jean (née Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at King Alfred's College (now the University of Winchester); and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, was a history lecturer at King Alfred's and education officer for the Nigerian government.

Firth is the eldest of three children; his sister Kate is an actress and voice coach, and his brother Jonathan is also an actor.

His maternal grandparents were Congregationalist ministers and his paternal grandfather was an Anglican priest.

They did overseas missionary work, and both of his parents were born and spent part of their childhoods in India.

As a child, Firth frequently travelled due to his parents' work, spending some years in Nigeria.

He also lived in St. Louis, Missouri, when he was 11, which he has described as "a difficult time".

On returning to England, he attended the Montgomery of Alamein Secondary School (now Kings' School), which at the time was a state comprehensive school in Winchester, Hampshire.

He was still an outsider and the target of bullying.

To counter this, he adopted the local working class Hampshire accent and copied his schoolmates' lack of interest in schoolwork.

Firth began attending drama workshops at age 10, and by 14 had decided to be a professional actor.

Until further education, he was not academically inclined, later saying in an interview, "I didn't like school. I just thought it was boring and mediocre and nothing they taught me seemed to be of any interest at all."

However, at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College in Eastleigh, he was imbued with a love of English literature by an enthusiastic teacher, Penny Edwards, and has said that his two years there were among the happiest of his life.

After his sixth form years, Firth moved to London and joined the National Youth Theatre, where he made many contacts and got a job in the wardrobe department at the National Theatre.

He subsequently studied at Drama Centre London.

In 2012, he founded the production company Raindog Films, where he served as a producer for Eye in the Sky (2015) and Loving (2016).

His films have grossed more than $3 billion from 42 releases worldwide.

Firth has campaigned for the rights of Indigenous people and is a member of Survival International.

He has also campaigned on issues of asylum seekers, refugees' rights and the environment.

He commissioned and co-authored a scientific paper on a study of the differences in brain structure between people of differing political orientations.

He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

He has since appeared in the musical fantasy film Mary Poppins Returns (2018), the war film 1917 (2019), and the romance film Supernova (2020).