Colin Firth Biography
Colin Firth is an English award-winning actor and producer best known for starring in A Month in the Country (1987), Tumbledown (1988), and Valmont (1989). He rose to fame after starring in the TV series The Staircase (2022).
Colin Firth Career
Playwright Julian Mitchell cast Firth as gay, ambitious public schoolboy Guy Bennett in the 1983 West End production of Another Country after seeing him play Hamlet in the Drama Centre end-of-year show. In the play’s 1984 film adaptation, Firth made his film debut as Tommy Judd, Guy Bennett’s straight, Marxist schoolmate. Rupert Everett played Bennett. The long-running public conflict between Firth and Everett was ended. The 1986 TV adaptation of J. B. Priestley’s novel Lost Empires stars him and Sir Laurence Olivier.
Tim Roth, Bruce Payne, Paul McGann, and Firth were called the ‘Brit Pack’ in 1987. He and Kenneth Branagh starred in J. L. Carr’s A Month in the Country as Tom Birkin. Sheila Johnston saw a pattern in his early work of playing war-traumatized people. He played British soldier Robert Lawrence MC in the 1988 BBC drama Tumbledown. Lawrence was critically injured at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown during the Falklands War, and the video chronicles his struggles to adjust to his disability amid government and public indifference. It was criticized by left and right politicians.
The performance earned Firth a Royal TV Society Best Actor Award and a 1989 BAFTA Television Award nomination. He performed the titular role in Miloš Forman’s 1989 film Valmont, based on Les Liaisons dangereuses. It was released a year after Dangerous Liaisons but had little impact. He played a paranoid, socially awkward character in the Argentine psychological thriller Apartment Zero that year.
Firth became a British celebrity after playing the distant, haughty nobleman Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. Despite his unfamiliarity with Austen’s literature, producer Sue Birtwistle convinced him to do the part. He and co-star Jennifer Ehle started dating during filming, which was publicized following their breakup. Sheila Johnston said Firth “lent Darcy complex shades of coldness, even caddishness, in the early episodes.” Firth appeared in a wet shirt after swimming in a lake in the series, which was a worldwide hit and suddenly made him famous. He did not want to be connected with Pride and Prejudice forever, but he did not mind becoming “a romantic idol as a Darcy with smoldering sex appeal” in a part that “officially turned him into a heart-throb”. He was wary of doing similar roles and risking typecasting.
The character of Mr. Darcy seemed to eclipse Firth’s career, and his next five films included comic references to it. He played Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones’s Diary, a modern Pride and Prejudice, which was his most prominent role. Firth took the role to parody Mr. Darcy. It was a hit among critics. A 2004 sequel was critically criticized yet financially successful.
In The English Patient (1996), Firth played Kristin Scott Thomas’s husband, whose jealousy of her adultery kills both of them. Nostromo, a miniseries, featured him as Kristin’s sister Serena Scott Thomas’ husband that year. He added, “Serena was a much more faithful wife.” He appeared in Shakespeare in Love (1998), Relative Values (2000), and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002). Donovan Quick (1999), an updated version of Don Quixote, and Conspiracy (2001), about the Nazi Wannsee Conference, were among his television roles. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy.
Firth appeared in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually (2003), another box office hit that divided critics. He starred alone as the romantic lead in Hope Springs, which earned bad reviews and did little business. Firth played Amanda Bynes’ father in the 2003 teen comedy What A Girl Wants, based on The Reluctant Debutante. He played Johannes Vermeer opposite Scarlett Johansson in Girl with a Pearl Earring in 2003. Some reviews complimented its delicacy and gorgeous visuals, but others found it controlled, monotonous, and emotionless. However, it received largely positive reviews, moderate success, and several awards and nominations.
Firth’s 2005 fantasy film Nanny McPhee opposite Emma Thompson starred him as a struggling widower parent. In Where the Truth Lies, he returned to his darker, more dramatic early performances, including an infamous bisexual orgy sequence. Sheila Johnston stated that it “confounded his fans” but that his character “draws knowingly on that suave, cultivated persona” from Mr. Darcy. This period also produced Then She Found Me (2007) with Helen Hunt and The Last Legion (2007) with Aishwarya Rai.
Colin Firth Age
Firth was born on September 10, 1960, in Grayshott, United Kingdom. He is 63 years old as of 2023, and he celebrates his birthday on the 10th of September every year.
Colin Firth Height and Weight
Firth stands at a height of 6 feet 2 inches tall (1.87m) and weighs 76 kgs (167 lbs).
Colin Firth Family
Firth was born in the town of Grayshott in Hampshire. Both of his parents were smart and worked as teachers. Shirley Jean Firth, his mother, taught comparative religion at King Alfred’s College, which is now the University of Winchester. David Norman Lewis Firth, his father, taught history at King Alfred’s and worked for the Nigerian government as an education officer. He is the oldest of three children. His sister Kate is an actress and voice teacher, and so is his brother Jonathan. His grandfather on his dad’s side was an Anglican priest and his grandparents on his mom’s side were Congregationalist ministers. As missionaries, they worked all over the world. Both of his parents were born and spent some of their childhoods in India.
Colin Firth Wife
From 1989 to 1990, Firth was in a relationship with Meg Tilly, who played as his co-star in Valmont. William Joseph Firth, their son, was born in 1990. William is now also an actor. In 2016, he was in Bridget Jones’s Baby with his father. They went to Canada’s Lower Mainland in British Columbia. Firth’s acting career slowed down until they broke up in 1994, at which point he moved back to the UK.
Firth and co-star Jennifer Ehle started dating while they were shooting Pride and Prejudice. The relationship got a lot of attention from the media after they broke up. Firth got married to Italian director Livia Giuggioli in 1997. Matthew and Luca are their two boys. Firth can talk Italian very well. The family spent some time in Wandsworth, London, and some time in Umbria, Italy. In 2019, they said they were splitting up. They had a secret breakup a few years ago, but they got back together.
Colin Firth Net Worth
Firth has an estimated net worth of about $10 Million – $20 Million which he has earned through his career as an actor.
Colin Firth Salary
Firth earns a salary of about $100,000-$500,000.
Colin Firth Staircase
Firth plays the role of Michael Peterson in the miniseries Staircase. Crime novelist Michael Peterson is charged with killing his wife Kathleen, who was discovered dead in December 2001 at the bottom of their home’s staircase. As the probe goes on, the family is thrown into a very rough court case. At the same time, a French documentary crew is interested in the story. Michael Peterson said that he found her at the bottom of the stairs where she had fallen while drunk. He held her while calling for help and she died. The cops in Durham, North Carolina, saw a body that seemed to have stopped breathing a long time before they got the call. They thought he had killed her by beating her. Peterson was charged with murder in the first degree. The study that followed showed many sides of the man, his family, and the story. Other cast members include; Parker Posey, Juliette Binoche, Michael Stuhlbarg, Cory Scott Allen, Tim Guinee, and Frank Feys
Colin Firth Pride And Prejudice
Firth plays the role of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy in the TV series Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is friends with a wealthy man from the north of England named Mr. Charles Bingley who rents the Netherfield estate near the town of Meryton in Hertfordshire. On the other hand, Mrs. Bennet is excited about the idea of marrying one of her five daughters; Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia, to Mr. Bingley. Mr. Bennet says he doesn’t plan to visit Mr. Bingley, but his wife and girls will not be able to hang out with Mr. Bingley if he doesn’t.
As a result of Mr. Bennet’s refusal to meet Bingley, Mrs. Bennet becomes upset and says she hopes the girls will stop talking about him because they will never meet him. Mr. Bennet says he wishes he had known that sooner because he has already gone to see Mr. Bingley. The younger girls and Mrs. Bennet are shocked and thrilled and at the local country dance, Bingley falls in love with Jane right away, but his best friend Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, who is said to be twice as rich as Bingley, refuses to dance with anyone, not even Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s bad opinion of him is confirmed at a later event at Lucas Lodge. She and Darcy argue orally on the two nights she spends at Netherfield taking care of Jane, who got sick after riding there in the rain because Bingley’s sister invited her.
Colin Firth Empire Of Light
Firth plays the role of Donald Ellis in the romantic comedy film Empire of Light. Donald Ellis is the owner of “Empire Cinema”, Margate which is located in the English county of Kent’s north coast. He employed a manager for his company in 1980, named Hillary Small who lives alone and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder so her doctor prescribed lithium for her. Donald and Ellis are having an affair with his employee Hilary Small
A new worker Stephen gets his new job at the movie theater. He is Black British and lives with his nurse mother Delia. Hilary likes Stephen, who is good-looking and charming, and the two of them become close when she shows him the beautiful but empty top floor of the movie theater. When Stephen starts hanging out with Janine, a younger worker, Hilary gets jealous. Hilary kisses Stephen on the spot while watching the fireworks from the roof of the movie theater on New Year’s Eve. They start going out together sexually. Hilary breaks up with Donald and stops taking her medicine because she is happy about her new relationship.
Hilary sees a group of skinheads bothering Stephen on the street. Later, she deals with a racist customer, and Stephen tells her about the racism he has to deal with. Steven tells Hilary about Ruby, his first love, who works at the same hospital as his mother. When Stephen asks her about her past, she gets angry and yells at men, then destroys the sand castle they were building.
A coworker named Neil finds out about their relationship and tells Stephen that Hilary’s mental health is bad. In his words, it would be best for them to end their relationship. Donald tells the workers that the movie theater has been chosen to show Chariots of Fire for the first time in the area. Hilary gets on stage at the opening and gives a shaky speech before telling Donald’s wife about their affair. Hilary’s mental health gets worse over time. While Stephen is at her apartment to check on her, mental health workers break down her door and take her back to the hospital. (He hides in the next room and watches.)
After a few weeks, Donald is no longer working at the theater, and Stephen starts training with Norman, who is in charge of projecting movies. He meets Ruby at the movie theater, and the two of them start dating again. Hilary is no longer in the hospital and goes back to work. Stephen tells her to go to the movies, which she has never done before. A group of skinheads walks by the theater during her welcome-back party. They break in and beat Stephen when they see him. Hilary goes with him to the hospital and meets Stephen’s mom there.
Colin Firth Barbie
Firth plays the role of Mr. Darcy in the fantasy comedy film Barbie. A trait that Gerwig and Robbie called “a certain ineffable combination of beauty and exuberance,” was something they were looking for in actresses. Ryan Gosling started final talks to play Ken in the movie in October 2021. It was cast in February 2022 with America Ferrera, Simu Liu, and Kate McKinnon. The story for the movie was so good that Liu tried out for it after hearing great things from his agent. It came out in March 2022 that Ariana Greenblatt, Alexandra Shipp, and Emma Mackey would be in the show.
In April, Issa Rae, Michael Cera, Hari Nef, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Ncuti Gatwa, Emerald Fennell, Sharon Rooney, Scott Evans, Ana Cruz Kayne, Connor Swindells, Ritu Arya, and Jamie Demetriou all joined the group. Will Ferrell was too. A trailer from April 2023 showed that John Cena had joined the group. Later, it was said that Cena was offered a part in the movie after paying for Robbie’s meal in London while the movie was being made. Helen Mirren read the script for both the movie trailer and the movie itself. Robbie and Gosling were each given $12.5 million to play parts in the movie.
Robbie wanted Gal Gadot to play Barbie in the movie, but Gadot couldn’t because of other commitments. Gerwig wanted Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan, who work with her a lot, to make cameos, but neither of them could. Later, Gerwig said that Chalamet told her that he should have been in the movie when he visited the set. Bowen Yang, Dan Levy, and Ben Platt were also considered for the role of Ken. Jonathan Groff, who played Allan, was first chosen but turned it down. Matt Bomer tried out for a part and was given it, but he turned it down because of the production schedule.
Colin Firth Movies and TV Shows
- The King’s Speech
- Pride and Prejudice
- Tumbledown
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Relative Values
- Shakespeare in Love
- Nostromo
- The English Patient
- 2004 sequel
- Bridget Jones’s Diary
- film adaptation
- Conspiracy
- Love Actually
- Hope Springs
Colin Firth Social Media Platform
Firth is very active on his Twitter, and Instagram, and Facebook pages and he has 37.2k followers on Twitter 23.7k followers on Instagram, and 29.4k followers on Facebook.