Biography
Born: Colin Andrew Firth on 10 September 1960, in Grayshott, Hampshire.
Colin Firth is an English film, television and stage actor. He was born in Hampshire, the son of Shirley Jean (née Rolles), a comparative religion lecturer, and David Norman Lewis Firth, a history lecturer. Firth has a sister, Kate, and a younger brother, Jonathan, who is now also an actor. Firth spent part of his childhood in Nigeria, where his father was teaching. 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.
In 1983, Firth starred in the award-winning London stage production of Another Country, and reprised his role for his first film appearance in 1984. In 1987, he appeared alongside Kenneth Branagh in the film version of J. L. Carr's novel, A Month in the Country. However, despite widespread admiration for his performances, it was only with the 1995 BBC television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that Firth gained wider renown. The serial was a major success, and Firth became known as a heartthrob due to his portrayal of 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. As something of an in-joke, when the novels were adapted for the cinema, Firth was cast as Jones's love interest, Mark Darcy.
I like playing strange characters. Some people might say it has something to do with a hidden part of myself, but I think it's a lot simpler than that: normal people are just not very interesting.
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) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). He has also appeared in recent television productions, including Donovan Quick (an updated version of Don Quixote) (1999) and Conspiracy (2001). In 2007, Firth starred with Aishwarya Rai in The Last Legion.
Firth lives both in London and Italy and is currently married to an Italian film producer/director Livia Giuggioli. They have two sons, Luca and Matteo.
