Colin Firth Biography And Filmography:

An attractive British actor who won international followers with his menacing role as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television miniseries of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," Colin Firth would continue to set women's hearts on fire as the thinking woman's sex symbol in films like "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "Love, Actually."

The son of scholastic parents, Colin Firth spent his young years living in Nigeria before his family relocated to England when he was five. While as a boy Firth had expressed interest in acting, he was eighteen when he started to chase his studies in earnest, joining the National Youth Theatre. Following training at London's The Drama Centre, Firth made his London stage entrance in Julian Mitchell's "Another Country", replacing Rupert Everett in the starring role of upper class spy Guy Bennett.

Firth went on to make his movie screen debut in the 1984 film version of the play as Tommy Judd, the Communist school friend of Bennett who also appears to be the only student with no gay tendency. Colin proved his skill as a romantic star in the television remake of "Camille" (1984), opposite Greta Scacchi, and cemented his status as a rising celebrity starring in the 1986 British miniseries "Lost Empires" with Laurence Olivier.

Often seen as one of the best actors of his time in Britain, Colin Firth has shown his talents with a series of fine roles. In "A Month in the Country (1987), he gave a strong performance as a troubled World War I veteran who falls in love with a vicar's wife while in "Apartment Zero" (1988), he had one of his best roles as the lonesome and privileged film lover whose life is changed when he takes in a odd American tenant. "Valmont" (1989) had Firth in the lead role of the rich and intellectual count, but the film was eclipsed by the previous year's extravagant "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988) with Michelle Pfieffer, Glenn Close, Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves. Still, the attractive actor once again showed his flair in period roles. That same year, Firth won applause for his role as paralyzed soldier Robert Lawrence in the television biopic "Tumbledown".

Colin Firth was extraordinary as Simon Westward, the Protestant land owner whose affair with a college girl almost leads to the loss of another couple's true love in "Circle of Friends" (1995). Firth offered a serious role as the husband of Kristin Scott Thomas' Katherine in "The English Patient" (1996) before playing a childhood friend of the sisters at the center of "A Thousand Acres" (1997) with Michelle Pfieffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh, a drama about an American family who meets with tragedy on their land.

Colin Firth was next cast in the Oscar winning "Shakespeare in Love" (1998) and stood out as an unconventional inventor who risks his marriage and family by making an advance to his brother's fiancee in the 1930s "My Life So Far" (1999). After a role in "Relative Values" (2000), he was cast playing Mark Darcy in the film version of "Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001) starring Renee Zellweger, quickly building a growing legion of female fans that anointed him a thinking woman's screen heartthrob celebrity.

Firth earned an Emmy nomination for his strong role as the Nazi Secretary of State in "Conspiracy" (2001). Changing gears, Colin next took on Shakespeare's Melancholy Dane in a stage production of "Hamlet" and played Jack Worthing in the 2002 remake of "The Importance of Being Earnest" with Reese Witherspoon. In 2003, after appearing as Amanda Bynes' in-the-dark English father in the teen comedy "What a Girl Wants," Firth joined a group of actors to appear in "Love Actually" with Keira Knightley, the directorial debut of his "Bridget Jones Diary" screenwriter Richard Curtis. The movie follows the lives of eight very different couples who are dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England. 

Also in a romantic setting was Firth's portrayal of 17th Century artist Johannes Vermeer in "Girl With a Pearl Earring" (2003), a tale that showed an intimate relationship between the famous painter and the young subject (Scarlett Johansson) of his most well-known work of art. Firth scored another nice role when he co-starred with Kevin Bacon in "Where the Truth Lies" (2005) as Vince Collins, the polished half of a 1950s celebrity comedy team caught up in the mysterious murder of a gorgeous blonde who turns up naked and dead in the bathtub of their New Jersey hotel room, leading to the splitting of their partnership and a years-later investigation.

After a year away from the limelight and movie business, Colin Firth burst back onto the scene with a schedule as busy as anyone in Hollywood. First was a starring role alongside Ben Kingsley in the war drama "The Last Legion" (2007), about when the Roman empire crumbles, young Romulus Augustus flees the city and embarks on a perilous voyage to Britain to track down a legion of supporters. Next was the story of a son's conflicting memories of his dying father in "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" (2007), before stepping into a starring role opposite Helen Hunt in the romantic comedy "Then She Found Me" (2007), about a New York schoolteacher who hits a midlife crisis when, in quick succession, her husband leaves, her adoptive mother dies and her biological mother, an eccentric talk show host, materializes and turns her life upside down as she begins a courtship with the father of one of her students. 

More comedy followed the next year working with Uma Thurman in the romantic comedy "The Accidental Husband" (2008), where when talk radio host Emma Lloyd advises one of her listeners to break up with her boyfriend, the jilted ex sets about getting his revenge. But things were just getting wormed up for Colin Firth as the following year would show him in no-less then five different productions.

First was a starring role alongside Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan in the musical comedy "Mamma Mia!" (2008), the story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular '70s group ABBA. Next for Colin Firth was the UK drama "Genova" (2008) where a man moves his two daughters to Italy after their mother dies in a car accident in order to revitalize their lives. The actor was then cast in the dramatic "David Copperfield" (2008) based on the novel, then as the lead role in the crime comedy "The Meat Trade" (2008), set in Edinburgh, Scotland 2007, where there are body snatchers on the streets. Locked in combat, two men roller-coaster from murder on demand to blood-lust and mayhem. Firth finished the year next to Susan Sarandon in the romantic biography "The Colossus" (2008) about an ornithologist at the turn of the 20th century who transports hundreds of songbirds to an ailing prime minister in South Africa and falls for a political activist trying to stop the impending Boer War.

The following year started with more comedy, and a starring role opposite Jessica Biel in "Easy Virtue" (2009) where an American divorcée meets her new in-laws after tying the knot with a young Englishman on the spur of the moment in France. Based on the play by Noel Coward. Colin was then hired and cast in the animated feature "A Christmas Carol" (2009) with Jim Carrey, an animated retelling of Charles Dickens classic novel about a Victorian-era miser taken on a journey of self-redemption, courtesy of several mysterious Christmas ghosts played by Jim Carrey. Colin Firth wrapped his year with Jennifer Aniston in the comedy crime horror "Gambit" (2009), about a mans plan to steal a statue from one of the world's richest men who is missing one final component -- the participation of a beautiful woman to act as his gambit.

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