Colin Firth was born this day in Hampshire, England in 1960. Little known before his turn as Mr. Darcy in the BBC miniseries “Pride & Prejudice,” Firth first honed his acting skills at England’s National Youth Theatre. The Nigeria-raised actor made his stage debut with “Another Country,” playing lead Guy Bennett and later landed a supporting role in the 1984 screen version. With work in Milos Forman’s Valmont (1989) and Shakespeare in Love (1998) Firth has made himself the go-to man for romantic period movies and modern-day love affairs alike (see Love Actually and the Bridget Jones pair of movies). Other Firth appearances on screen include The English Patient (1996), The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) and Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). This year will see the documentary In Prison My Whole Life, Firth’s first producing effort. Women everywhere can look forward to his mug onscreen in Genova, written and directed by Michael Winterbottom, and An Accidental Husband, with Uma Thurman.
Awards: Ironically, Colin Firth gained in popularity after portraying the character of Mark Darcy in two far apart time periods: the mini-series “Pride & Prejudice” and the shortened comedic updates, Bridget Jones’s Diary. Both parts earned him nominations at the BAFTA awards.
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