Colin Firth is an English actor who catapulted to stardom for his role as Mr. Darcy in the highly acclaimed 1995 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Born on September 10, 1960 in Grayshott, Hampshire, England, Colin Firth is the son of a comparative religion lecturer named Shirley Jean and David Norman, an education officer for the Nigerian Government. He 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, and then later attended the Montgomery of Alamein Secondary School, a state comprehensive school in Winchester, Hampshire. He also studied at Barton Peveril College and took some acting classes at the Drama Centre in North London.
Before entering the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, Colin Firth started making a name for himself in theater. He first acted in 1983 in the award-winning London stage production of Another Country, which had a film adaptation where he reprised his groundbreaking role in 1984. Three years later, he appeared alongside Kenneth Branagh in the film version of J. L. Carr's novel, A Month in the Country and subsequently took the lead in the film Valmont.
It was the 1995 BBC television adaptation of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice that marked Colin Firth’s wider fame as he became known as a heartthrob because of his role as Fitzwilliam Darcy. This role also led to his being 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. Quite fittingly, he was cast as Jones's love interest, Mark Darcy, when the novels were adapted for the cinema.
Colin Firth’s other notable credits include The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, Love Actually, The Last Legion, and The Importance of Being Earnest, among others.