Celebrity Biographies
Colin Firth
He became a celebrity in his country, Great Britain, in 1995, as a result of a television series that was a mass phenomenon. It has taken her a little longer to make herself known in the rest of the world, where she began to attract attention in 2001, with Bridget Jones’s Diary .
And although several of his films have swept the box office, his work has been somewhat overshadowed by the stars who usually accompany him in the cast of his films. He exudes talent and class in abundance, the expressiveness of his look attracts attention and his interpretive force make him a worthy heir to the prestigious school of British interpreters. But his greatest virtue lies in his impressive voice, which makes it essential to see his work in its original version.
The son of a marriage of teachers (his father was dedicated to history and his mother to religion), Colin Firth was born on September 10, 1960, in Grayshott, a small town in Hampshire (Great Britain). Very soon, the family moved to Nigeria, where his paternal grandfather, a Methodist, worked as a missionary. He caught the acting bug when he was about twelve years old, and the family had returned to England. He sweeps school functions, and decides to study drama in London. Before finishing the last year, he had already been chosen to debut in the West End, the area of the first division of the theater in the British capital, with Another Country. When the performances ended, he was also offered a role in the film adaptation of this same play. He soon also intervenes in television series,Milos Forman hires him as the protagonist of Valmont , his particular adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons . On set he fell in love with actress Meg Tilly , with whom he decided to take refuge in the Canadian forests and abandon acting for five years.
After parting amicably, Firth returns to civilization. It will be then when his career goes through its best moment, when the BBC hires him as the protagonist of an exhaustive adaptation of Pride and Prejudice , the novel by Jane Austen . His portrayal of the arrogant gentleman Fitzwilliam Darcy made him the national pride. He was acclaimed by chroniclers, and was a phenomenon in England, where “Darcymania” is still remembered, comparable only to the impact that Jeremy Irons had.with Return to Brideshead. There was a lot of talk about her work, especially among the female audience. “I cut my hair, so they wouldn’t recognize me. I remember going to a restaurant, and next to me there were people talking about Mr. Darcy,” she recalls. Her work was even alluded to in her country’s best-selling book of the late 20th century, Bridget Jones’s Diary .
Such success led to his being hired more in the cinema, in films that normally squandered his talent. In Circle of friends he played a small role. In the multi-award winning The English Patient, his intervention was little known; he was the deceived husband of Kristin Scott Thomas , a woman who had a passionate affair with the leading archaeologist. Very similar was the envious Lord Wessex, the man Viola was to marry in Shakespeare in Love . His best work is the one that went the most unnoticed: the typical young aristocrat, nephew of the protagonists of Gente con clase , a little gem that adapted a work by Noel Coward .
In the adaptation of Bridget Jones’s Diary , Colin Firth curiously played Mark Darcy, inspired by his Pride and Prejudice character . Here he gave the bell worldwide, in another arrogant character who fought over the hysterical protagonist with the cynical character of Hugh Grant , to the rhythm of It’s Raining Man. Next, Firth was a Nazi doctor in The Final Solution , and gave life to one of the protagonists of The Importance of Being Earnest , an adaptation of the work by Oscar Wilde . His best film work was yet to come. In Girl with a Pearl EarringIt was the great painter Johannes Vermeer, who is inspired by a maid to create a masterpiece. He also managed to stand out among the many characters in Love Actually , a cast made up of the best of British cinema, and where Colin Firth was a writer in love with his Portuguese maid.
Established as a star, Colin Firth will be talking in the future. We will see him as the protagonist of the thriller Trauma , and resuming his character as Darcy in The Edge of Reason , sequel to the adventures of Bridget Jones. He also prepares Nanny McPhee , written by and starring Emma Thompson .