Born in Grayshott, Hampshire, Colin Firth comes from an academic background;
he spent his early childhood in Nigeria before returning to England
at the age of five. He made his West End stage debut as Guy Bennet in
Julian Mitchell's Another Country. Due to that performance, he went
on to make his film debut as Tommy Judd in the film version of Another
Country (1984). Despite such a promising start to his career, he spent
much of the next 10 years working on obscure film projects, or in television,
notably as the darkly brooding Mr. Darcy in the BBC's costume drama
Pride and Prejudice (1995).
Firth played key roles in subsequent features without establishing
himself as a leading actor, appearing as the caddish Simon Westward
alongside Minnie Driver in Circle of Friends (1995). He next appeared
as Kristin Scott Thomas' cuckolded husband in The
English Patient (1996) and earned critical kudos and a host of new
fans. He broke away from period drama shortly to appear in the film
adaptation of Nick Hornby's Arsenal homage Fever Pitch (1997). Firth
also offered a comic turn as the impoverished Lord Wessex in Shakespeare
in Love (1998). More recently he appeared alongside Hugh
Grant and Renee Zellweger in the blockbuster adaptation of Helen
Fielding’s Bridget
Jones's Diary (2001).
