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Colin Firth’s Acting Career

Colin Firth got one of his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the role he played in A Single Man, a 2009 American film production based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel. Colin Firth plays George Falconer, a depressed gay British university professor living in Southern California. But he has worked hard and long to get to this point in his career.

Colin Firth’s career in acting began in 1983 when he starred as Guy Bennett in an award-winning London stage production of Another Country. The next year, he made his film debut in the screen adaptation of the play. Another good role was a 1986 starring appearance with Sir Laurence Olivier in Lost Empires. 1987 saw Colin Firth acting opposite Kenneth Branagh in the film version of J. L. Carr’s, A Month in the Country. The following year, Colin Firth was Valmont in the film Valmont as well as a co-lead in Apartment Zero.

But despite playing so  many starring roles, Colin Firth really caught the attention and imagination of the public when he played Mr Darcy in the 1995 BBC television adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Not only did this launch Colin Firth to heartthrob status, it also led to him starring in the very successful Bridget Jones series.

Since then, Colin Firth has starred in films such as Fever Pitch (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Relative Values (2000), The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), Love Actually (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Hope Springs (2003), Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Then She Found Me (2007) with Helen Hunt, The Last Legion (2007) with Aishwarya Rai, When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008), the film adaptation of Mamma Mia! (2008), and Easy Virtue.

In 2010 Colin Firth’s film The King’s Speech was greeted with a standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival, and he was also nominated for a a Golden Globe for his performance.  In 2012 fans can look forward to Colin Firth’s appearance in the filmic adaptation of the John le Carré novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

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Pride and Prejudice

How Darcy won Elizabth in Pride and Prejudice

In Jane Austen’s best selling novel, Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy is a noble and rich gentleman who enjoys an income of £10,000 a year, considered to be a huge fortune at the time. Mr. Dacry is the owner of Pemberley, a sprawling and well-kept estate in Derbyshire, England. British heartthrob Colin Firth plays Mr. Darcy in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. 

In the story Mr. Darcy snubs Elizabeth Bennet at the first ball he attends in the new village he has moved to. Unfortunately for him, he then starts to see her attractions and succumbs to her charms. Mr Darcy finds he is compellingly attracted Elizabeth Bennet and starts to woo her. Unfortunately he chooses to do this in his own style which is haughty, stilted and somewhat marred by his feelings of superiority. Though he dissuades his best friend Mr. Bingley from seriously courting Elizabeth’s elder sister Jane, because of the unsuitability of the math, Mr Darcy himself goes ahead to court Jane in the same way. But sadly, it is his putting a spanner in Bingley and Jane’s budding relationship that causes any hopes for success he has with Elizabeth to completely be sunk and Elizabeth ends up intensely disliking him for his interference in her sister’s happiness.

But Darcy has not a clue about this as he is so assured of his own superiority and therefore eligibility. So when Elizabeth angrily rejects his proposal of marriage, enumerating all his faults in the process that Darcy learns how people really perceive him. He then makes an about face and ends up going out of the way to prove the depth of his feelings. He becomes less proud, is a charming host at Pemperly and even does what he can to rescue the Bennet family social ruin when Elizabeth’s youngest sister Lydia elopes with George Wickham.

Seeing this change and able to appreciate the effort that Darcy went through to prove himself a worthy suitor to her, Elizabeth to starts to see him in a different light. When he proposes again, Elizabeth accepts him with alacrity and the two live happily ever after. Is it any surprise that Pride and Prejudice is considered to be one of the best love stories ever written?

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Pride and Prejudice – The Teleseries

There have been many versions of Pride and Prejudice that have been made but perhaps the most famous is the six-episode 1995 BBC television drama. This version of Pride and Prejudice was faithfully adapted by Andrew Davies from Jane Austen’s  novel of the same name. Starring in the film are Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy respectively.

Pride and Prejudice is set in the 19th century English countryside and follows the efforts of Mrs. Bennet played by Alison Steadman who is the mother of five unmarried daughter to marry them off after the arrival of the rich and eligible Mr. Bingley and his proud, awkward friend Mr. Darcy move into the neighbourhood. The plot thickens immediately as Bingley takes a shine to Jane Bennett. But while this is a side plot in the series, it is the story of Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett that has everyone absolutely riveted.

Darcy is extremely stiff and class conscious and immediately crosses swords with Elizabeth. So interesting are their verbal clashes that The New York Times when discussing Pride and Prejudice said it was “a witty mix of love stories and social conniving, cleverly wrapped in the ambitions and illusions of a provincial gentry”.

Pride and Prejudice received a lot of critical acclaim and many awards such as a BAFTA Television Award for Jennifer Ehle for “Best Actress” and an Emmy for “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special”. One of the people who benefited from the series the most was Colin Firth in his role of Mr. Darcy. There is a scene in the televised version that shows Mr Darcy in a wet shirt which had so many pulses racing that it is now considered “one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history”.  This role launched Colin Firth in his career and he went on to play a starring role in many films and even won an Academy Award later in his career.

Pride and Prejudice – The Teleseries is a post from: Colin Firth