King’s Speech star awarded CBE
Colin Firth has been awarded a CBE by Prince Charles – whose grandfather the actor brought to life on the screen.
King George VI’s battle to overcome a stutter was famously portrayed by Firth, who won a string of awards for his moving performance.
Playing the monarch in The King’s Speech earned Firth a Bafta, Gold Globe and most notably the Best Actor Oscar, and garnered large critical acclaim for the film.
The 51-year-old chatted briefly to the prince after the presentation was made in Buckingham Palace’s ballroom where the investiture ceremony was held on Thursday.
But he declined to speak to waiting media before returning to his seat to watch other recipients receive their honours.
It was the sight of Firth emerging from a lake in a dripping wet shirt and britches during the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice series that made him an instant heart-throb.
His role as the brooding hero Mr Darcy in 1995 caught the eye of a legion of female fans and film directors.
It was the part that defined him for many years even though he tried to distance himself from it, saying it was ‘just another role’.
Firth’s parents were academics and as a child he spent time in Africa and America before the family settled in Winchester, Hampshire.
He is also a prominent political campaigner, though he publicly withdrew his support for the Liberal Democrats after the row over tuition fees.
The celebrity has been in demand as an actor since leaving the Drama Centre London where he learned his craft.
He was picked for a succession of tv and theater parts before his portrayal of Robert Lawrence in the TV production Tumbledown earned him a Royal Television Society Best Actor award.
After his groundbreaking role as Mr Darcy in the costume drama other parts followed in quick succession from a typical gentleman in The English Patient to a football-obsessed instructor in the film version of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch and an aristocrat in Shakespeare in Love.
Six years after first playing Mr Darcy he took on a character with the same name in the film Bridget Jones’s Diary opposite Renee Zellweger.
He revealed another side to his personality when he showed of his vocal cords as banker Harry Bright in the Abba-themed motion picture musical Mamma Mia! and earned his first Bafta for his portrayal of a suicidal English college professor living in Los Angeles in A Single Man.
But his role as George VI, who battles a speech impediment with the help of Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush, captured the imagination of the movie-going public.
The father-of-three has already been recognised for his work on behalf of his wife’s native Italy.
Firth, who married producer Livia Giuggioli in 1997, was made a Commander of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity in 2005.
The actor also has a son from an earlier relationship with actress Meg Tilly.
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Submited at Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 2:00 pm on Movies by natalia
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