Colin Firth

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals

Firth in 2011, photo by PR Photos

Birth Name: Colin Andrew Firth

Place of Birth: Alton, Hampshire, England, U.K.

Date of Birth: 10 September, 1960

Ethnicity: English, some Scottish and Ulster-Scots/Northern Irish

Colin Firth is an English actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The King’s Speech (2010). His roles also include the films A Month in the Country, Tumbledown, Valmont, The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and its sequels; The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), Girl with a Pearl Earring, Love Actually, Mamma Mia!, and its sequel; A Single Man, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and its sequel; Mary Poppins Returns, 1917, and Supernova (2020), and television’s Pride and Prejudice (1995), Conspiracy, and The Staircase. He founded production company Raindog Films. He has campaigned for indigenous people, refugees, and the envrionment.

Colin is the son of Shirley Jean (Rolles) and David Norman Lewis Firth, both academics and teachers. His father was a history lecturer. His mother was a comparative religion lecturer. He spent part of his childhood in Nigeria, where his father worked for the government, and St. Louis, Missouri. His siblings, Kate Firth and Jonathan Firth, are also actors. His maternal grandparents were Congregationlist missionaries. Colin is married to Italian film producer Livia Giuggioli. He has a son, actor William Joseph Firth, with his former partner, actress Meg Tilly; and two children with Livia.

Colin has also acquired Italian citizenship.

Colin’s paternal grandfather was Cyril Bruce Firth (the son of Norman Kennardy/Kennedy Firth and Mary Helen Bruce). Cyril was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, and was an Anglican priest. Norman was the son of Wilson Firth and Mary Sykes. Colin’s great-grandmother Mary Helen was the daughter of Robert Bruce, who was from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and was an Independent Congregationalist Minister; and of Alice Briggs, from Lancashire, England.

Colin’s paternal grandmother was Helen Mary Lewis (the daughter of Edwin Herbert Lewis and Dora Katharine/Katherine Slater). Helen was born in India. Edwin was born in India, and was a Congregationalist minister. He was the son of Edwin F. Lewis and Elizabeth, who were missionaries from Somerset, England. Dora was the daughter of Thomas Ebenezer Slater, a missionary, from the Independent Minister Society of London Missionaries; and of Jane Elizabeth Coles, who was born in Madras, India, also to missionary parents.

Colin’s maternal grandfather was Montague John Rolles-Rolles (the son of Montague Rolles Rolles and Eliza Florence Hayes). Colin’s grandfather Montague was born in Christchurch, Hampshire, England. Colin’s great-grandfather Montague was the son of Joseph Rolles Rolles and Elizabeth Rolls. Colin’s great-grandmother Eliza was the daughter of Charles/James Hayes and Eliza/Elizabeth Isabella Smith.

Colin’s maternal grandmother was Helen Jean Johnson (the daughter of Edward John Martyn Johnson and Eleanor Mather Bruce). Helen was born in South Mimms, Middlesex, England. Edward was the son of George Edward Johnson and Mary Frances Ball. Eleanor was of Scottish and Northern Irish descent, and was the daughter of James Thomas Bruce, who was born in Perthshire, Scotland, and of Jemima Fairley Roulston, who was born in Northern Ireland.

Sources: Family history of Colin Firth – https://www.findmypast.co.uk

Genealogy of Colin Firth – https://www.geni.com

26 Responses

  1. andrew says:

    I think this should be added: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/discoveries/colin-firth-family-tree

    Thomas Ebenezer Slater died in NSW, Australia, and Jane Elizabeth Coles was born in Madras, India.

  2. michaelthompson says:

    One thing I don’t understand – there are loads of Italians who are blonde-haired and blue-eyed – as many as 20 percent in the North but many in the South too. And there are loads of English guys who look like Colin. Why is one the epitome of whiteness and the other has their whiteness questioned?

    • passingtime85 says:

      Because it is the furthest removed from darker people. Opposite end of the spectrum.

    • porkarella says:

      One thing I don’t understand is why you compared folks who are not genetically related to him.
      No in North and Central Italy there are 45% of blond and ginger -you missed the Central too light haired and eyed are there too- like in UK, France and Ireland, in the South are like 2% cause the Southerns are a mix of Arabs and Northern Spaniards super very dark people, unlike you I live in Italy in Europe not in Usa or whatever you come from and I can say it for sure I see my fellow countrymen everyday.
      You reported the fake info you picked up randomly from net, typical one brainwashed.

      • Oaken05 says:

        I don’t know where this false – but popular- misinformation keeps coming from. Maybe it’s politics; maybe it’s simply ignorance. But it’s just wrong. Even amongst Sicilians, North African genes sourced from the male line measure in between 3.5% to 7% tops (source: Moors and Saracens in Europe: estimating the medieval North African male legacy in southern Europe).

        This idea that Sicilians, Southern Italians, Greeks, Maltese, etc. have some hugely significant North African admixture is a false one. Kind of like how the Hungarians idolize distant Asian ancestors when the genetic admixiture tops out at maybe 5% on average. Like, yes, maybe Magyars and Scilians have much higher non-European admixtures than saw a Swede…but like five-fold is still only 5%.

        • porkarella says:

          Lol cretin as I told ya I’m Italian living in Italy I know the history and reality of my country and of the world unlike you, we Italians are probably the only ones real educated on history and biology in Europe and in the all West we classify races rightly.
          The light haired and light eyed in South Italy like in Spain and Portugal are very rare not common and these few ones have ancient non native roots from other European countries in South Italy the huge majority are Arab looking, the Nordics and Europeans are non-existent in NA and ME like in the other non Euros places, in Italy like in the rest of Europe we’re plenty of NA immigrants and they resemble zero of Nordic and at least of European.
          Why you non Europeans are so obsessed to whitewashing and nordicized every dark people instead to accept your real dark non white being you’re the first who don’t wanna accept your own identity.

          • Oaken05 says:

            “…we Italians are probably the only ones real educated on history and biology in Europe and in the all West we classify races rightly.”

            Lol, you dumb troll. You obviously are not educated on the history and biology of your country. Come back when you cite ANY of the misinformation you’re spreading.

        • porkarella says:

          Lol, you dumb troll. You obviously are not educated on the history and biology of my country.
          Yeah I was waiting to meet a foreigner to tell me this HAHAHA!!
          Come back when you cite ANY of the misinformation you’re spreading, ya—–!

          • Oaken05 says:

            It’s very obvious, now, that you are a recent banned troll under another account. This would be more fun if you were even close to being clever. lol

          • NOTREALLY says:

            “I’m Italian living in Italy ”

            dude, EVERYONE knows you’re “muricansareallmutts”, like, you’re so dumb you can’t even come up with an altogether new persona to try to hide it, lmao

    • porkarella says:

      Firth is the common Brit man.
      The average Brits are brown haired and brown eyed like every average Euros from every single countries of the Old Continent, the average Scandinavians are like this too, too schocking to discovering, right? :D
      Here in Europe where I live since my birth the common color of hair and eyes is brown like in the other West but —- contries of the New World like Usa.

      • passingtime85 says:

        Do you have to refer to people with mixed heritage as —-? Technically correct, but it’s meant for dogs, not humans. It’s demeaning. Being mixed doesn’t indicate that a person is of a lesser quality, just a smaller quantity and/or denomination/s of the ethnicities that compromise their heritage.

        If you mean mixed or admixed, just use those terms. Humans as a whole, are rarely better than each other in most respects, at most you can say, they’re just different, and like all things that are different, there’s some attributes that are observably more and observably less in whatever or whomever you’re comparing/contrasting.

        Is a tangelo any less in quality than a tangerine or pomelo?

  3. Capricious says:

    Typical English looking man.

  4. HarrietmJones says:

    CORRECTION – The Firth line originated in Scotland, specifically the area around the Firth of Forth. My Auntie’s husband is Colin’s first cousin, so I know a tiny bit about the family. :)

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