Hampshire star wins Oscar (From This is Hampshire)
When news happens, text SDE and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
Colin Firth wins Best Actor at the Academy Awards
7:50am Monday 28th February 2011 in Featured Films
Colin Firth takes the best actor crown at the Oscars
HAMPSHIRE-born film star Colin Firth was last night crowned King of Hollywood.
Firth, who was educated at Kings' School in Winchester and Barton Peveril College in Eastleigh, was named best actor for his role in smash hit royal drama The King's Speech.
The cast arrived knowing the film had received a total of 12 nominations. It also won best picture, best director and best original screen play.
Firth plays King George V1, who battled to overcome a severe stammer to make a crucial radio broadcast at the start of the Second World War.
• Oscars Round-up
• Oscar for Portman
• Apology for speech 'f-bomb'
• Kelly at Elton's Oscar bash
The film, which has already taken £142m at the global box office, had already scooped a fistful of awards, including several BAFTAs and Golden Globes.
It faced stiff competition from The Social Network, Black Swan and the western drama True Grit, starring Jeff Bridges, who beat Firth to an Oscar last year.
Firth, 50, who was born in Grayshott, began his acting career in 1983.
His parents taught at King Alfred's College Winchester, now the University of Winchester, where he received an honorary degree.
His other major film credits include The English Patient, Bridget Jones's Diary, Mamma Mia and Love Actually.
Oscar success this year made up for the disappointment after Firth was nominated in 2009 for his role as a suicidal gay English academic in 1960s Los Angeles in A Single Man.
Firth is the 18th British actor to have won a best actor Oscar. The last British man to win was Daniel Day-Lewis in 2007 for his performance in There Will Be Blood.
Firth told the audience at the 83rd Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles he wanted to leave the stage before he embarrassed himself by dancing with joy.
He said: ''I have a feeling my career has just peaked.''
Speaking afterwards, he said: ''What has struck me is that the emotional response to this has been quite personal and diverse.
''It's very powerful to be on the receiving end of that kind of feedback.
''The fact that (the award) has overlapped with something that has resonated with people is probably the most valuable thing of all.''
Firth, who said he looked forward to ''cooking a lot'' following the awards season, described the decision to axe the UK Film Council as ''short-sighted''.
The Best Actor Oscar made Colin Firth Hollywood royalty and finally laid to rest the Mr Darcy tag.
He achieved instant heart-throb status when he played Jane Austen's brooding hero in 1995, famously emerging from a lake in a dripping wet shirt and breeches in the BBC television adaptation of Pride And Prejudice.
Comments(8)
stmarysmush
says...
12:54pm Mon 28 Feb 11
St Retford
says...
1:58pm Mon 28 Feb 11
.
And Southy - that sounds really good. More people should study the Spanish Civil War - it was all that was good and all that was bad about the 20th century in one event.
Brite Spark
says...
3:00pm Mon 28 Feb 11
Dr George wrote:He went to college in Eastleigh, that's not a tenuous link, well done Col!
Well done Col'. Got to love luvvies with a tenuous link to the Southampton area.
southy
says...
3:26pm Mon 28 Feb 11
St Retford wrote:it shows what fascism was really about an extreme right wing politics and not what the right wing would have you believe, the bombing of socialist by hitler air force is prof of that.
I can't believe he didn't give a shout out to Nigel Adkins and the boys while he was up there. They're all the same - they get a sniff of Hollywood and forget their roots.
.
And Southy - that sounds really good. More people should study the Spanish Civil War - it was all that was good and all that was bad about the 20th century in one event.
St Retford
says...
4:44pm Mon 28 Feb 11
southy wrote:It also tells you a lot about the history of the European left. There were these heroic men from the UK and elsewhere who went to fight fascism not out of any sort of self interest but because they knew fascism was wrong and "their open eyes could see no other way", to quote the memorial near Waterloo.
St Retford wrote: I can't believe he didn't give a shout out to Nigel Adkins and the boys while he was up there. They're all the same - they get a sniff of Hollywood and forget their roots. . And Southy - that sounds really good. More people should study the Spanish Civil War - it was all that was good and all that was bad about the 20th century in one event.it shows what fascism was really about an extreme right wing politics and not what the right wing would have you believe, the bombing of socialist by hitler air force is prof of that.
.
But, what destroyed them more than anything wasn't so much the fascist forces but the internecine squabbling between the different factions out there. It's tragic that such beautiful ideals were let down so badly.
southy
says...
5:36pm Mon 28 Feb 11
St Retford wrote:very true about the different fractions in the left, but i look at it this way, if you want the right ideals then arguments and debates are going to happen.
southy wrote:It also tells you a lot about the history of the European left. There were these heroic men from the UK and elsewhere who went to fight fascism not out of any sort of self interest but because they knew fascism was wrong and "their open eyes could see no other way", to quote the memorial near Waterloo.
St Retford wrote: I can't believe he didn't give a shout out to Nigel Adkins and the boys while he was up there. They're all the same - they get a sniff of Hollywood and forget their roots. . And Southy - that sounds really good. More people should study the Spanish Civil War - it was all that was good and all that was bad about the 20th century in one event.it shows what fascism was really about an extreme right wing politics and not what the right wing would have you believe, the bombing of socialist by hitler air force is prof of that.
.
But, what destroyed them more than anything wasn't so much the fascist forces but the internecine squabbling between the different factions out there. It's tragic that such beautiful ideals were let down so badly.
just look at thatcher she was a dictator, any one that did not agree with her in the tory party was removed quickly has possible, she was no different from stalin or hitler, who only want yes men.
good ideals come from many people not a few or just the one, one reason why socialism will work in a modern world, its ideals are perfect for going into the future and it will listen to others.
TEBOURBA
says...
9:09pm Mon 28 Feb 11
I'm glad that Colin Firth won the Best Male Actor Award---- but am I the only one to think that his acceptance speech was absolutely cringe making? -- King George VI would have done a better job --- BEFORE his speech training therapy.
Dr George says...
8:36am Mon 28 Feb 11