Peter Firth Biography

Peter Macintosh Firth (born 27 October 1953) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One show Spooks; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the show's ten-series lifespan. He has given a myriad of additional television and film performances, most notably as Alan Strang in Equus (1977), earning a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for the role.

Early career

Firth was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of publicans Mavis (ne Hudson) and Eric Macintosh Firth. He attended Hanson School in Bradford.

He was a leading child actor by the middle of 1970, having starred in the first series of The Flaxton Boys as Archie Weekes and in the series Here Come the Double Deckers, which featured child actors in the leading roles. Firth played Scooper, the leader of the gang.

In July 1973 Firth appeared at Laurence Olivier's National Theatre, starring in the stage version of Peter Shaffer's play Equus as a teenager being treated by a psychiatrist, and in October 1974 repeated the role in the Broadway production, receiving a Tony Award nomination for his performance as Alan Strang.

His first major role as an adult was the title part in a BBC Television Play of the Month adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1976). The script was based on a stage adaptation by John Osborne, and also starred Jeremy Brett and John Gielgud. That same year saw the release of the World War I film Aces High which featured Firth as the inexperienced RFC pilot Lt. Stephen Croft.

Firth played the lead role in the unsuccessful film adaptation of Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews (1977). That same year he starred with Richard Burton in the film adaptation of Equus. The film was only a moderate box-office success, but earned Firth a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe award in the same category. Further film work quickly followed, most notably Roman Polanski's Tess (1979).

In May 1981 he appeared on Broadway again in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, replacing Tim Curry. Shaffer had offered him the role in the original London production, but he was unavailable due to film commitments.

Film

Other film work has included roles in Diamonds on Wheels (1973); When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979); Lifeforce (1985); Letter to Brezhnev (1985); Northanger Abbey (1986), playing Henry Tilney; The Hunt for Red October (1990); White Angel (1993), playing mild-mannered dentist Leslie Steckler; Amistad (1997); Mighty Joe Young (1998); Pearl Harbor (2001); and The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005), playing Lord Northcliffe.

Television

Along with his film career, Firth has continued to appear in various television productions, with several notable credits in various high-profile dramas. He starred in two science-fiction episodes of the BBC's Play for Today anthology series as the eponymous time-traveller in the romantic The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980), and its sequel, Another Flip for Dominick (1982). In 1994, in the Fourth Series of Heartbeat, he played Dr. Radcliffe who partnered with Dr. Rowan (Niamh Cusack) in Whitby. He also portrayed the Emperor Vespasian in "The Jewish Revolt" episode of the BBC series Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire.

For many years he had played a primary role as senior MI5 officer Harry Pearce in the BBC's popular spy drama series Spooks (2002-2011), and played Fred Hoyle in Hawking, a BBC dramatisation of the early career of Stephen Hawking. He was also Snaith in the three-part series South Riding in 2011. Firth has also appeared on American and Canadian television, on programmes such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Total Recall 2070, as well as in television films such as The Incident starring Walter Matthau.

In 2014 Firth played the part of the character Adrian Rawlins in Undeniable, a two-part series made for the ITV network. In 2015 he played Jacob Marley in four episodes of the BBC television series Dickensian.

In 2016 Firth played the part of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover in ITV's drama series Victoria.

Audiobooks

Firth is also a narrator of audiobooks. He has been responsible for performances reading Pat Barker's Regeneration, The Ghost Road and The Eye in the Door, Suspicion by Robert McCrum, Maurice by E. M. Forster, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong and Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

Personal life

Firth has been married twice and has four children; Rory Firth, from his first marriage, Amy, Alex and James Firth from his second.

He briefly dated Alexandra Pigg after they played a couple in Letter to Brezhnev. During an interview for BBC Breakfast in April 2017 they explained that they met again in 2010 and have been in a relationship since then.

On 17 July 2009 he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Bradford as a Doctor of Letters for his services to acting, having been nominated by the School of Computing, Informatics & Media; he received his award during the school's degree ceremony.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1972	Daniel and Maria
1973	Diamonds on Wheels	Robert 'Bobby' Stewart	TV Movie
1975	King Arthur, the Young Warlord	Corin
1976	Aces High	Lt Stephen Croft
1976	'	Armand
1977	Joseph Andrews	Joseph Andrews
1977	Equus	Alan Strang
1979	When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?	Stephen Ryder
1979	Tess	Angel Clare
1982	Fire and Sword	Dinas
1984	Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight	Sir Gawain	Voice; Uncredited
1984	White Elephant	Peter Davidson
1985	Lifeforce	Col Colin Caine
1985	Letter to Brezhnev	Peter
1986	'	Dr Kenneth Parrish
1987	Born of Fire	Paul Bergson
1988	Prisoner of Rio	Clive Ingram
1989	Tree of Hands	Terence
1989	Trouble in Paradise	Adriaan
1990	Blood Royal: William the Conqueror	William Rufus	TV movie
1990	'	Senior Lieutenant Ivan Putin
1990	'	Geiger	TV movie
1990	Burndown	Jake Stern
1990	'	Red	Voice
1991	Prisoner of Honor	Maj Henry
1992	'	Dick
1993	El marido perfecto	Franz
1993	Shadowlands	Dr Craig
1994	White Angel	Leslie Steckler
1995	An Awfully Big Adventure	Bunny
1996	Merisairas	1st Officer Ronald Jensen
1997	'	Nazi Commandant	TV movie
1997	Marco Polo: The Missing Chapter	Rusticello
1997	Gaston's War	Major Smith
1997	Amistad	Captain Fitzgerald
1998	Mighty Joe Young	Garth
1999	Chill Factor	Colonel Andrew Brynner
2000	'	Simon Magus	TV movie
2001	Pearl Harbor	Capt. Mervyn Bennion
2002 - 2011	Spooks	Harry Pearce
2005	'	Lord Northcliffe
2006	Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire	Vespasian
2010	World Without End	Sir Roland
2013	Mayday	Malcolm Spicer
2014	Undeniable	Andrew Bolton
2015	Spooks: The Greater Good	Harry Pearce
2015 - 2016	Dickensian	Jacob Marley
2016	Risen	Pontius
2016	Victoria	Duke of Cumberland