Arthur Newman (1908 – August 6, 2000) was an American operatic baritone and actor. He began his career as a stage actor in St. Louis in the early 1930s and in 1939 began an opera career. He was notably a member of the New York City Opera between 1945 and 1959 during which time he performed in more than 1,300 performances with the company in over 50 roles.^[1]

Biography[link]

Newman was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He began his career as an actor at the Missouri Theater Company, portraying primarily nonmusical roles during the early 1930s. In the mid 1930s he started taking singing lessons with the intent of becoming an opera singer. In 1939 he joined the roster at the St. Louis Grand Opera Association. Between 1939 and 1943 he sang a number of secondary roles with the company, including parts in productions of Otello, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Tosca, Manon, Martha, and Mignon. During these years he and his wife, Helen Wright, were featured singers on the St. Louis radio station KMOX, where they presented a weekly program of vocal duets. In the early 1940s Newman also sang with the International Opera of Havana and with the St. Louis Chamber Opera.^[1]

Newman made his New York City debut on Broadway with the New Opera Company portraying Mr. Hutchinson in Jacques Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne on January 12, 1945. Just a few months later he joined the roster of singers at the New York City, making his debut with the company in April 1945 as Schaunard in Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme. He maintained a busy schedule performing with the NYCO for the next fifteen years in mainly supporting comic roles like Sacristan in Tosca and Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro. Some of his other roles included Masetto in Don Giovanni, several different roles in Der Rosenkavalier, and Escamillo in Carmen. He also sang in a number of world premieres with the company, including Chennoch in David Tamkin's The Dybbuk (1951) and The Doctor in Mark Bucci's Tale for a Deaf Ear (1958).^[1]

In addition to his work with the NYCO, Newman also sang several small roles on a number of recordings for RCA, including Verdi's Otello and La Traviata with conductor Arturo Toscanini.^[1]

After Newman left the NYCO in 1959, he joined the voice faculty at Wichita State University in Kansas. He notably taught the bass Samuel Ramey during his tenure there. In 1973 Newman retired. He died in Scottsdale, Arizona at the age of 92.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Arthur Newman at the Internet Broadway Database

A Darcy Before I Die - satirical poem by Ronnie Taheny (c) 2008

Colin Firth CBE
Firth in 2009
Born	Colin Andrew Firth (1960-09-10) 10 September 1960 (age 51) Grayshott, Hampshire, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1983–present
Spouse	Livia Giuggioli (1997–present; 2 children)
Partner	Meg Tilly (1989–1994; 1 child)
Children	3
Relatives	Kate Firth (sister) Jonathan Firth (brother)

Colin Andrew Firth, CBE (born 10 September 1960) is an English film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In 2011, Firth received an Academy Award for his portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech, a performance that also earned him the Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor, amongst others. The previous year, he received his first Academy Award nomination, for his leading role in A Single Man, a performance that won him a BAFTA Award. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.

Early life[link]

Firth was born in England. His mother, Shirley Jean (née Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at King Alfred's College Winchester (now the University of Winchester), and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, was a history lecturer (also at King Alfred's) and education officer for the Nigerian Government.^[1][2][3] Firth has a sister, Kate, and a younger brother, Jonathan, who is also an actor. Firth's parents were raised in India,^[4] because his maternal grandparents, Congregationalist ministers, and his paternal grandfather, an Anglican priest, performed missionary work abroad.^[5][6][7][8] Firth spent part of his childhood in Nigeria, where his father was teaching.^[9]

He lived in St. Louis, Missouri when he was 11. He later attended the Montgomery of Alamein Secondary School (now Kings' School), a state comprehensive school in Winchester, Hampshire. Reflecting on his time at Barton Peveril College in Eastleigh, he said "My two years at Barton Peveril were among the two happiest years of my life".^[10]

Career[link]

Film career[link]

In 1983, Firth starred as Guy Bennett in the award-winning London stage production of Another Country. In 1984, he made his film debut in the screen adaptation of the play, taking the role of Tommy Judd (opposite Rupert Everett as Bennett). In 1986, he starred with Sir Laurence Olivier in Lost Empires, a TV adaptation of J. B. Priestley's novel, then in 1987 he appeared alongside Kenneth Branagh in the film version of J. L. Carr's A Month in the Country. In 1989, he played the title role in the film Valmont, and was co-lead in the film Apartment Zero. Firth and other young British actors who were becoming established film actors such as Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Bruce Payne and Paul McGann were dubbed the 'Brit Pack'.^[11]

Firth at the Nanny McPhee London premiere in October 2005

It was through the 1995 BBC television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that Firth gained wider renown. The serial was a major international success, and Firth gained heartthrob status^{[citation needed]} because of his role as Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, in which he emerged in a wet shirt after a swim.^{[citation needed]} This performance also made him the object of affection for fictional journalist Bridget Jones (created by Helen Fielding), an interest which carried on into the two novels featuring the Jones character. In the second novel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the character even meets Firth in Rome. As something of an in-joke, when the novels were adapted for the cinema, Firth was cast as Jones's love interest, Mark Darcy.^{[citation needed]} Continuing this in-joke, there was a dog called Mr Darcy in the film St. Trinian's, which Firth's character accidentally kills.^{[citation needed]}

Firth had a supporting role in The English Patient (1996) and since then, has starred in films such as Fever Pitch (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Relative Values (2000), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), Love Actually (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Hope Springs (2003), Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Nanny McPhee (2005), Where the Truth Lies (2005), Then She Found Me (2007) with Helen Hunt, The Last Legion (2007) with Aishwarya Rai, And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008), the film adaptation of Mamma Mia! (2008), and Easy Virtue, which screened at the Rome Film Festival to excellent reviews.^[12] In 2009, he starred in A Christmas Carol, an adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel, using the performance capture procedure, playing Scrooge's optimistic nephew Fred.

He has also appeared in several television productions, including Donovan Quick (an updated version of Don Quixote) (1999) and Conspiracy (2001), for which he received an Emmy nomination.^[13] Colin Firth's most recent role is in the Toronto International Film Festival debuted film, Genova.^[14]

At the 66th Venice International Film Festival in 2009, Colin Firth was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his role in Tom Ford's A Single Man as a college professor grappling with solitude after his longtime partner dies. Fashion designer Tom Ford made his director's debut with this movie. This role has earned Firth career best reviews and Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA, and BFCA nominations; he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in February 2010.^[15]

Firth at the 2009 Venice Film Festival

Firth starred in the 2010 film The King's Speech as Prince Albert, Duke of York/King George VI. The film details him working to overcome his speech impediment while becoming monarch of the United Kingdom at the outbreak of World War II. At the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF),^[16] the film was met with a standing ovation. The TIFF release of The King's Speech fell on Colin's 50th birthday and was called the "best 50th birthday gift".^[17] On 16 January 2011, he won a Golden Globe for his performance in The King's Speech in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. The Screen Actors Guild recognised Firth with the award for Best Male Actor for The King's Speech on 30 January 2011.^[18] In February 2011, he won the best actor award at the 2011 BAFTA awards.^[19] He received an Academy Award for Best Actor in a motion picture for The King's Speech on 27 February 2011.^[20]

Firth appeared in the 2011 adaptation of the John le Carré novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, directed by Tomas Alfredson, also starring Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy.^[21] In May 2011, Firth began filming Gambit – a remake of a previous film – written by Joel and Ethan Coen and directed by Michael Hoffman, co-starring Cameron Diaz and Alan Rickman