Age: 50
Occupation: Actor
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 0
There's much to admire among Colin Firth's 66 screen roles over 27 years. There's the time he played Mr. Darcy in the BBC's adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and the time he played another Mr. Darcy in Bridget Jones's Diary. Firth missed out on the Best Actor Oscar last year for A Single Man, in which he played a quietly grieving professor. But his portrayal of the stammering George VI, a figure literally unable to give voice to his feelings, in The King's Speech inspired the Academy to give him his due this year. Like Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, Firth finds himself celebrated as much for his silences as for the words that punctuate them.