After a couple of failed try-outs as a "walk on" at Penn State University, iconic football coach Joe Paterno finally acquiesced and offered Rob a spot on his legendary team. The achievement was short-lived, however, and facing a long and punishing season, Firth gradually came to embrace a painful realization: that he might actually prefer "playing" an athlete as opposed to "being" one. Used to compete in talent contests - performing as Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis - to earn extra money, between acting gigs. As the president of his high school student body, he once had to present an award to then Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo. The presentation was shrouded in controversy, as the city official tried to use the ceremony to promote changes to the city's charter, that would allow for a third term. Using both humor and eventually shame, Firth managed to quiet the contentious crowd, gave his speech and presented the plaque. As he left the podium, police arrived and the entire auditorium descended into chaos. The whole fiasco was captured live by local reporters and then broadcast on the evenings news. In 2012, was rumored to have voiced the title role of Tony Stark in a previously unannounced Iron Man-licensed game that had entered production. In 1991, while auditioning for the role of Dean Martin in a biopic about the legendary crooner Frank Sinatra, he forgot the words to That's Amore. During the ill-fated meeting, Tina Sinatra took Firth's hand, and along with her casting associates and production team, joined in the singing and helped him finish the song. His first professional gig was impersonating former president Ronald Reagan at a large banquet in Newport Beach, California. Many of the supporters gathered at the evenings event hadn't realized that the actual voice heard through the speaker-phone was that of the young actor, broadcasting from an adjacent hotel suite, and not the newly elected president. In the early 80's, he pursued a short-lived career as a stand-up comedian, performing at local comedy clubs throughout Southern California. In 1982, during a weeks filming of the long-running series Fantasy Island, he tried to get his SAG card. Unfortunately for Firth, because he was being featured as a cave man, and primarily speaking in grunts and grumbles, the union didn't recognize his role as significant, and no membership was permitted. In 2013, was cast as the original voice of Del Rev in Austen Atkinson's animated series Prisoner Zero. Mitzvah Communion, Firth's debut feature, included an initial cast of over a hundred fellow actors and friends and took over thirteen years to complete. The mockumentary was filmed throughout the US, and post production was eventually completed in the UK in 2011. While over ninety hours of footage was shot, in the end, the film was finally released as a short. In 1984, Firth had the good fortune to work with Academy Award-winning actress Beatrice Straight. Unique Species, written by husband Peter Cookson, and directed by Straight, was one of the first plays to tackle the painful issues surrounding the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. In an unfortunate twist of fate, the actress would later succumb to the same illness as the character whom she had portrayed. At the beginning of his career, he appeared in a handful of soap operas. Often, whole sections of dialogue would be rewritten just prior to taping. Having been totally unaware that there were teleprompters on set, and not one to learn dialogue so swiftly, Firth would frantically offer portions of his reworded exposition to fellow actors with whom he shared his scenes. Fortunately, many of these players were quicker studies than he, and as a consequence, all of the performances would go off without a hitch - no one noticing the changes. Auditioned for the role of pilot Joe Hackett, in the long-running television series Wings. Between the initial meeting and the subsequent callbacks that followed, Firth decided to cram in a series of flying lessons, to better prepare for the character. After several terrifying classes he realized that, while he might be able to portray a pilot on TV, he wasn't cut out to actually be one. The network agreed. The part went to actor Tim Daly. As a young actor, he would sneak onto movie sets during filming and ask the directors and actors for parts in their projects. Worked with director Stephen Frears on Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight. At the end of their session, the rather curious director asked the actor for his last name. He allegedly replied, "It's Firth, like Colin Firth, but without all the f**king awards". Worked briefly as a location scout for production companies in Los Angeles during the early 1990's. Worked for famed British lyricist and poet Bernie Taupin at his popular bistro Cicada, on LA's famous Restaurant Row. During one notable exchange, Firth allegedly challenged Taupin's playful badgering and quipped, "If you have a problem with me, why don't you write a song about it". In the early 80's, during a particularly difficult period as a stand-up comedian, Firth encountered an up and coming writer/performer whose sage advice would become extremely influential on his future career path. It was just a brief conversation at a local gym in Encino, Ca., but the message that the comic conveyed and the conviction with which he expressed it, could not be any clearer: "Stand-up is not for people who'd "like" to do it, or "want" to do it, it's really for people who "have" to do it. If you don't "have" to do it, find something else..." Firth abandoned his comedy career shortly thereafter, and Garry Shandling went on to become a comedy legend. In 1980, he stumbled into his first professional theatrical audition for the movie Taps. The film was being shot locally, at the Valley Forge Military Academy & College - not far from where Firth was living at the time. Narrated a documentary that chronicled the evolution of the American Space Shuttle Program. A portion of the presentation, the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Transportation System, was broadcast live, requiring Firth to announce the telecast's final segment from a temporary studio at his home in Central London. His first television appearance was in 1978 as a panel guest on the local morning show Horizons - hosted by Philadelphia news anchor and journalist, Edie Huggins. Is a dual citizen and lives in London and Los Angeles. Prior to the installation of state-of-the-art security systems to protect Los Angeles' world-famous Hollywood Sign, Firth had climbed all of the "O" letters, of the cultural landmark. As an extremely eager and inexperienced skater he once rollerbladed 70 miles, from Brentwood to Newport Beach, without having mastered the ability to stop. Every time he descended a hill along the California coastal route, he would either fall into a sand dune, or crash into a thicket of small shrubs. He was cast in two comic book projects - Guardians Of The Galaxy and Batman: Arkham Knight. In the former, his opening scenes were cut in the final edit. In the latter, he performed motion capture and lends his voice. During the filming of Sefton Hill's Batman: Arkham Knight, Firth spent most of his time torturing long-time friend Glenn Wrage in a series of extremely physical motion capture sequences. During rehearsals for The Rezort, Firth liked Steve Barker's eclectic style of clothing so much, the director actually let him wear it in the film. In an opening sequence of Guardians of the Galaxy, Firth is briefly spotted portraying Dr. Fitzgibbon, the attending physician. His character is named after a personal friend of director James Gunn - there's a Fitzgibbon in every one of his films. Unfortunately for Firth, his scenes are cut from the final edit. In the serial thriller biopic The Head Hunter, Firth portrays real life character Lt. Charles Scherer. He was one of a few actors cast in the project who was both American born and had a real mustache. Worked briefly as a sketch-comedy player on the popular, cutting-edge, Playboy Video Magazine. Most of the parodies spoofed 1980's commercials and usually involved a clothed Firth interacting with nude Playboy Playmates. Earlier segments of the broadcasts were written by Michael Nesmith, and featured performances by iconic comedians like Andy Kaufman. Earlier in his career, Firth was the body double for actor Todd Curtis, who portrayed the character Jordy Clegg on the long-running soap opera Capitol. It was shortly after Clegg's tragic car accident the previous summer, that left him permanently scarred. In those appearances Firth was usually off-camera, with minimal dialogue. In the short scenes where the character needed to be seen, he was shot from behind. Firth played a caveman on Fantasy Island. It was one of his first roles. The exterior sequences were filmed at a local Hollywood park that was littered with broken glass and debris. Many of his fellow cavemen vocalized their safety concerns about the location - the scenes required them to perform barefoot. In an effort to avoid going over schedule, the actors worries were dismissed. Faced with this resistance, Firth quickly organized the performers and insisted that unless some sort of footwear could be provided, the filming should be postponed. In the end, suede sandals were trucked in from the wardrobe department at Warner Brothers Studios and the production proceeded without a hitch. Firth had a brief stint as the maniacal antagonist Master Chen, in the Lego Ninjago series. He was allegedly slated to portray the arch-villain in additional video games, but declined due to financial discrepancies with the game producers, coupled with the constant strain that portraying such a demented character put on his vocal chords. He voice matched Sylvester Stallone in the audio book version of Judge Dredd, and has been the voice match for both Jeff Goldblum, and Kevin Bacon in other media related campaigns and projects.
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