Then & Now: The Many Faces of Elizabeth Bennet & Fitzwilliam Darcy

So many actors have portrayed the most popular fictional couple Elizabeth Bennet & Fitzwilliam Darcy (aka Mr. Darcy) in Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice, which has been adapted from Stage (1936)/Broadway (First Impression 1959), tv/miniseries (1938, 1952, 1967, 1980, and 1995), and films (1940, 1958, and 2005, as well as inspired P&P films such as Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy 2003, Bride & Prejudice 2004, and Bridget Jones movies to name a few) numerous times since 1936 (stage version) to the 2005 Oscar nominated film version starring Keira Knightley & Matthew Macfadyen.

I'm sure many of you P&P fans have seen at least 1 or 2 versions of P&P. I've seen 3 (1980, 1995, and 2005) of them. Of course, the 2005 version (with Keira & Matthew) is my all-time favorite P&P film adaptation of all P&P versions. It was the BEST P&P version I've ever seen (and have seen several times than I care to count, lol), in my opinion. It made me love the original novel, both Keira Knightley as an actress and Matthew Macfadyen as an actor (as well as the rest of P&P 05 cast), and the reason I created my own P&P Fan Forum, MySpace, and this P&P Blog here, of course.


Anyway, here are some images from various P&P adaptations (the 5 notable tv/film versions that most of us had either seen or heard about) that I could find through google image searches and my P&P forum ...

(Then & Now): The Many Faces of Elizabeth Bennet & Mr. Darcy



Updated 1/11/11

Greer Garson & Laurence Olivier
Pride and Prejudice (1940; Film)



Celia Bannerman & Lewis Fiander
Pride and Prejudice (1967; TV)



Elizabeth Garvie & David Rintoul
Pride and Prejudice (1980; TV/Miniseries)



Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth
Pride and Prejudice (1995; TV/Miniseries)



Keira Knightley & Matthew Macfadyen
Pride & Prejudice (2005; Film)

Plus ...

Other Inspired/P&P-related Films

Kam Heskin (as Elizabeth Bennet) & Orlando Seale (as Will Darcy)
Pride & Prejudice: The Latter-Day Comedy (2003; Independent Film)



Aishwarya Rai (as Lalita Bakshi) & Martin Henderson (as Will Darcy)
Bride & Prejudice (2004; Bollywood Musical Film)



Renee Zellweger (as Bridget Jones) & Colin Firth (as Mark Darcy)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
and Bridget Jones Diary (2001)

P.S. > I've seen all of the other films ^ (Pride & Prejudice 2003, Bride & Prejudice 2004, and Bridget Jones movies) based on P&P. Have you? If you haven't, I recommend you see them, they were all good and hilarious films.