Jane Austen Movie Men Stand Tall

Want to play one of Jane Austen’s male romantic heroes in the movies? Don’t bother to audition unless you’re at least 6 feet tall. (Well, maybe you can squeak by at just a shade under.) Consider the evidence:

• Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy, “Pride and Prejudice”), 6’1”
• Jeremy Northam (Mr. Knightley, “Emma”), 6’2”
• JJ Feild (Mr. Tilney, “Northanger Abbey”), 6’1”
• Matthew McFadyen (Mr. Darcy, “Pride and Prejudice”), 6’3”
• Mark Strong (Mr. Knightley, “Emma”), 6’2”
• Ciaran Hinds (Captain Wentworth, “Persuasion”), 6’1”
• Rupert Penry-Jones (Captain Wentworth, “Persuasion”), 6’2”
• Alan Rickman (Col. Brandon, “Sense and Sensibility”), 6’1”
• David Rintoul (Mr. Darcy, “Pride and Prejudice”), height unknown but it’s obvious that he’s pretty tall
• Elliot Cowan (Mr. Darcy, “Lost in Austen”), 6’2″

Exceptions that prove the rule:

• Laurence Olivier, (Mr. Darcy, “Pride and Prejudice”), 5’10”. But then, if you can act like Olivier, who cares how tall you are?
• Hugh Grant (Edward Ferrars, “Sense and Sensibility”), who stands a mere 5’11.” It’s hard to imagine not casting one of England’s hugely popular romantic leads in at least one Austen flick, though, so he squeaks in.
• Jonny Lee Miller (Edmund Bertram, “Mansfield Park”), 5’11”