London, Feb 21 (IANS) Oscar nominated British star Colin Firth says his success as an actor has "done wonders" for his relationship with his dad who used to think performing was an excuse to shun education and hard work.

Colin, who swept awards for playing stammering monarch George VI in "The King's Speech"!, admits his dad was dubious about him becoming an actor and urged him to get a proper education so he could have a back-up plan if his dream of acting crumbled," reports femalefirst.co.uk.

The actor walked away with best actor gong at BAFTA and Golden Globes for his performance in the film and he admits his success, and his father's own realisation that any career can be unstable, helped them understand each other better.

"I'm struck by memories of my father saying, 'You should get a degree, and that training and have that (acting) as a back up.' And all those ideas of security - my father was a university lecturer - his whole generation were being made redundant when he was about 55. The whole sense of security - I have had a career which turned out to be no less secure than his turned out to be. (But) he loves it," colin told Cnn's Piers Morgan.

"It's done wonders for my relationship with him, because he didn't know any actors, he didn't know the world of cinema and theatre very much so he saw my acting dreams as a way, quite rightly, of a way of getting out of maths or as having an excuse to be bad at that stuff.

"But when I actually got a job, he was thrilled - not just because I was successful, but because I was applying myself, I was happy, this was work now, not just fantasy," said the actor.