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| Birth Name(s) : William Francis Nighy |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Full Bill Nighy Biography
Bill Nighy (IPA: /naɪ/; born December 12, 1949) is a Golden Globe and BAFTA-award winning English actor. He started working in theatre and television, before his first cinema role in 1981. He is perhaps best known to American film audiences for his roles in Love Actually, Underworld, Shaun of the Dead and Pirates of the Caribbean.
William Francis Nighy, the youngest of three children, was born in Caterham, Surrey, England to Catherine Josephine Whittaker, a psychiatric nurse, and Alfred Martin Nighy, who managed a car garage and worked as a mechanic. He has two siblings, Martin and Anna. Nighy attended the John Fisher School in Purley. He trained at the Guildford School of Acting, formerly known as The Guildford School of Dance and Drama.
After two seasons at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, Nighy made his London stage debut at the National Theatre in an epic staging of Ken Campbell and Chris Langham's Illuminatus!, which opened the new Cottesloe Theatre on 4th March 1977, and went on to appear in two David Hare premieres, also at the National.
Nighy's two most acclaimed stage performances were in National Theatre productions. Taking the leading male role in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (1993), he played an unscrupulous university don in witty exchanges with Felicity Kendal, his famous ironic 'snicker' much in evidence; and he gave a virtuoso performance as a consultant psychiatrist in Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange (2000), for which he won an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor, and which transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre the following year.
In 2003, Nighy played the role of the Vampire Elder Viktor in the American production Underworld and returned in the same role for the sequel Underworld: Evolution in 2006. In February 2004, he was awarded the BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Love Actually, and followed this up at the BAFTA Television Awards in April with the Best Actor award for State of Play. He also appeared in the comedy Shaun of the Dead.
In early 2004, the British tabloid press reported Nighy's partner as saying that he had been offered the coveted role of the Doctor in the 2005 revival of the BBC television series Doctor Who. He is alleged to have told reporters that he had considered but ultimately rejected the offer. The editor of Doctor Who Magazine, Clayton Hickman, had earlier mentioned to the press that Nighy was the first choice of executive producer and writer Russell T. Davies. The role was accepted by Christopher Eccleston some weeks later and Davies subsequently claimed that Eccleston had always been the first choice for the role.
In 2005, he appeared as Slartibartfast in the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams and also in the one-off BBC One comedy-drama The Girl in the Café. In February 2006, he appeared in scriptwriter Stephen Poliakoff's one-off drama, Gideon's Daughter. Nighy took the lead character of Gideon, a successful events organiser who begins to lose touch with the world around him. This performance won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mini-series or TV Movie in January 2007.
Nighy appears in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, where he plays the principal villain, Davy Jones. He reprised the role in the 2007 sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. From November 2006 to March 2007, he appeared on Broadway in The Vertical Hour (a new play by David Hare), also starring Julianne Moore.
He also provides the narration for the 2007 BBC series Meerkat Manor. Recently, he played the role of Richard Hart in Notes on a Scandal, for which he was nominated for a London Film Critics Circle award. He has twice played burnt-out rockstars: Ray Simms in Still Crazy and Billy Mack in Love Actually.
Nighy is the partner of actress Diana Quick. They have one daughter, Mary (born 1984). He is a supporter of Crystal Palace Football Club and is the Patron of the CPFRIS (Crystal Palace F.C. Fast Results & Information Service) Disabled Childrens Club. Nighy lives near the director Richard Curtis in Suffolk. He has Dupuytren's Contracture, a hereditary condition which causes the ring and little fingers of each hand to be permanently bent inwards towards the palm. |
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