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Flixster members are collaborating to create the definitive resource for Bill Nighy information on the Internet. We're adding all the images, info, and ideas that best tell this actor's unique story. To add your knowledge of Bill Nighy, just log in and click the EasyEdit button at the top of the wiki pages. (Click here for help.) | Birth Name: William Francis Nighy Date of Birth: 12 December 1949, Caterham, Surrey, England, UK
Bill Nighy mini-bio:
The last years gave journalists a lot of opportunities to come up with almost original formulations to describe a phenomenon, that was over 30 years in the making to become an overnight success: Bill Nighy, the probably eldest of the wild young stallions in the film business. It happens not often that fate smiles at an over 50-years old ex-alcoholic with Dupuytren's Contracture. Bill is not exactly what teenie magazines would call a poster boy. Sort of blondish-ex-beatnik looking, a slender body, making him look a little awkward sometimes, a nearly landscaped face, where alcohol and drug abuse left their marks, privately wearing thick glasses.
Bill Nighy was born Dec. 12th, 1949 in Caterham, a middle town in the south of London, in Surrey as William Francis Nighy to his father Alfred Martin, the manager of a car garage and his mother Catherine Josephine (born Whittaker), a psychiatric nurse. He was the third child, has an elder brother, Martin, and an elder sister, Anna. From his mother’s side there’s a little Irish blood running through Bill’s veins, his father’s family is “pure Croydon”. The family lived over the garage, the home came with the father’s job.
Bill’s first love obviously was rock’n’roll, especially the Rolling Stones, which he is a fan of to this very day. Maybe the posing in front of a mirror using his toothbrush as a microphone was useful later in his life. Apart from that Bill describes himself as a child as “shy and enjoying being by himself”.
Bill was in the school theatre group, though he was far away from considering to  see his future profession in acting. Everyone did it, and he could remember the lines with ease.
Also he did one piece of writing for the school magazine. Boy stuff as he described it once. “ ‘There is a street like it in every town. The last street.’ Tough talk. What boys think. Looking through windows and seeing other people being happy, that sort of bollocks. Having your nose pressed up against the wrong windowpane, wanting to be somewhere, anywhere but here. That feeling you get when you see geese flying, the longing to go with them. Common or garden longing. That thing young people want. Showing the world how to live. Independence.”
Independence. Aged 15, Bill decided he couldn’t bear it any longer to suffer from what he felt as domestic repressments. Leaving a letter to his parents, he ran away heading for the Persian Gulf together with a friend. Let’s pay respect that he at least made it to Southern France. That’s where he panicked for his own courage and scratched at the doors of the British consulate. His father sent money so the boy could return home, and Bill owed him 25 pounds for the next few years.
He had left school and decided never to go back there. His mother took him to the Employment Exchange. Being asked what he wanted to be, Bill said “an author”. Having read Hemingway and the great novelists, there seemed to be a chance for a dream come true. They got him a job as messenger boy at The Field Magazine in Mayfair. Obviously Bill showed real talent and interest, as he was invited for a training as sub-editor.
Alas Bill saw his dreams not coming true fast enough, and once more he ran away from home. Aged 16, this time to Paris, this time with the heavy wish to become a novelist. Like Hemingway. “I even rather grandly dropped my trousers on the beach at Folkestone, took off my underwear, and threw it into the sea, because I had read that my great literary hero Ernest Hemingway always went commando.”
It’s always the girls that make a young man do stuff. So our thanks go out to an unknown girl without who we’d maybe never ever have had the joy of watching Bill Nighy on screen or stage. She was going to a drama teacher’s college and convinced Bill to go for an audition at Guildford School of Dance and Drama. She  even wrote an introductory letter for him. The audition board asked for one modern and one Shakespeare speech. What Bill did next was clear: Going to a library and stealing the complete Shakespeare works.
It may have taken Bill some time to find his place in the theatre world. His first after-dramaschool-experience was in his early 20s, when he did a total of six lines in Tennessee Williams' "The Milk Train Does Not Stop Here Any More" at the Watermill Theatre near Newbury. He made some impression. Marcella Markham, an american divaesque actress in her 40s who was starring the play, was thrilled by young Bill's talent from the first rehearsal on.
In the mid-70s Bill Nighy was a member of the Everyman Theatre Company based in Liverpool for a total of three years. Apart from acting Bill did nearly every job a theatre could offer, including doing the bar after the plays.
Bill also was part of a travelling drama group called "Van Load", with playrights of David Hare. According to BBC 4's Cultural State the group played 8-10 productions a year. They played supermarkets, jails, schools, army camps, church halls - everything with a plain floor suited.
The late 70s saw Bill's face on the TV screen for the first time, when he appeared in the police series "Softly Softly". He was playing the third bank robber - and that was everything Bill's father had seen when he died in 1976. But it seems he had found trust in his son. Short time later Bill was in Joan Collins' (Dynasty) steamy film "The Bitch" protraying a delivery boy. Alas, that very scene became a victim of the cutting scissors and never made it into the complete film.
His career went on and brought him to the National Theatre, where he starred in several David Hare world premieres such as "Pravda" (with the great Anthony Hopkins) or "A Map Of The World". Latter was in 1982 and left a deep impact in Bill's life. The impact was Diana Quick, a famous British actress, which you probably know from "Brideshead Revisited", who was doing the lead in that play. Bill fell in love on stage and in real life and obviously made enough impression on Diana to keep her by his side till 2008. In 1984 their daughter Mary was born, who has taken her first successful steps to acting (You can see her at ''The Lost Prince'' and ''Marie Antoinette'').
The fact that Bill Nighy is predestined to play ex-alcoholic, ex-drug abusing rock stars because of his past is no secret. It was the early 80s when he started drinking "to an unhealthy degree", as he's putting it. It's not clear whether he did because he considered it cool or because of some stress, but his collegues were with him in this.
After getting help he became "a sober alcoholic" at the very date of May, 17, 1992 (which can be considered his second birthday). Nowadays he's living a rather clean life style, even doing yoga, since he quit smoking Sept. 13, 2003 (the fact that he still knows the exact dates, tells you, how important those days are for Bill). "I didn't know if I'd be able to stop smoking but by some miracle I did. I still haven't got over it - every day I think, 'I don't smoke!' " The only thing he's still addicted to, along with rock'n'roll music, seems to be Coke. And with the impressive way up Bill's career is now going, a good health is probably the most important thing.The Eighties - and Bill was discovered for the big screen. Alas, it's not easy to discover him in those films. John le Carré's "Eye Of the Needle" or "Little Lord Fauntleroy" only featured him in small roles. It took the public some more years to notice Bill on screen. TV screen that was, and Bill made some impression appearing in the mini series "The Men's Room". He played a serial adulterer, and critics and audience were amazed. It was some sort of short-termed fame, and Bill went back to the stage, starring in some of the real big theatre hits of the Nineties: Cechov's "The Seagull", the world premieres of "Arcadia" and "Betrayal", and, which seems to be his greatest personal success, taking over the lead from Michael Gambon in David Hare's "Skylight" at the Vaudeville in 1997. The TMA awarded him best actor for this.
The time was there to hit the screen once more, and this time it was a hit. In 1998 Bill Nighy played Ray Simms, an ex-alcoholic, ex-drug abusing rock singer in the British blockbuster "Still Crazy",a character reminding a little to MTV's now soap star Ozzy Osbourne, long before the show was on. Alas, the film wasn't much of a success outside UK, but still "Still Crazy" counts amongst the best English films of all time. The secret is, that there's real rock'n'roll, real life, real pain. The  fact that Bill not only put his experiences and his love to rock music into this character, but also insisted of doing the singing himself, does make this film very special not only for fans.
From this time on, Bill's name seemed to be on every director's wish list. He appeared in "Blow Dry" as the opponent of Alan Rickman, held his memories as a ball in a very memorable scene in "Lucky Break" and also played out his dramatic talents in independent productions like "The Lawless Heart" (for which he won the Best Actor at the British Independent Film award).
The rest is known to the world. In 2003 Richard Curtis offered the role of another ex-alcoholic rock star to Bill. Billy Mack in the christmas blockbuster "Love Actually". Supposed to be more of a gimmick character, Billy Mack turned out to be the talk of the town. Fans of Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth entered the cinema, Bill Nighy fans were leaving it. Billy Mack's on-film-hit "Christmas Is All Around" (and once again Bill did the singing himself) even was really released as a single and hit the British charts to No. 16.
There seems to be no end to the ladder of success Bill is climbing at the moment. Appearing as a vampire in "Underworld" and the zombie stepfather of "Shaun of the Dead" he now even is stuff for the people having the urge to only like cool and evil things. But still demanding film fans do find satisfaction in gems of TV entertainment like ''The Girl In The Cafe'' (2005) and ''Gideon's Daughter'' (2006). And it looks like future's still coming up roses for Bill Nighy. After 2005's blockbuster ''The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy'' (after the novels of the late Douglas Adams) when he played in a star-packed cast, 2006 is about to send him to new heights: Playing the big bad - Davy Jones - in ''Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest''.
Bill now lives in northern London. He doesn't live a very Hollywood life style.When time allows it, he loves sitting down with a good book, a good cup of tea and music of the heroes of his youth, like The Stones, The Who, Van Morrison or Marvin Gaye. And when there's time left, Bill loves football as every English male or is improving his skills as air-guitarist, probably the only one tuning his instrument on a regular base.
| VITAL STATS | Bill Nighy Information: Bill Nighy acted in the film G-Force.
| | Eye color: | | Height: 6' 2" (1.88 m) | | Nickname(s): | | Notable feature(s): His gaunt, pale appearance. | | Education: Guildford School of Dance and Drama | | Family: His parents Alfred Martin abd Catherine Josephine (born Whittaker), elder brother, Martin, and an elder sister, Anna. His daughter, Mary Nighy (born July 17, 1984) with Diana Quick who was his long-time partner. | | Resides in: northern London | | Religious affiliations: | | Political affiliation: | | Personal interests/hobbies: Love to play guitar and watching football. | | Charities/Causes: | Other:
- Played the part of "Sam Gamgee" in the original BBC radio production of The Lord of the Rings alongside Ian Holm as "Frodo". Peter Jackson (director of the The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)) gave this version to those members of his cast who hadn't read the book.
- He is a huge fan of The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.
- 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.
- He has played three different undead characters. He was a zombie in Shaun of the Dead. He was a vampire in Underworld and Underworld: Evolution. He plays Davy Jones in the two Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.
 Personal Quotes:
* "I wanted to be a journalist, I thought it was glamorous and that I'd meet beautiful women in the rain." * "I don't smoke now, which is marvellous. My only addictions are caffeine and sugar." * "You know, there may be periods when you're unemployed. Great. You'll never know what will happen from one minute to the next. Yeah, fabulous. You don't know what money you're going to be making in 25 years' time. Yeah, baby! It's like being a gambler, and when I was 18, that was music." * "The director (Gore Verbinski) asked me to do Dutch, and I don't do Dutch. So I decided on Scottish." - on his Scottish accent for Davy Jones in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". * I used to think that prizes were demeaning and divisive, until I got one, and now they seem sort of meaningful and real. (On winning a Golden Globe in 2007). | | |
kmel517posted 4 days ago
