Bill Nighy
Birthdate: Dec 12, 1949
Birthplace: Caterham, Surrey, England, UK
Bill Nighy (birthname: William Francis Nighy)’s diverse career as an acclaimed actor in the cinema, at the highest level of the British theater, and in both prestige and commercial TV, has made him one of the most identifiable English actors of his generation. His career extends from regional theater work in the late 1960s and 1970s to London’s National Theatre (1983-2000), decades of performances on London’s West End, forty years of radio performances in BBC Radio 4, and TV work back to 1976.
But it’s in the movies where Bill Nighy has become an international star, beginning with his first credited screen role in director Richard Marquand’s fine version of Ken Follett’s thriller, Eye of the Needle (1981), followed by a string of small roles in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), The Little Drummer Girl (1984), Phantom of the Opera (1989), Mack the Knife (1989), Bill Forsyth’s Being Human (1994), Alive & Kicking (1996), and FairyTale: A True Story (1997).
Nighy’s breakthrough film performance was an aging rocker in the U.K. comedy, Still Crazy (1998), with Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall, and Bruce Robinson, followed by the first of a series of British rom-coms in which Nighy became closely identified for his precise deadpan style: director Paddy Breathnach’s Blow Dry (2001), with Alan Rickman, Natasha Richardson, Rachel Griffiths, Rachael Leigh Cook, Josh Hartnett, Rosemary Harris, and Heidi Klum. Nighy received the Best Actor nomination from the British Independent Film Awards for his role in writers-directors Tom Hunsinger’s and Neil Hunter’s Lawless Heart (2001), premiering at the Locarno film festival and featuring Tom Hollander and Sukie Smith.
After his performance in producer-director Peter Cattaneo’s critically dismissed comedy, Lucky Break (2000), with Spall, Olivia Williams, and Christopher Plummer, Nighy won a Best Supporting Actor award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for four movies in 2002: writer-director Duncan Roy’s AKA, I Capture the Castle (2003), Lawless Heart, and the first blockbuster hit of Nighy’s film career and his first role under writer-director Richard Curtis, Love, Actually (2003), starring Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, and Rowan Atkinson, and grossing over $246 million globally.
Bill Nighy appeared in another hit, the vampire movie Underworld (2003), starring Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen, and earning just short of $96 million, thus spawning four sequels, including Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009). Nighy then shifted into zombie comedy in the highly influential and successful black comedy directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and co-star Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead (2004), with Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, and Penelope Wilton, and grossing a healthy $30 million worldwide.
In another shift, Nighy supported Daniel Craig, Rhys Ifans, and Samantha Morton in the Ian McEwan adaptation directed by Roger Michell, Enduring Love (2004), premiering at the Telluride Film Festival. Another colorful ensemble of which Nighy was a standout was the long-awaited movie version of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), starring Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Alan Rickman, and John Malkovich, and grossing a strong $104.5 million worldwide.
Nighy’s next assignment was another literary adaptation, John le Carré’s The Constant Gardener (2005), gaining a supporting actor Oscar nomination for Rachel Weisz and starring Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston, and Pete Postlethwaite, and earning a solid $82.4 million globally. Nighy’s first Hollywood blockbuster role was as Davy Jones in the Gore Verbinski-directed sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and Jonathan Pryce, grossing a massive $1.06 billion box office to become the highest earning movie of the year; he followed this up in 2007 with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, earning $961 million.
After acting in two underwhelming 2006 projects (Stormbreaker and DreamWorks Animation/Aardman’s Flushed Away), Nighy enjoyed one of his finest roles to date in the Richard Eyre-directed drama, Notes on a Scandal (2006), starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, and nominated for four Oscars while grossing $50.6 million. Bill Nighy reunited with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg for the second feature in the “Three Flavors Cornetto” trilogy, Hot Fuzz (2007), spoofing action movies and earning strong critical and commercial success ($80 million worldwide), with Jim Broadbent and Timothy Dalton joining the ensemble.
Nighy went into heavy dramatic mode as a Nazi General in Valkyrie (2008), directed by Bryan Singer, and starring Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, and Terence Stamp, earning $201.5 million globally. Nighy’s second Richard Curtis comedy, The Boat That Rocked (2009), with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, and Kenneth Branagh, wasn’t as successful as Love earning only $36.6 million.
Another animated movie for Nighy’s resume was the hit Disney spy comedy, G-Force (2009), with the voices of Zach Galifianakis, Will Arnett, Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan, Penelope Cruz, Jon Favreau, Nicolas Cage, and Steve Buscemi, grossing nearly $293 million. Nighy followed with a less successful ($42 million global gross) animated movie, the U.S.-Hong Kong co-production, Astro Boy (2009), with the voices of Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Samuel L. Jackson, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron, and Nicolas Cage.
Nighy co-starred in writer-director Stephen Poliakoff’s World War II drama, Glorious 39 (2009), with Romola Garai, Julie Christie, Eddie Redmayne, and Christopher Lee, followed by the poorly-received black comedy, Wild Target (2010), in which Nighy led a cast including Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint, Eileen Atkins, Martin Freeman, and Rupert Everett.
Nighy’s second blockbuster franchise in which he played was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 1 (2010), as the “Minister of Magic,” Rufus Scrimgeour, directed by David Yates and grossing $977 million globally. Another hit project for Nighy was his second movie under Gore Verbinski’s direction, the animated Western comedy, Rango (2011), starring Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Alfred Molina, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, and Timothy Olyphant, earning over $245 million and winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
After a small role in the rom-com, Chalet Girl (2011), Bill Nighy rejoined Aardman Animation for their next project, the well-received Arthur Christmas (2011), with the voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, and Imelda Staunton. The most successful comedy for Nighy since Love was the John Madden-directed The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), starring Judi Dench, Penelope Wilton, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson, and Maggie Smith, with the $10 million production earning an unexpected $137 million worldwide; this spawned a similarly successful 2015 sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, reuniting the original cast and creative team, with new cast members David Strathairn and Richard Gere.
Another massive hit with Nighy in a prominent role was the U.S.-Spain co-production, Wrath of the Titans (2012), with Sam Worthington, Rosamund Pike, Edgar Ramirez, Danny Huston, Ralph Fiennes, and Liam Neeson, grossing $302 million or double costs. Nighy was in a supporting role in the remake, Total Recall (2012), starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, and John Cho, earning a fair $198.5 million.
Bill Nighy reunited with director Bryan Singer for a voice role in the failed, $200-million-budgeted fantasy adventure, Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), with Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, and Ewan McGregor, followed by another voice role in Edgar Wright’s and Simon Pegg’s praised “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy finale, The World’s End (2013), with Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike, and Pierce Brosnan, earning more than double its $20 million expenses and winning Best British Film at the Empire (magazine) awards.
Rejoining writer-director Richard Curtis for another successful rom-com, Nighy co-starred with Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams in About Time (2013), earning a strong $88.5 million. After the box-office bomb, I, Frankenstein (2014), in which Nighy co-starred with Aaron Eckhart and Miranda Otto, Nighy starred in the comedy-drama, Pride (2014), premiering at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight (where it won the Queer Palm Award), with Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, and George MacKay, earning over $16 million globally and winning three BAFTA awards including Best British Film.
After a pair of minor 2016 projects (Dad’s War and the animated Norm of the North), Bill Nighy co-starred with Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin in the acclaimed Lone Scherfig-directed WW2 comedy-drama, Their Finest (2016), with a colorful supporting cast including Jack Huston, Helen McCrory, and grossing over $12 million globally.
After the well-reviewed though little-seen period murder mystery, The Limehouse Golem (2016), in which Nighy starred opposite Olivia Cooke and Douglas Booth, Nighy then co-starred in Spanish writer-director Isabel Coixet’s British-based drama, The Bookshop (2017), with Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson and narrated by Julie Christie, winning three Goya awards (Best Film/Director/Adapted Screenplay) and with a total box office tripling its $3.4 million budget.
Bill Nighy was the star of another critically successful comedy-drama, the Carl Hunter-directed Sometimes Always Never (2018), with Sam Riley, Jenny Agutter, and Alice Loew, earning a modest $1.4 million, followed by Nighy taking a supporting role in another Lone Scherfig drama, The Kindness of Strangers (2019), starring Zoe Kazan, Tahar Rahim, Andrea Riseborough, and Caleb Landry Jones, premiering at the Berlin film festival.
Nighy took a voice role in the incredibly successful (at the box office--$433 million globally) Pokémon video game adaptation distributed by Warner Bros., Detective Pikachu (2019), with the voice cast of Ryan Reynolds, Ken Watanabe, and Suki Waterhouse. In a characteristic switch of projects, Nighy joined writer-director William Nicholson (adapting his play, The Retreat from Moscow) and co-star Annette Bening for the intimate drama, Hope Gap (2019), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
After a voice role in the cast (including Nick Frost and Gemma Arterton) of the little-seen animated StarDog and TurboCat (2019), Nighy played opposite Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Josh O’Connor, Callum Turner, Mia Goth, and Miranda Hart in the acclaimed Autumn de Wilde-directed, Oscar-nominated Jane Austen adaptation, Emma. (2020), more than doubling ($26.5 million) its $10 million budget. Nighy reunited with Johnny Depp for the serious drama, Minamata (2020), with Hiroyuki Sanada, Minami, Jun Kunimura, Ryo Kase, and Tadanobu Asano, and premiering at the Berlin Film Festival.
After the Australian/Canadian co-production, Buckley’s Chance (2021), from writer-director Tim Brown, Bill Nighy achieved perhaps his greatest artistic triumph as the moving lead as a London bureaucrat in Living (2022), adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 drama, Ikiru, by Nobel-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro; the sublime film was directed by Oliver Hermanus and featured the supporting cast of Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, and Tom Burke, and after a remarkable festival run including Sundance, Telluride, Venice, and Toronto, the film’s near-unanimous critical reception led to Nighy winning Best Performer award (shared) from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Nighy next appeared in the Thomas Vincent-directed U.S. thriller, Role Play (2023), with Kaley Cuoco. Nighy joined directed Thea Sharrock for the soccer drama, The Beautiful Game (2023), with Valeria Golino and Micheal Ward, followed by a voice role in the animated Spanish-Chinese co-production set in ancient China, Dragonkeeper (2023), with cast mates Brendan Coyle, Bill Bailey, and Mayalinee Griffiths.
Personal Details
Born in the Surrey community of Caterham, Bill Nighy was raised by parents Catherine Nighy (a psychiatric nurse) and Alfred Nighy (car garage manager and chimney sweeper). He has an older brother, Martin, and an older sister, Anna. Nighy was raised Catholic, served as an altar boy, and attended the Catholic school, John Fisher School. After graduation, Nighy trained in drama and acting at the Guildford School of Acting. Nighy has been a partner to actor Diana Quick since 1980; the couple has one daughter, actor Mary Nighy. His height is 6’ 2”. Nighy’s estimated net worth is $8 million.
Filmography
actor
Previous (23)
- 2024 | The Wild RobotasLongneck
The Wild Robot
After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.
- 2024 | DragonkeeperasDanzi
Dragonkeeper
The fate of ancient China rests on the shoulders of one young girl, who must find the last remaining dragon egg and fulfill her destiny.
- 2024 | The First OmenasCardinal Lawrence
The First Omen
A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil inca...
- 2022 |
- 2021 | Buckley’s Chance
Buckley’s Chance
A year after the loss of his father, Ridley and his mother, Gloria, move to Western Australian to live with Ridley's estranged grandfather Spencer. Once there Spencer tries to connect with Ridley but all efforts usually lead to conflict. Ridley ends up lost deep in the outback on a quest to try to get home. Meanwhile, Spencer and Gloria search the outback for Ridley. Spencer tries to reassure Gloria that her son will be OK, all the while trying to come to terms with the loss of his only child. While suffering the elements of the Australian outback (especially for a kid from New York), Ridley manages to save a dingo, Buckley, from a leg trap. The two develop a bond and both boy and dog try to survive the elements to get Ridley back home.
- 2021 |
- 2019 | StarDog and TurboCatasSinclair
StarDog and TurboCat
A loyal dog and a vigilante cat embark on a space age voyage to find their way home.
- 2020 | Sometimes Always NeverasAlan
Sometimes Always Never
A detective fantasy / family drama where a love of words helps a father reconnect with a missing son.
- 2020 |
- 2020 |
- 2020 | The Kindness of StrangersasTimofey
The Kindness of Strangers
The story of people whose lives intertwine during a dramatic winter in New York City.
- 2019 | Pokémon Detective PikachuasHoward Clifford
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
In a world where people collect Pokémon to do battle, a boy comes across an intelligent talking Pikachu who seeks to be a detective.
- 2018 | The BookshopasEdmund Brundish
The Bookshop
England 1959. In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop.
- 2017 | Their FinestasAmbrose Hilliard
Their Finest
A former secretary, newly appointed as a scriptwriter for propaganda films, joins the cast and crew of a major production while the Blitz rages around them.
- 2016 | Norm of the NorthasSocrates
Norm of the North
When a real estate development invades his Arctic home, Norm and his three lemming friends head to New York City, where Norm becomes the mascot of the corporation in an attempt to bring it down from the inside and protect his homeland.
- 2015 | The Second Best Exotic Marigold HotelasDouglas Ainslie
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
As the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has only a single remaining vacancy, posing a rooming predicament for two fresh arrivals, Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel) pursues his expansionist dream of opening a second hotel.
- 2014 | I, FrankensteinasNaberius
I, Frankenstein
Frankenstein's creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans.
- 2013 | About TimeasDad
About Time
At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.
- 2013 | Jack the Giant SlayerasGeneral Fallon
Jack the Giant Slayer
The ancient war between humans and a race of giants is reignited when Jack, a young farmhand fighting for a kingdom and the love of a princess, opens a gateway between the two worlds.
- 2012 | The Best Exotic Marigold HotelasDouglas Ainslie
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than advertised, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways.
- 2011 | Arthur ChristmasasGrandsanta
Arthur Christmas
Santa's clumsy son Arthur sets out on a mission with Grandsanta to give out a present they misplaced to a young girl in less than two hours.
- 2003 | Love ActuallyasBilly Mack
Love Actually
Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
- 2003 | UnderworldasViktor
Underworld
Selene, a vampire warrior, is entrenched in a conflict between vampires and werewolves, while falling in love with Michael, a human who is sought by werewolves for unknown reasons.
Some Facts About Bill Nighy
Health Issues: Bill Nighy was a condition called Dupuytren’s contracture, which can cause contracture of the fingers.
Philanthropist: Nighy is a patron of the Crystal Palace Children’s Charity, the Ann Craft Trust, and the children’s charity Scene & Heard, as well as the North Yorkshire arts center, Milton Rooms.
