Bill Nighy

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For the American television actor with a similar-sounding name, see Bill Nye.

Bill Nighy

Birth name	William Francis Nighy
Born	12 December 1949 Caterham, Surrey, England
Official site	BillNighy.net
Notable roles	Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest & Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End

Bill Nighy (IPA: /naɪ/; born December 12, 1949) (pronounced NAH-hee or NY-hee) is a BAFTA-award winning English actor. He started in television and theatre before his first cinema role in 1981.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life
- 1.2 Acting career
2 Selected filmography
3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Nighy was born in Caterham in Surrey, and attended the John Fisher School in Purley. He is the partner of actress Diana Quick. He once asked her to marry him, but she said, "Don't ask me again." He calls her his wife in public because "anything else would be too difficult." They have one daughter, Mary (born 1984). He trained at the Guildford School of Acting, formerly known as The Guildford School of Dance and Drama.

[edit] Acting career

Nighy has starred in many radio and television dramas, notably the BBC serial The Men's Room (1991), and more recently the thriller State of Play (2003) and costume drama He Knew He Was Right (2004). He played Sam in the 1981 BBC Radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings, and also appeared in the 1980s BBC radio versions of Yes Minister episodes.

In 2003, he 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 British Academy Television Awards in April with the Best Actor award for State of Play.

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 acclaimed 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.

Nighy recently finished working on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, where he plays the principal villain, Davy Jones.

He can currently be seen on Broadway in The Vertical Hour (a new play by David Hare), also starring Julianne Moore.