Bill Nighy's Real Name: William Francis Nighy

Quick answer: Bill Nighy's documented full name is William Francis Nighy. Encyclopedia.com records that form and gives his birth date as December 12, 1949, in Caterham, Surrey (Encyclopedia.com; BFI Screenonline).

Real name and early life

Encyclopedia.com names his parents as Alfred Martin Nighy, a garage manager, and Catherine Josephine Nighy, a psychiatric nurse whose maiden name was Whittaker. BFI Screenonline also places his birth on December 12, 1949, in Caterham, and says he initially worked as a journalist in Paris before deciding on acting and enrolling at the Guildford School of Dance and Drama. He later joined the Liverpool Everyman Theatre in the 1970s, the BFI says. Encyclopedia.com likewise records study at Guildford and early work as a messenger, and notes that he founded a theatre group called Van Load.

Career highlights

His screen debut, the BFI says, was in The Bitch (1979). Distinguished stage work followed at the National Theatre, including David Hare's Pravda and King Lear opposite Anthony Hopkins. A wider television audience arrived with The Men's Room (1991). Still Crazy (1998), in which he played washed-up rocker Ray Simms, brought an Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award, a point both sources record. He won a Laurence Olivier Award as best actor in 2001 for Blue/Orange, Encyclopedia.com says. The BFI identifies two later BAFTA-winning performances: Billy Mack in Richard Curtis's Love Actually (2003)—Encyclopedia.com also lists a BAFTA film award for best supporting actor in that period—and a newspaper editor in Paul Abbott's State of Play (BBC, 2003). Later credits in the BFI account include Slartibartfast in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), The Girl in the Café (2005), Sir Bernard Pellegrin in The Constant Gardener (2005), and Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Encyclopedia.com also lists earlier honors including a Barclays Theatre Award for Skylight and a Broadcasting Press Guild award for The Young Visiters. As Billy Mack in Love Actually, the BFI notes, he had a minor chart hit with a seasonal rewrite of the Troggs song "Love Is All Around."

Name notes for searchers

William Francis Nighy is the documented full name; he is known professionally as Bill Nighy. Searchers looking for Billy Mack in Love Actually or Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean are usually aiming at the same person.