Date of birth: 1949-12-12
Place of birth: Caterham, Surrey, England, UK
Known for: Acting
Also known as: William Francis Nighy, ויליאם פרנסיס "ביל" ניי, بیل نای
William Francis Nighy (born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Known for his work on screen and stage, he has received numerous awards, including two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award and nominations for an Academy Award and a Tony Award. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with The Illuminatus! in 1977. There he gained acclaim for his roles in David Hare's Pravda in 1985, Harold Pinter's Betrayal in 1991, Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in 1993, and Anton Chekov's The Seagull in 1994. He received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance in Blue/Orange in 2001. He made his Broadway debut in Hare's The Vertical Hour in 2006, and returned in the 2015 revival of Hare's Skylight earning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination. Early film roles include in the comedies Still Crazy (1998), and Blow Dry (1999) before his breakout role in Love Actually (2003) which earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. He soon gained recognition portraying Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (2006-2007), and Viktor in the Underworld film series (2003-2009). Other films include Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), The Constant Gardener (2005), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Hot Fuzz (2007), Valkyrie (2008), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), About Time (2013), Emma (2020), and Living (2022), the last of these earning him his first career Academy Award nomination. Nighy has gained acclaim for his roles in television earning a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance in BBC One series State of Play (2003), and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the BBC film Gideon's Daughter (2007). He's also known for his roles in HBO's The Girl in the Café (2006) and PBS's Page Eight (2012).
2006-07-06
Captain Jack Sparrow races to recover the heart of Davy Jones to avoid enslaving his soul to Jones'
2003-09-19
Vampires and werewolves have waged a nocturnal war against each other for centuries. But all bets ar
2007-05-19
Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann join forces with the revived Captain Barbossa to free Jack Sparrow f
2003-09-07
Eight very different couples deal with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all se
2006-12-25
A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of h
2003-12-02
1998-10-30
In the 1970s, Strange Fruit were it. They lived the rock lifestyle to the max, groupies, drugs, inte
2004-04-09
Shaun lives a supremely uneventful life, which revolves around his girlfriend, his mother, and, abov
2008-12-25
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native German
2006-01-12
As the war between the vampires and the Lycans rages on, Selene, a former member of the Death Dealer
2024-04-18
A pampered cat takes for granted the lucky hand he has been dealt after he is rescued and loved by R
2005-08-31
Justin Quayle is a low-level British diplomat who has always gone about his work very quietly, not c
1999-12-03
Richie and Eddie are in charge of the worst hotel in the UK, Guest House Paradiso, neighbouring a nu
2007-02-14
Former London constable Nicholas Angel finds it difficult to adapt to his new assignment in the slee
1985-09-19
Actress Jane Wilkinson wants a divorce, but her husband, Lord Edgware, refuses. She convinces Hercul
2005-04-28
Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, Arthur Dent is swep
2006-10-22
London high-society mouse, Roddy is flushed down the toilet by Sid, a common sewer rat. Hang on for
1984-10-19
An American Actress with a penchant for lying is forceably recruited by Mosad, the Israeli intellige
2009-01-22
A prequel to the first two Underworld films, this fantasy explains the origins of the feud between t
2010-11-17
Harry, Ron and Hermione walk away from their last year at Hogwarts to find and destroy the remaining
2006-01-10
The Constant Gardener featurette.
2004-10-29
Two strangers become dangerously close after witnessing a deadly accident. On a beautiful cloudless
2006-07-21
Alex Rider thinks he is a normal school boy, until his uncle is killed. He discovers that his uncle
2005-06-25
Lawrence, an aging, lonely civil servant falls for Gina, an enigmatic young woman. When he takes her
2009-11-20
A mysterious tale set around a traditional British family on the eve of World War Two. Oblivious to
2001-08-24
Half-way through his 12-year prison sentence for an incompetent armed robbery, Jimmy Hands gets a lu
1997-10-24
In 1917, two children take a photograph, which is soon believed by some to be the first scientific e
2010-06-17
Victor Maynard is a middle-aged, solitary assassin who lives to please his formidable mother, despit
2011-03-02
When Rango, a lost family pet, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, the l
2004-10-24
A shaggy, candy-loving puppy named Dougal along with a group of friends embarks on a dangerous journ
2009-10-15
Set in the futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy (Atom) is a young robot with incredible powers created b
2012-08-02
Factory worker Doug Quaid takes a virtual mind-trip vacation with the Rekall company, opting for imp
2001-03-01
The annual British Hairdressing Championship comes to Keighley, a town where Phil and son Brian run
2003-05-09
In 1930s England, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain and her eccentric family struggle to survive in a d
1996-11-15
The story of the year the Oxford and Cambridge boat race changed from a gentleman's race to one wher
2009-04-01
When a group of rebellious deejays decides to defy the ban on government-censored music, they take t
2000-01-02
Parallel stories: 18th century Harrison builds the marine chronometer for safe navigation at sea; 20
2011-11-10
For hundreds of years, the Claus family has delegated the title "Santa" to a chosen few of its membe
2011-07-15
In this fun and educational piece, animal experts talk about the real creatures that inspired the ch
2009-07-24
A team of trained secret agent animals, guinea pigs Darwin, Hurley, Juarez, Blaster, mole Speckles,
1989-11-01
In 19th century London, a young girl falls for a womanizing criminal and they decide to wed. Her fam
2013-02-27
The story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway betw
2011-08-28
Johnny is a long-serving MI5 officer. His boss dies suddenly, leaving behind an inexplicable file wh
2003-12-26
The Young Visiters, written in twelve days by nine-year-old Daisy Ashford in 1890, is a surreal blen
1993-01-02
Roy Marsden returns as author P.D. James's indefatigable gumshoe, Inspector Adam Dalgliesh. This tim
2012-02-23
British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel
2012-03-28
Perseus tries to live a quieter life as a village fisherman while – dangerously weakened by humanity
2011-02-02
While working a job at an exclusive ski resort to support her Dad, Kim learns to snowboard and is so
2002-06-28
In a British seaside resort, several lives intertwine following the funeral of a gay restaurant owne
2005-10-21
Bill Nighy and Miranda Richardson star in a story of grief and celebrity, set in the intense spring
1989-11-04
An aspiring opera singer finds herself transported back to Victorian-era London -- and into the arms
1985-02-17
The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two B
2014-01-22
200 years after his shocking creation, Dr. Frankenstein's creature, Adam, still walks the earth. But
2013-07-18
Five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier unwittingly
2013-09-04
The night after another unsatisfactory New Year's party, Tim's father tells his son that the men in
2024-04-03
When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters
1996-11-08
A passionately committed young dancer is forced to re-examine his career and life when faced with de
2014-09-12
In 1984, a group of LGBT activists decide to raise money to support the National Union of Mineworker
2024-11-15
A young nurse, a visionary scientist and an innovative surgeon face opposition from the church, stat
1980-12-01
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death
2014-03-20
The second movie in David Hare's Johnny Worricker trilogy. Loose-limbed spy Johnny Worricker, last s
2014-03-27
David Hare concludes his trilogy of films about MI5 renegade Johnny Worricker with another fugue on
1982-05-18
Set in 2016 prior to the centennial of the Easter Rising at Northern Ireland's only integrated teach
2015-02-26
As the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has only a single remaining vacancy - posing a rooming predicament
2023-12-14
Emma has a wonderful husband and two kids in the suburbs of New Jersey – she also has a secret life
2024-05-01
Family frenemies, Gracie and Pedro, must put their differences aside, embarking on a thrilling quest
2014-07-24
On a bitterly cold London evening, schoolteacher Kyra Hollis receives an unexpected visit from her f
2021-12-14
Follows Christmas celebrations at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as staff prepare for one of their b
1993-11-13
There is a strained atmosphere in the Maitland household which has fallen on hard times.
2007-06-11
A documentary about the making of Hot Fuzz.
1983-08-12
Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second best detective to look for hi
2023-10-23
The wanderer of Roger Hyams' films Sunday and Grand Union steps out into the night.
2024-09-12
After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive
A broken family is forced to come together when 16 year old Finn and his livewire younger brother Ch
2016-01-14
Polar bear Norm and his three Arctic lemming buddies are forced out into the world once their icy ho
2017-02-19
During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter works on a film celebrating England's resili
2022-11-29
ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer marks the 20th anniversary of the making of the holiday classic movie “
1994-05-06
One man must learn the meaning of courage across four lifetimes centuries apart.
2016-02-05
A cinema remake of the classic sitcom Dad's Army (1968). The Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon de
2008-06-21
A young boy watches a fight in a crowded bar: a masked man versus the people’s champ. But rather tha
2023-10-07
One man's obsession with crisps becomes unhealthy - and not because he's eating them. Tom's quest fo
2024-11-27
It's an unforgettable Christmas for the townsfolk of Wellington-on-Sea when the worst snowstorm in h
2023-09-23
In the Far West, the fur trade is booming. Bloody Furry, one of the last red wolves still alive, dec
2003-12-29
Spoof documentary looking at the life of Normal Stanley Fletcher, the star of 1970s sitcom Porridge
2004-09-01
Remake of the 1976 TV drama by Jack Rosenthal. An extra in a TV drama is finally given a line to say
2004-01-01
A short film about fictional actor Maxwell McCourtney, featuring the cast and crew of 'Enduring Love
2015-12-26
Julie Walters tells the story of how Morph, Shaun the Sheep and that cheese-loving man Wallace and h
1993-05-30
British academics Loretta and Bridget run into Sandra, an old school friend at a book launch. Althou
1991-10-05
Black comedy set in Soho, London, right after World War II. Half of the fun is seeing a slew of very
2025-09-07
A world-renowned but reclusive novelist, believing he is about to die, summons his estranged sons to
1992-04-12
While English professor Loretta Lawson is attending a conference in Paris, she stays the night in th
2011-07-26
When a young boy gets locked in the Natural History Museum after closing, a mysterious guard gives h
1980-03-10
The thirteen-part series recounted the lives of the titular Fox family, who lived in Clapham in Sout
2016-10-18
A series of murders has shaken the community to the point where people believe that only a legendary
2012-08-03
London: The Modern Babylon is legendary director Julien Temple's epic time-traveling voyage to the h
1980-01-17
William came to work in Fleet Street in 1971. London meant girls, as many girls as he could find. Th
2017-11-10
Set in a small English town in 1959, a woman decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition,
2017-03-24
Fourteen years after the events of the first film, a series of encounters between people in Britain
2006-06-29
A day in the life of the cigarette. A love of nicotine unites all peoples across the globe, regardle
1990-07-18
Plain Jane Hartman hates her life. She's goofy, boring and only has sex if she reads Iris Murdoch no
2005-07-05
Documentary charting the rise of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from its original guise as a r
2019-05-03
In a world where people collect pocket-size monsters (Pokémon) to do battle, a boy comes across an i
2019-12-12
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to s
2019-10-03
Grace lives an idyllic life in a British seaside town, but her world soon comes crashing down when h
2013-05-24
Misrepresented, maligned and on the verge of extinction, the great white shark is an iconic predator
2019-03-14
Alan is a stylish tailor with moves as sharp as his suits. He has spent years searching tirelessly f
2013-01-01
The documentary uses Graham Greene's own words from his books and recordings, as well as photographs
2020-02-13
In 1800s England, a well-meaning but selfish young woman meddles in the love lives of her friends.
2020-03-13
War photographer W. Eugene Smith travels back to Japan where he documents the devastating effect of
2019-12-06
When vigilante cat, Felix, and loyal canine, Buddy, set out to find Buddy’s lost owner, they discove
2013-06-26
In London's bustling, yet desolate Trafalgar Square, an ancient corpse meets a pigeon with a broken
1981-07-24
Great Britain, 1944, during World War II. Relentlessly pursued by several MI5 agents, Henry Faber th
1980-01-23
In a future world where the disease has been finally defeated and everything can be sold, even the c
1978-12-05
One man's view of the British Army in Germany - the social life, discipline, drink, women and, occas
2022-11-04
London, 1953. Mr. Williams, a veteran civil servant, is an important cog within the city's bureaucra
1982-01-19
"When you get to a man in the case, they're like as a row of pins - For the colonel's lady an' Judy
2020-12-01
Classical music superstar Katherine Jenkins OBE returns to the iconic Royal Albert Hall, her all-tim
2002-01-19
In 1970s Britain, 18-year old Dean feels hampered by his working-class background and his family. In
2021-06-24
A fish-out-of-water story of a young boy Ridley who becomes lost in the harsh Australian outback wit
1976-01-01
Bill Nighy, Pete Postlewaite and (briefly) Julie Walters, then all of the Everyman Theatre Company,
2021-07-28
This short documentary follows the fortunes of iconic car manufacturer Lotus. Once famous for its ch
2024-03-22
A group of advocates to end homelessness organize an annual tournament for homeless people to compet
2005-09-05
An in-depth examination of the complete production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005).
1979-12-06
Deasey is a dreamer - torn between earning his precarious living as reporter on the London end of a
1980-12-19
At an advertising agency in Nottingham, young graphic designer Graham is recruited as a temporary re
1999-10-01
In the 1800s, a bass player's attempts to woo a young woman lead to both parties being trapped in an
2026-01-30
Mason is a reclusive man living in a remote setting by the sea. When he chooses to rescue a young gi
2004-04-22
A selection of highlights from Sir Peter Ustinov's appearances on Parkinson. A look back at a multit
A woman finds herself in a strange, magical carnival with no memory of anything but her own name. Ti
Based on Joseph Conrad's novel, Marlow captains a leaky steamboat up the River Congo in search of a
'Pink Sky at Night' follows brother and sister Finn and Ruby over an unforgettable Cornish midsummer
2025-08-17
A father and daughter attempt to find their way through grief together.
2025-08-14
When an over zealous scientist pushes his experiments with string theory too far - his brane explode
2025-10-22
After experiencing a personal loss, Lazarus begins having disturbing experiences that can't be expla