William Francis "Bill" Nighy (pronounced /ˈnaɪ/; born 12 December 1949) is a Golden Globe- and BAFTA-award winning British actor and comedian. He started working in theatre and television, before his first cinema role in 1981, and is perhaps best known to international film audiences for his roles in Love Actually, Shaun of the Dead, Notes on a Scandal, Underworld, Valkyrie and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Nighy was born in Caterham, Surrey. His mother, Catherine Josephine (née Whittaker), was a County Cork-born psychiatric nurse who was raised in Glasgow, and his father, Alfred Martin Nighy, managed a car garage and worked as a mechanic. He has two older siblings, Martin and Anna. Raised Catholic, Nighy attended The John Fisher School, Purley. He trained at the Guildford School of Acting, formerly known as The Guildford School of Dance and Drama.

After two seasons at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, Nighy made his London stage debut at the National Theatre in an epic staging of Ken Campbell and Chris Langham's Illuminatus!, which opened the new Cottesloe Theatre on 4 March 1977, and went on to appear in two David Hare premieres, also at the National.