Trivia

He has Dupuytren's Contracture, a hereditary condition which causes the ring and little fingers of each hand to be permanently bent inwards towards the palm.

He played the part of "Sam Gamgee" in the original BBC radio production of The Lord of the Rings alongside Ian Holm as "Frodo". Peter Jackson (director of the The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)) gave this version to those members of his cast who hadn't read the book.

He turned down the chance to play the Doctor in Doctor Who (2005).

He has a daughter, Mary Nighy (born July 17, 1984) with Diana Quick, who was his long-time partner.

He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2001 (2000 season) for Best Actor in his performance of Blue/Orange at the Royal National Theatre, Cottesloe Stage.

He is a huge fan of The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, and also of Mary J. Blige whom he considers an "inspiration" and whose music he plays every day.

He has played four different undead characters. He was a zombie in Shaun of the Dead (2004). He was a vampire in Underworld (2003), Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009). He plays Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007). And he plays the vampire "Szabec" in the audiobook adaptation of "Cast, In Order of Disappearance", which was rewritten to lightly parody Underworld (2003). While not "undead", he does also play Naberius, a demon prince in I, Frankenstein (2014).

He was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in June 2004.

His father was English. His mother was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and also had Irish ancestry.

He was the first narrator of the series Meerkat Manor (2005). For the American broadcast, his voice was replaced by Sean Astin. Astin and Nighy have also both played Samwise Gamgee.

He has worked with three actors who have played Bilbo Baggins. In the BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo was played by John Le Mesurier, while Frodo was played by Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in Peter Jackson's films. Holm was later succeeded by Martin Freeman, whom Nighy has worked with several times: Love Actually (2003), Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Hot Fuzz (2007), and Wild Target (2010). He also takes over Le Mesurier's role in the film version of Dad's Army (2016).

Bill Nighy was cast in the lead role of Charles Paris in the 2010 BBC radio/audiobook adaptation of the Simon Brett's "Cast, in Order of Disappearance". This book is the first in the series "The Charles Paris mysteries", featuring Charles, a minor British actor and amateur sleuth, and was originally published in 1975.

The audiobook version of the story was relocated to the set of a vampire film "The Wreathing" with Charles cast in the role of "Szabec", a middle management vampire in an organised vampire society. The relocation of the story is a deliberate reference to Bill Nighy's casting as "Viktor" in the "Underworld" franchise of vampire films. In the audiobook, the equivalent of the "Selene" role (played by Kate Beckinsale in the film) is played by a fictional actress called Jodie Ricks (dramatised by Martin McCutcheon in the audiobook).

He and his Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) co-star Michael Byrne played General Friedrich Olbricht in dramas depicting the 20 July Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler: Byrne in The Plot to Kill Hitler (1990) and Nighy in Valkyrie (2008).

Years before Shaun of the Dead (2004), Nighy was up for a role in another zombie film - he was considered for the role of Roger Derebridge in Lifeforce (1985), though Nicholas Ball was cast instead.

Bill Nighy is a follower of Crystal Palace football club.