'You'll have seen his face. You might even know his name. Now actor Bill Nighy is about to go stellar' - that was the Introduction to the Sunday Times Culture cover story in November 2003. Just for once the hype proved correct. The success of LOVE ACTUALLY has turned Nighy from just a familiar face into a star. When he won his BAFTA for best supporting actor in the Richard Curtis movie - as Billy the washed up pop star - he held the trophy aloft - 'You've made an old rocker very happy' The audience roared and he - and the line - were on next morning's front pages. John Miller - author of our JUDI DENCH (100,000 copies now sold in all editions; the umpteenth pb reprint just going through) and of PETER USTINOV - has been stalking Nighy for some months. And now Nighy has said yes to John, fully authorised, talk to me as much as you like, talk to people I have worked with, my family, my friends - and yes, I will discuss the difficult times in the past (principally alcohol).
Making it into the big time has come late (he is 53), but even if he hasn't been widely known to the public at large to theatregoers and the cognoscenti he has had a growing following ever since THE MEN'S ROOM (BBC, 1991) when he played a serial adulterer, to the current BBC series, STATE OF PLAY, as the newspaper editor. Like Judi Dench he had made his reputation in the theatre, not least at the National in plays such as Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA and Pinter's A KIND OF ALASKA under directors who are themselves among the very best, Trevor Nunn, Peter Gill, Karel Reisz, Richard Eyre. His big screen career is now beginning to take off. In the last two years he has had good roles in I CAPTURE THE CASTLE and UNDERWORLD as well as the show stopping LOVE ACTUALLY (not his first rocker, that came in 1998 with STILL CRAZY). Film and TV offers are now pouring in. A further series of STATE OF PLAY is being written. Bill Nighy's editor is now very much the central character.
- ISBN10 0297847902
- ISBN13 9780297847908
- Publish Date 13 October 2005
- Publish Status Cancelled
- Out of Print 17 November 2004
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Orion Publishing Co
- Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English