Bill Nighy

William Francis Nighy was born on 12 December 1949 in Caterham, Surrey, the son of Alfred Martin Nighy (1913–1976) and Catherine Josephine, (née Whittaker) (1915–2003). His father managed a car garage after working in the family chimney sweeping business; his mother was a psychiatric nurse of Irish descent born in Glasgow, Scotland.

Nighy was brought up as a Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy; however, he gave up "being a practising Catholic" as a teenager. He has two elder siblings, Martin and Anna. He attended the John Fisher School, a Roman Catholic grammar school in Purley, where he was nicknamed "Knucks" because of his hands, and was a member of the theatre group.

As a child he was known by many to be insecure and shy; as a teenager he became an avid reader, particularly enjoying the works of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He left school at the age of 15, without qualifications, and later with a friend travelled to Paris hoping and failing "to write a novel".

He worked variously in a local employment office and as a messenger for The Croydon Advertiser and The Field. He then applied for a place at RADA, but was rejected and instead enrolled at the Guildford School of Dance and Drama to train for the stage.