Bill Nighy

Bill Nighy's journey to mid-'60s England began in, of all places, mid-'60s England. As a teen, he left home for Paris to write, came back unwritten, then became an actor, later to play a key (imaginary) figure in the very music that transformed him as a youth. But let's start with Bill the Mod. "Mods loved black American music: Stax, Atlantic and Tamla Motown," says the actor in a quiet, cultured voice at a table at L'Ermitage. "You had a half-inch all-over haircut. You wore Ravel loafers and trousers of the cigarette type but slightly too short, and I regret to say this, and I'm embarrassed and ashamed, but with . . . colored socks."

What if you could outsource retirement? "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" took a cast loaded with British talent - Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy among them - to India to find out. The fish-out-of-England romantic comedy did boffo business. With a $10-million budget, it has grossed more than $135 million worldwide since its May release, making it Fox Searchlight's highest-grossing specialty film of 2012. Director John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love,") and writer Ol Parker were in town recently to chat about the film, playing off each other like a seasoned comedy team.

The bloodsuckers of "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" skulk in the shadows of a gloomy medieval castle, but their leader, Viktor (Bill Nighy), sports a look best described as "vampire fabulous." Goth rockers everywhere are pale with envy. "Let's face it, Viktor's a pretty fabulous character," said costume designer Jane Holland. Given the film's habitual darkness, "the choice of fabrics and their interplay with light was very important.

An intimate, two-hander play by a relatively unknown writer took home the top prize at this year's London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. "Constellations," by Nick Payne, won the prize for best play on Sunday, beating out works by Caryl Churchill and James Graham. "Constellations" ran at the Royal Court Upstairs earlier this year and starred Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall. The play -- a cryptic, science-themed romance that runs a brief 70 minutes -- received mostly positive reviews.

"The bad granddad of rock 'n' roll? Yeah, that's me, I guess," Bill Nighy says, laughing at the thought of his late-blooming screen persona. In Richard Curtis' romantic comedy "Love Actually," Nighy's Billy Mack -- a devil-may-care, foulmouthed aging British rock star -- is given the "bad granddad" moniker by a DJ. He has recorded and is promoting a loathsome (to him) version of the 1960s hit "Love Is All Around," with lyrics altered for Christmas. (The film opens Friday.

About three years ago, producer Graham Broadbent visited the offices of Peter Rice, who was then running Fox Searchlight Pictures. Stacked near Rice's DVD player were discs of the senior citizen comedies "Cocoon" and "Cocoon: The Return. " "There have to be movies for older audiences," Rice told Broadbent. "There have to be. " Broadbent replied, "I think we may have something for you. " The movie Broadbent pitched that day was "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,"a comedy starring Judi Dench and Bill Nighy about a fledgling retirement home in India.

JAIPUR, India - It was a hot, dusty morning here in the capital of Rajasthan as the cast of "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" slowly emerged from several battered "vanity" buses lined up in front of the iconic City Palace. Despite the all-star team of British actors and actresses, including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith, the big attraction for hundreds of gawking passersby was young Dev Patel, of"Slumdog Millionaire" fame. The film, which opens in U.S. theaters Friday, is about seven middle-class Britons whose savings have melted down with the global economy.

British actor Bill Nighy, who plays Davy Jones in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," will be on hand to field questions from the audience tonight at a screening of the 1998 film "Still Crazy," in which he stars with Billy Connolly and Stephen Rea as middle-aged rock musicians. The event is part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival being presented by the American Cinematheque. It begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Information: (323) 466-3456 or www.modsandrockers.

Beeban Kidron's 1991 movie is a pleasingly small-scale tale about two long-term friends played by Saskia Reeves (center, with Bill Nighy) and Imelda Staunton (right). They are polar opposites who admire and envy each other's spirit. At its best, this film manages to be both sedate and quirky.

An intimate, two-hander play by a relatively unknown writer took home the top prize at this year's London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. "Constellations," by Nick Payne, won the prize for best play on Sunday, beating out works by Caryl Churchill and James Graham. "Constellations" ran at the Royal Court Upstairs earlier this year and starred Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall. The play -- a cryptic, science-themed romance that runs a brief 70 minutes -- received mostly positive reviews.

About three years ago, producer Graham Broadbent visited the offices of Peter Rice, who was then running Fox Searchlight Pictures. Stacked near Rice's DVD player were discs of the senior citizen comedies "Cocoon" and "Cocoon: The Return. " "There have to be movies for older audiences," Rice told Broadbent. "There have to be. " Broadbent replied, "I think we may have something for you. " The movie Broadbent pitched that day was "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,"a comedy starring Judi Dench and Bill Nighy about a fledgling retirement home in India.

JAIPUR, India - It was a hot, dusty morning here in the capital of Rajasthan as the cast of "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" slowly emerged from several battered "vanity" buses lined up in front of the iconic City Palace. Despite the all-star team of British actors and actresses, including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith, the big attraction for hundreds of gawking passersby was young Dev Patel, of"Slumdog Millionaire" fame. The film, which opens in U.S. theaters Friday, is about seven middle-class Britons whose savings have melted down with the global economy.

For some, the presence of Bill Nighy will be reason enough to tune into "Page Eight," a luxuriously low-boil thriller that premieres Sunday under the umbrella of PBS' "Masterpiece Contemporary. " It is a piece that brings Nighy's best qualities to the fore — his humor in the service of the serious, his power-in-repose, the sexy intelligence he only half reveals — and it has, notably, been written and directed by the playwright David Hare, his first original drama for television in two decades, and his first film as a director since the 1989 "Strapless.

"Wild Target," starring Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt, is a droll British farce about a middle-aged hit man who falls for a beautiful young mark, and as its title suggests, everything ? including the movie ? seems destined to spin dangerously out of control. In this re-imagining of Pierre Salvadori's more darkly told 1993 French original, "Cible Emouvante," there is irony around every curve and swerve of Lucinda Coxon's screenplay. Human nature, romance, family ties, the art of the kill, honor among thieves and Murphy's Law are lined up like dominoes just waiting for a fall.

Bill Nighy's journey to mid-'60s England began in, of all places, mid-'60s England. As a teen, he left home for Paris to write, came back unwritten, then became an actor, later to play a key (imaginary) figure in the very music that transformed him as a youth. But let's start with Bill the Mod. "Mods loved black American music: Stax, Atlantic and Tamla Motown," says the actor in a quiet, cultured voice at a table at L'Ermitage. "You had a half-inch all-over haircut. You wore Ravel loafers and trousers of the cigarette type but slightly too short, and I regret to say this, and I'm embarrassed and ashamed, but with . . . colored socks."

Of course, we should talk about: "Mad Men" Wait, it's coming to an end already? Curse cable and its short 13-episode seasons. Don's big secret is out, Hilton's demands are getting steeper while the Brits might be cutting Sterling Cooper loose, Peggy and Duck have issues to sort out and Joan's hubby looks to be shipping off to Vietnam. My bet is the third-season finale resolves only some of these things -- which is exactly how we all like it. (Today) Resume talking about: "Up" Only Pixar could make an animated movie, out on DVD this week, about a geriatric widower and his quest to move the house he shared with his late wife across the world both heartbreaking and hilarious.

"The Girl in the Cafe" (premiering Saturday on HBO) is a somewhat schizophrenic, mostly satisfying romantic comedy from Richard Curtis, the author of "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill" and "Love Actually" (and also the director of the last).

Of course, we should talk about: "Mad Men" Wait, it's coming to an end already? Curse cable and its short 13-episode seasons. Don's big secret is out, Hilton's demands are getting steeper while the Brits might be cutting Sterling Cooper loose, Peggy and Duck have issues to sort out and Joan's hubby looks to be shipping off to Vietnam. My bet is the third-season finale resolves only some of these things -- which is exactly how we all like it. (Today) Resume talking about: "Up" Only Pixar could make an animated movie, out on DVD this week, about a geriatric widower and his quest to move the house he shared with his late wife across the world both heartbreaking and hilarious.

The bloodsuckers of "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" skulk in the shadows of a gloomy medieval castle, but their leader, Viktor (Bill Nighy), sports a look best described as "vampire fabulous." Goth rockers everywhere are pale with envy. "Let's face it, Viktor's a pretty fabulous character," said costume designer Jane Holland. Given the film's habitual darkness, "the choice of fabrics and their interplay with light was very important.

To play Davy Jones, the heartless captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman who appears in the second and third films of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy, Bill Nighy did not have to spend hours in the makeup trailer, attaching waving tentacles to his face or claws to his hands or even don sea-life encrusted duds. No, it was much more traumatic. He had to wear gray pajamas, a skull cap with a bobble on top and spots all over his face. "The skull cap was the worst," he says.