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Q: I love the movie "Love, Actually," but I can't figure out who plays rock star Billy Mack. There are so many big names in that movie that I know he must be someone famous.

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The actor playing the aging rock star who opens the film is Bill Nighy, who is indeed "someone famous," though at the time he was bigger in Britain than in North America.

Nighy is a famed stage actor in Britain who had a well-established career in British TV and film before he appeared in the star-studded (and also very British) "Love, Actually" in 2003.

In that film, Nighy plays a fading star trying to revive his career by re-recording his previous hit "Love Is All Around" as "Christmas Is All Around." In fact, "Love Is All Around" was an actual hit in 1967 for British Invasion band The Troggs, better known for their earlier hit, "Wild Thing."

The film put him on Hollywood's A-list, and it's paid off. He's since appeared in such blockbuster fare as "Underworld" (2003) and its sequels, and two of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, playing the legendary cursed sailor Davy Jones.

Nighy has still kept mostly to British fare, however. He appeared in the genre-comedy hits "Shaun of the Dead" (2004) and "Hot Fuzz" (2007), as well as 2009's "Pirate Radio," reuniting him with "Love, Actually" director Richard Curtis.

He appeared, along with his "Love, Actually" co-star Alan Rickman, in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" in 2010 (Emma Thompson, who also starred in "Love, Actually," appeared in three of the other installments).

 

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