Nighy, 73, living the dream with Oscar shout

British actor ‘honoured’ to be nominated for role in touching drama at 95th Academy Awards

BILL NIGHY will carry British hopes on Oscars night after earning his first nomination for Best Actor aged 73.

The star of the 2022 drama Living has been recognised for the first time by the Academy despite enjoying a career spanning half a century and he could become one of the oldest actors ever to win the award.

Yesterday, he said: “Everyone associated with Living is honoured by the Academy’s nomination and grateful for the spotlight it throws upon the film. We hope it will encourage people to see it. I was surrounded by assassins and this belongs to them all.”

Nighy plays a drab civil servant, who begins to embrace life following an unwelcome diagnosis.

The screenplay was written by British Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, based on a short-story by Leo Tolstoy.

Should Nighy be named Best Actor at the ceremony on Mar 28, it will mark his first major awards win since he was recognised by Bafta in 2004 for his comic role in Love Actually.

It would also make him among the oldest ever to claim the prize, with only Sir Anthony Hopkins (The Father in 2020 aged 83) and Henry Fonda (On Golden Pond in 1991 aged 76), more advanced in years when they won.

Nighy would supplant John Wayne (1969 for True Grit at age 62) as the third-oldest Oscar-winner in the Best Actor category.

His Oscar nomination comes just days after once again being similarly recognised by Bafta for Living.

Born in Surrey, Nighy studied at the Guildford School of Acting and began his career on stage. He will be among a limited crop of British acting talent at the 95th awards, which could turn out be a successful night for the Irish.

Nominated along with Nighy are Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin, along with fellow Irishman Paul Mescal for his performance in the British drama Aftersun. Irish actors Brendon Gleeson and Barry Keoghan have also been named together in the Best Supporting actor category, both for Banshees, and its British-irish creator Martin Mcdonagh is in the running for Best Director.

Kerry Condon has also been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the film, which has earned nine nominations for the Academy Awards, including for Best Picture.

The production, which counts as a British film, is among the best hopes for UK Oscars success, along with Living,

which has also earned a nomination for Ishiguro’s adapted screenplay.

The Swedish film Triangle of Sadness,

up for three key awards, also counts as a British co-production.