Billy Mack is the fictional rock star played by British actor Bill Nighy in the 2003 film Love Actually, a role that earned Nighy the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and brought him international stardom. In the film, Billy Mack performs "Christmas Is All Around", a reinvention of the Troggs' 1967 hit "Love Is All Around", which was written by Reg Presley and later covered by Wet Wet Wet for the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, spending 15 consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart. Born William Francis Nighy in Caterham, Surrey, in 1949, Nighy had already built a distinguished career on stage and screen, and his musical roots reach back to his twenties, when he was in a band called the Love Ponies and subsequently recorded a few songs. After growing up in a Roman Catholic family and leaving school at fifteen, Nighy trained for the stage and later gained acclaim in theatre at the National Theatre, in television, and in film, including Still Crazy in 1998, in which he played fifty-year-old rock star Ray Simms. He reprised the role of Billy Mack in the short film Red Nose Day Actually in 2017, and the rock'n'roll spirit of the character remains one of his most recognisable roles.
