Their 27-year relationship made Bill Nighy the very opposite of the ageing lothario he played in Love Actually.

But it seems his long partnership with the actress Diana Quick has come to an abrupt end.

Miss Quick, 61, who is credited with saving Nighy from alcoholism when he was a little-known theatre actor, has moved out of their £1.7million home in London.

The pressures of his demanding work schedule are thought to be to blame.

As they were: Bill Nighy and Diana Quick, pictured in 2004, have split up after 27 years together

Nighy, 58, found fame in 2003, playing the ageing singer Billy Mack in the film Love Actually, in which Keira Knightley and Hugh Grant also appeared.

Since then, he has been inundated with film work including roles in the Pirates Of The Caribbean and The Girl In The Cafe.

The actor has a reputation for being workaholic and has spent increasing amounts of time filming away from home, sometimes abroad. In 2006, he spent six months working on roles based in Los Angeles and New Zealand.

And at the start of last year, rumours that the relationship was in trouble began circulating.

In a statement, the couple said: 'Bill and Diana separated amicably. They remain great friends.' They denied that a third party was involved in the demise of their relationship.

Nighy met Miss Quick while performing at the National Theatre, in 1981.

They never married, but she has described him as her 'de facto husband' or POSSLQ - Person of the Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters.

The actor in Love Actually where he played an ageing lothario

The couple, who have a 24-year-old daughter, Mary, also an actress, have very different backgrounds.

Nighy left school without any O-levels, while Miss Quick was the first female president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society.

Initially, her career overshadowed his. She was already wellknown from her performance in Brideshead Revisited for Granada TV in the early Eighties.

Nighy, who once 'drank for England, Scotland and Wales', said he stopped drinking on May 17, 1992. With a fan base from Love Actually, he has described himself as the 'drinking woman's crumpet'.

In 2005, on subject of the secret of a lasting relationship, Miss Quick said: 'You have to keep talking.

You have to try to let people be what they are and not what you would like them to be. Easy to say. Quite hard to do,' she added.