From welder to folk star, comic genius and CBE
BILLY Connolly was born in Glasgow and had a troubled childhood, abused by his father and abandoned by his mother.
He became a welder in the city’s shipyards but quickly left to play in a folk band.
He began to make a reputation with Gerry Rafferty’s group, the Humblebums, but his
chats between songs became longer and longer, and soon he tried his hand at comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe.
He had great success with comedy and parody records, and his comic take on Tammy Wynette’s D.I.V.O.R.C.E. became a surprise No1 hit in 1975.
Soon he appeared on the
Parkinson show, making him a household name.
In 1979 he met Pamela Stephenson when he made a cameo appearance on the BBC sketch show Not the Nine O’clock News, where she was one of four regular performers.
They began a romance after he admitted his first marriage
to Iris Pressagh was over, and they went on to wed in 1989.
Connolly enjoyed huge sell-out tours in the 1980s and began to appear as an actor on TV and in films.
After moving to the US to make several sitcoms he returned to the UK, where in 1994 he hosted the acclaimed
BBC1 series World Tour of Scotland. Over the next two decades he made several more documentary-style shows.
In 2003 he received a CBE and a BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award.
His workload has reduced since he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013.