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Sir William Connolly is a Scottish actor, musician, television presenter, artist and retired stand-up comedian. He is sometimes known by the Scots nickname the Big Yin. Known for his idiosyncratic and often improvised observational comedy, frequently including strong language, Connolly has topped many UK polls as the greatest stand-up comedian of all time. In 2017, he was knighted at Buckingham Pa…
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entertainment · Scottish actor and comedian (born 1942) · actor · comedian · banjoist · stand-up comedian · film actor · screenwriter · stage actor · singer · composer · guitarist · also Billy Connolly, Sir William Connolly, Connolly
Born 24 November 1942 · Q298838
88 published statements · 0 followers
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It’s happening everywhere. I think it’s called fascism. They can call it white nationalism if they like, or alt-right, but it’s that Hitlerian lie-telling. “Mocking the press, saying they’re the enemy of the people. It’s kind of frightening. Let’s wait until his time’s up. It will happen. Let’s just hope there isn’t a world war before that.
I haven’t a clue. I’ve always been about going forward, not the past. Plus, we were doing the GQ event, I was Inspiration of the Year, and I blew everybody away. He should have remembered that … “These Yorkshiremen, I don’t think they apologise much. I wasn’t disappointed, it just made my life a bit difficult. People feeling sorry for me, I don’t like that.
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“It’s happening everywhere. I think it’s called fascism. They can call it white nationalism if they like, or alt-right, but it’s that Hitlerian lie-telling. “Mocking the press, saying they’re the enemy of the people. It’s kind of frightening. Let’s wait until his time’s up. It will happen. Let’s just hope there isn’t a world war before that.”
“I haven’t a clue. I’ve always been about going forward, not the past. Plus, we were doing the GQ event, I was Inspiration of the Year, and I blew everybody away. He should have remembered that … “These Yorkshiremen, I don’t think they apologise much. I wasn’t disappointed, it just made my life a bit difficult. People feeling sorry for me, I don’t like that.”
“You must remember that the Union saved Scotland. Scotland was bankrupt and the English opened us up to their American and Canadian markets, from which we just flowered.”
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“I miss the craic. I miss the joy of it all. The headbanging stupidity, the loveliness, the craziness of it. I miss it terribly.”
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“Yes, it was incredibly edgy for its time. My manager, on the way over, warned me not to do it, but it was a great joke and the interview was going so well, I thought,”
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Public attention spiked: 7,591 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.5× the usual 1,689, with 1 article edits.
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Full Fact rated the claim “A news article reports that the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said that the comedian Billy Connolly is “outdated, vulgar and offensive” and comedians like him do not represent Scottish people.” This article isn’t real. The screenshot has been faked, and there’s no evidence Anas Sarwar ever made these comments..
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
Received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
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Unveiled the fifth release from his Born on a Rainy Day collection in London, followed by another instalment later that year, and has subsequently issued another five collections
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Released album “The Ultimate Collection”.
Connolly, now resident in Florida, held his first art exhibition
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Connolly moved to Key West, Florida
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Was knighted at Buckingham Palace for services to entertainment and charity
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Three portraits of Connolly were made by leading artists Jack Vettriano, John Byrne, and Rachel Maclean
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Appeared in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies as Dáin II Ironfoot, a great dwarf warrior and cousin of Thorin II Oakenshield
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Connolly had acknowledged earlier in 2013 that he had started to forget his lines during performances.
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That he had started to forget his lines during performances
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Awarded British Academy Scotland Awards (2012).
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Connolly provided the voice of King Fergus in Pixar's Scotland-set animated film Brave, alongside fellow Scottish actors Kelly Macdonald, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson, and Kevin McKidd
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Connolly and his wife were living full-time in New York City, while retaining their Candacraig residence
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In the book Billy (and in a December 2008 online interview), Connolly states he was sexually abused by his father between the ages of ten and 15.
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Revealed he has a house on the Maltese island of Gozo
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The British public ranked Connolly number 16 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars
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Connolly and Stephenson announced, after 14 years of living in Hollywood, they were returning to live in the former's native land
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Released album “Billy Connolly's Musical Tour of New Zealand”.
Released album “Billy Connolly Live, Dublin 2002”.
Released album “The Great Billy Connolly”.
Stephenson's first biography of her husband, Billy, was published
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Released album “The Big Yin: Billy Connolly in Concert”.
Released album “Transatlantic Years”.
When his daughter Cara gave birth to Walter
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Released album “Classic Connolly in Words and Music”.
Connolly starred in Beautiful Joe alongside Sharon Stone
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Blamed the SNP for a perceived increase in Anglophobia in Scotland; described the new Scottish Parliament as a joke; and declined to attend the opening ceremony
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After forming Tickety-Boo management company with Malcolm Kingsnorth, his tour manager and sound engineer of 25 years, Connolly undertook a four-month, 59-date sellout tour of Australia and New Zealand
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Released album “Comedy & Songs”.
“s native land. They purchased a 120-foot (37 m) yacht with the profits from their house-sale and split the year between Malta and the 12-bedroom Candacraig House in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, which they had purchased in 1998 from Dame Anita Roddick. Later in the year, Connolly topped an unscientific poll of”
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Released album “Classic Connolly”.
Connolly's best friend, Danny Kyle, died
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Starred with Dame Judi Dench in Mrs Brown, in which he played John Brown, the favoured Scottish servant of Queen Victoria
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Appeared in Muppet Treasure Island as Billy Bones
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Released album “Live 1995”.
Connolly recorded a BBC special, entitled A Scot in the Arctic, in which he spent a week by himself in the Arctic Circle
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Released album “Musical Tour of Scotland”.
Released album “More Classic Connolly - Wreck on Tour & Atlantic Bridge”.
Released album “Highlights & Footlights”.
“I spent a great deal of my life in here. From age 16 to... well, I started at 15. I started my apprenticeship at 16 and finished when I was 21. Stayed till I was 22, and moved along. I finished welding when I was 24. When I came here, as an apprentice, there was six ships being built, right where I”
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HBO released Billy Connolly: Pale Blue Scottish Person, a standup performance recorded at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, California
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Released album “Live at the Odeon Hammersmith London”.
Including six nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which was documented in the Billy and Albert video
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Released album “Billy and Albert”.
Connolly gave up alcohol, having been a heavy drinker
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Visited Mozambique to appear in a documentary for Comic Relief
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In 1986, Connolly gave up alcohol, having been a heavy drinker. "I don't miss drinking.
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Divorced Iris Pressagh, his wife of 16 years (they had separated four years earlier), and he was awarded custody of their children Jamie and Cara
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Sang the theme song to Super Gran which was released as a single
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Released album “A Change Is as Good as Arrest”.
Began living with Pamela Stephenson; they were married in Fiji on 20 December 1989
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John Cleese and Martin Lewis invited Connolly to appear in that year's Amnesty show, The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
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Connolly was invited by producer Martin Lewis to join the cast of The Secret Policeman's Ball, the third in the series of The Secret Policeman's Balls fundraising shows for Amnesty International
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Released album “Riotous Assembly”.
Connolly met Pamela Stephenson, the New Zealand-born comedy actress, for the first time when he made a cameo appearance on the BBC sketch show, Not the Nine O'Clock News, in which she was one of the four regular performe
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Released album “Anthology”.
Released album “Raw Meat for the Balcony”.
Connolly's first play, An' Me wi' a Bad Leg, Tae, opened in Irvine and toured in London
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Released album “Atlantic Bridge”.
And he would appear on the show a record 15 times, including on the penultimate episode, broadcast in 2007
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The rapidity and extent of Connolly's breakthrough was used to secure him a booking on Britain's premier TV chat show, the BBC's Parkinson
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Released album “Get Right Intae Him”.
Released album “Solo Concert”.
Made a political party television broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party which criticised the Scottish National Party
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Sold out the Pavilion Theatre in his home town
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Released album “Cop Yer Whack for This”.
Nat Joseph produced Connolly's first solo album, Billy Connolly Live
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Made his theatrical debut, at the Cottage Theatre in Cumbernauld, with a revue called Connolly's Glasgow Flourish
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Connolly's first solo album, Billy Connolly Live
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Released album “Live”.
Connolly made his theatrical debut, at the Cottage Theatre in Cumbernauld, with a revue called Connolly's Glasgow Flourish
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The Humblebums broke up, with Rafferty going on to record his solo album Can I Have My Money Back
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And both Connolly and Rafferty went solo
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Were joined by Gerry Rafferty, who had approached Connolly after a gig in Paisley
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A 26-year-old Connolly married Springburn native and interior designer Iris Pressagh, with whom he had two children
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After he had completed a five-year apprenticeship as a boilermaker, Connolly accepted a ten-week job building an oil platform in Biafra, Nigeria
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Together with Tam Harvey, Connolly started a group called the Humblebums
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Mona gave birth to a son, Michael, by a "local man"
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When he was four years old, Connolly's mother left her children while their father was serving as an engineer in the Royal Air Force in Burma
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Born 1942-11-24.
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At the age of 18, he married a local 13-year-old Indian girl called Matilda
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