Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

William "Billy" Connolly, Order of the British
Empire|CBE (born November 24, 1942) is a comedian,
musician, presenter, and actor. He is sometimes
known, especially in his native Scotland, by the
nickname "The Big Yin" ("The Big One", a reference
to his height).

==Background==
Billy Connolly was born in Glasgow, Scotland to
Mary and William Connolly, the son of an Irish
immigrant.

Connolly was brought up in the Anderston and
later, Partick districts of Glasgow and attended
St. Gerard's Secondary School.

He started his working life at the age of 15,
becoming a welder in a Glasgow shipyard, but left
that trade to become a folk singer. Together with
Tam Harvey he started a group called the
Humblebums, which later included Gerry Rafferty.
Connolly sang, played banjo and guitar and
entertained the audience with his humorous
introductions to the songs.  Eventually the duo
broke up and Billy went solo. His first solo album
in 1972, Billy Connolly Live! on Transatlantic
Records, features Billy as a singer, songwriter
and musician. 

His early albums were a mixture of comedy
performances with musical interludes. Among his
best known musical performances were "The Welly
Boot Song", a comical ode to the working class
which became his theme song for several years; "In
the Brownies", a parody of the Village People
classics "Y.M.C.A." and "In the Navy" (for which
Connolly filmed a music video); "Two Little Boys
in Blue", a tongue-in-cheek indictment of police
brutality done to the tune of Rolf Harris' "Two
Little Boys"; and the ballad "I Wish I Was in
Glasgow" which Connolly would later perform on a
guest appearance on the 1990s American sitcom,
Pearl (TV Series)|Pearl. By the late 1980s,
Connolly had all but dropped the music from his
act, though he still records the occasional
musical performance. Most recently, he sang a song
during the film Lemony Snicket's A Series of
Unfortunate Events.

It is as a stand-up comedian that Connolly is best
known. His observational humour is idiosyncratic.
He talks about himself, who he is, where he's
been, what he thinks and how he reacts to the
world around him. He has outraged audiences,
critics and, of course the media, with his free
use of the word fuck. He has used masturbation,
blasphemy, defecation, flatulence, sex, his
father's illness and his aunts' cruelty to
entertain. By exploring these subjects with
humour, Connolly has done much to strip away the
taboos surrounding them. Yet he does not tell
jokes in the conventional way.
At the end of a concert the audience can be
convulsed with laughter but few can remember a
specific "funny" line.

One of Connolly's most famous comedy skits is "The
Crucifixion", an early 1970s recording in which he
likens Christ's Last Supper to a drunken night out
in Glasgow. The recording was banned by many radio
stations at the time.  

Connolly launched a second career as a film actor
in the 1970s, and after a string of obscure and
unsuccessful films, he was officially introduced
to mainstream American audiences when he took over
the lead role in the sitcom Head of the Class in
1990. Since then, he has gone on to become a
character actor of some repute, appearing in a
number of major films such as Indecent Proposal,
The Last Samurai and Lemony Snicket's A Series of
Unfortunate Events . He received his best notices,
including BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild award
nominations for his co-starring role in 1997 in
film|1997's Mrs. Brown opposite Judi Dench.

In 1985 he sung the theme song to Supergran, which
was released as a single.

In recent years Connolly has appeared in various
Billy Connolly's World Tour of... series, in which
he combines touring with travelogues, giving his
views about the history and culture of the places
he visits between excerpts from stage shows
performed in those regions. He also visited the
frozen north in A Scot in the Arctic.

A notable feature of these shows is that he strips
nudity|naked in one scene in each of them, usually
in some remote wilderness area where no one is
likely to complain, although for Comic Relief he
once danced naked around Piccadilly Circus.

Billy's second wife Pamela Stephenson, has written
a biography Billy which outlines his career and
life including the sexual abuse by his father that
lasted from his tenth to his fourteenth year. Much
of the book is about Billy Connolly the celebrity
but the account of his early years provides a
context for his humour and point of view. A
follow-up, Bravemouth, was published in 2003.

Connolly himself is credited as writing several
books, including Billy Connolly (late 1970s) and
Gullible's Travels (early 1980s), both based upon
his stage act, as well as books based upon some of
his "World Tour" television series.

In October 2004, the comedian was criticised for
making jokes about the hostage Kenneth Bigley and
his wife.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/3717
462.stm  Shortly after Connolly joked about the
future beheading of the hostage, Bigley was
beheaded in Iraq.

However, despite the bad press, in January 2005 
he came 8th in The Comedian's Comedian, a poll
voted for by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

==Awards==
Billy Connolly was awarded an honorary doctorate
of letters by the University of Glasgow on July 11
2002. This particularly bemused his wife, who
noted that she had studied for six years to obtain
her Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D., whereas Billy
merely had to turn up and collect his. 2003 saw
him presented with a BAFTA Lifetime Achievement
award and a CBE
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=966&id=655
142003 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

==Further reading==
* Billy, Pamela Stephenson, Harper Collins, 2001.
ISBN 0-000-711045-6
* Bravemouth, Pamela Stephenson, Headline, 2003.

==Filmography==
*Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events,
2004
*The Last Samurai, 2003
*Timeline (film)|Timeline, 2003
*An Everlasting Piece, 2001
*The Man Who Sued God, 2001
*The Boondock Saints, 1999
*Still Crazy,  1998
*Beverly Hills Ninja,  1997
*Mrs. Brown,  1997
*Muppet Treasure Island,  1996
*Down Amongst the Big Boys,  1995
*Pocahontas (1995 movie)|Pocahontas,  1995
*Indecent Proposal,  1993
*The Big Man,  1991
*Crossing the Line,  1991
* The Return of the Musketeers,  1989
* Water (1985 film)|Water,  1985
* Blue Money,  1984
* Bullshot (film)|Bullshot,  1983
* The Secret Policeman's Ball|The Secret
Policeman's Other Ball,  1982
* Billy Connolly Bites Yer Bum! 1981
*Absolution (film)|Absolution,  1981
*The Elephant's Graveyard,  1976
*Big Banana Feet, 1976
*Just Another Saturday,  1975

==Television==
*Head of the Class, 1990 Season
*The Kenny Everett Television Show (guest star)
*Not The Nine O'Clock News (guest appearance)
*Michael Parkinson|Parkinson (repeated appearances
as chat show guest)
*An Audience with Billy Connolly
*Deacon Brodie (film)|Deacon Brodie (drama) (1997)
*Gentlemen's Relish (comedy-drama)
*A Scot in the Arctic
*Billy Connolly's World Tour of Scotland  
*Billy Connolly's World Tour of Australia 
*Billy Connolly's World Tour of England, Ireland
and Wales  
*Billy Connolly's World Tour of New Zealand