In October that year, he was knighted at Buckingham Palace by Prince William, for services to entertainment and charity.Ĭonnolly announced his retirement from comedy in 2018, and in recent years he has established himself as an artist. These were later turned into part of Glasgow's official mural trail. On his 75th birthday in 2017, three portraits of Connolly were made by leading artists Jack Vettriano, John Byrne, and Rachel Maclean. In 1975 he topped the UK Singles Chart with ' D.I.V.O.R.C.E.' Īs an actor, Connolly has appeared in various films, including Indecent Proposal (1993), Pocahontas (1995), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Mrs Brown (1997) (for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role), The Boondock Saints (1999), The Last Samurai (2003), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), Brave (2012), and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014).

In 1972, Connolly's first solo album, Billy Connolly Live!, was produced, with a mixture of comedic songs and short monologues. He also played the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 1972, he made his theatrical debut, at the Cottage Theatre in Cumbernauld, with a revue called Connolly's Glasgow Flourish. In the early 1970s, Connolly made the transition from folk singer with a comedic persona to fully-fledged comedian, for which he is now best known. He first sang in the folk rock band The Humblebums with Gerry Rafferty and Tam Harvey, with whom he stayed until 1974, before beginning singing as a solo artist.

In 2022 he received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.Ĭonnolly's trade, in the early 1960s, was that of a welder (specifically a boilermaker) in the Glasgow shipyards, but he gave it up towards the end of the decade to pursue a career as a folk singer. 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.

He is sometimes known, especially in his homeland, by the Scots nickname the Big Yin ('the Big One'). Sir William Connolly CBE (born 24 November 1942) is a Scottish actor, retired comedian, artist, writer, musician, and presenter.

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