Billy Connolly
William " Billy" Connolly CBE (* November 24, 1942 in Anderston, Glasgow ) is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is also in his homeland by the nickname "The Big Yin " ("The Great") known.
Childhood and youth
Billy Connolly was born as a descendant of Irish immigrants in Glasgow and grew up in various suburbs of the city workers. Early on, he had ambitions to become comedians. At 15, however, he left school and was, as then, many of the children of workers, welders on the Glasgow shipyards. During this time he began to be interested in folk music and to learn different instruments. In the 1960s, he finally gave up the welder profession to devote himself to music.
Career
Folk Music
Together with Tam Harvey Billy Connolly formed a band called The Humblebums, in the Gerry Rafferty was also a member later. Connolly sang, played banjo and guitar and entertained the audience between songs with jokes and anecdotes. When the band broke up, he became a solo artist and comedian. With appearances on the television show Parkinson Billy was also known outside Scotland.
His early albums were a mixture of comedy and comic and serious musical interludes. In 1975, he was with the comedy title DIVORCE score a number -one hit in England. Gradually, the comedy part increased and the music part, so that the program as well as contains no musical numbers since the 80's. Nevertheless, he still takes on music and singing, for example, in the film Lemony Snicket - Mysterious events.
Stand-up Comedy
Best known Billy Connolly is a stand- up comedian. His trademark is next to his appearance and his broad Glaswegian dialect his powers of observation and the free use of curses, as well as his unconventional, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, choice of topics (from Fäkalthemen about disease, the working class and blasphemy ). One of his most famous projects, " The Crucifixion " ( The Crucifixion ), compares the Last Supper with a boozy night in Glasgow and was boycotted by many radio stations at that time.
Actor
In the 70s, Billy Connolly began his third career as an actor, which he as a star of the sitcom Head of the Class 1990 was the first successful, followed by another show called Billy.
Since then, he has been successful not only as a comedian but also as a character actor in several films. Was best received by critics his role in the film Her Majesty Mrs. Brown, in which he starred with Dame Judi Dench. For his role, he was nominated for the BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
He also played the coveted role of the murderer in the Columbo episode " Murder by cycling" ( original title: " Murder with too many notes" ), which was first broadcast in 2001.
On 8 February 2012, the New Zealand film director Peter Jackson announced that Billy Connolly will be seen as a dwarf leader Dain II iron foot in the film adaptation of Tolkien 's novel The Hobbit.
Others
In recent years, Billy Connolly filmed a series of travel reports under the name of Billy Connolly 's World Tour of ..., combine the reputable reports on history, culture and local people of the country with cutouts on each topic from his stage performances.
1998, a two -hour tribute called Erect for 30 Years was dedicated to him, containing the comments of Sean Connery, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and others. Two biographies of Billy Connolly were written by his second wife, Pamela Stephenson.
Main voice actors from Connolly, Thomas Dannenberg.
In September 2013 it was announced that Connolly suffers from prostate cancer and Parkinson 's disease. He announced to continue to work and perform. A few weeks later he underwent successful surgery, and the doctors declared him cancer free.
Awards
Billy Connolly was awarded in 2001 from the University of Glasgow with an honorary doctorate. In 2003 he received a BAFTA for his life's work and the title of Commander of the British Empire ( CBE). In 2010 he was honored by the city of Glasgow with the award Freedom of the City.