Born in Glasgow in 1942, Billy Connolly originally worked as a welder in the shipyards of his home city but in the late 1960s gave up his trade for a career as a folk singer.
He sang alongside Gerry Rafferty and Tam Harvey in The Humblebums before going solo in the 1970s and ultimately switching to comedy. His first theatrical performance was in 1972 at the Cottage Theatre in Cumbernauld, with a revue called Connolly's Glasgow Flourish that also played at that year’s Edinburgh Fringe. A solo album, featuring a mix of comedy songs and routines followed and within three years he was topping the UK singles chart with ‘D.I.V.O.R.C.E.’
Since then he has become one the UK’s most loved and critically-acclaimed comedians, actors, artists and television presenters – regularly topping lists of the greatest-ever standups. He retired from live comedy in 2018 but continues to work as an artist and recently appeared in ITV documentary ‘Billy Connolly: It's Been a Pleasure’, where he described how art had given him "a new lease of life".
Here are 17 memorable quotes from his many interviews over the years.
1. Billy Connolly on...intelligence
"My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger." Photo: Keystone
2. Billy Connolly on...marriage
"Marriage is a wonderful invention: then again, so is a bicycle repair kit." Photo: Anthony Harvey
3. Billy Connolly on...Glasgow
"The great thing about Glasgow is that if there's a nuclear attack it'll look exactly the same afterwards." Photo: WPA Pool
4. Billy Connolly on...trust
"Never trust a man, who when left alone with a tea cosy...doesn't try it on." Photo: AFP