THE BIG YIN...I started off with him after getting the Cruxifiction for a birthday pressie...and it hasnt stopped since.....ENJOY my Homage de Connolly
William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE (born 24 November 19 and 42) . He is known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname 'The Big Yin' . His first trade, in the early 1960s, was as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, but he gave it up towards the end of the decade to pursue a career as a folk singer in the Humblebums and subsequently as a soloist. In the early 1970s, he made the transition from folk-singer with a comedic persona to full-fledged comedian.
Billy has also conquered the sphere of acting, and has appeared in such films as Water (1985); Indecent Proposal (1993); Muppet Treasure Island (1996); Mrs. Brown (1997), for which he was nominated for a BAFTA; The Boondock Saints (1999); The Man Who Sued God (2001); The Last Samurai (2003); Timeline (2003); Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004); Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006); Open Season (2006); The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008); and Open Season 2 (2008). Connolly reprised his role as Noah "Il Duce" MacManus in The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. Connolly appears as the King of Lilliput in the 2010 remake of Gulliver's Travels. Connolly provides the voice for King Fergus in Pixar's Brave (2012).
Origin of "The Big Yin"
Connolly's The Big Yin nickname was first used during his adolescent years to differentiate between himself and his father. He was "Big Billy" and I was "Wee Billy". And then I got bigger than him, and the whole thing got out of control. And then I became The Big Yin in Scotland. So, we'd go into the pub and someone would say, 'Billy Connolly was in.' 'Oh? Big Billy or Wee Billy?', 'The Big Yin.' 'Oh, Wee Billy.' If you were a stranger, you'd think, 'What are these people talking about?'"
Connolly's breakthrough was used to secure him a booking on Britain's premier TV talk show, the BBC's Parkinson. Connolly made the most of the opportunity and told a bawdy joke about a man who had murdered his wife and buried her bottom-up so he'd have somewhere to park his bike. This ribald humour was unusually forthright on a primetime Saturday night on British television in the mid-1970s, and his appearance made a great impact. He became a good friend of the host, Michael Parkinson, and now holds the record for appearances on the programme, having been a guest on fifteen occasions.
Referring to that debut appearance, he later said: "That programme changed my entire life." Parkinson, in the documentary Billy Connolly: Erect for 30 Years, stated that people still remember Connolly telling the punchline to the 'bike joke' three decades after that TV appearance. When asked about the material, Connolly stated, "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, 'Oh, fuck that!!' I don't know where I got the courage in those days, but Michael did put confidence in me."
Connolly's UK success spread to other English-speaking countries: Australia, New Zealand and Canada. However, his broad Scottish accent and British cultural references made success in the US improbable....Connolly continued to grow in popularity in the UK. In 1975 he signed with Polydor Records. Connolly continued to release live albums and he also recorded several comedic songs that enjoyed commercial success as novelty singles including parodies of Tammy Wynette's song "D.I.V.O.R.C.E." (which he performed on Top of the Pops in December 1975) and the Village People's "In the Navy" (titled "In the Brownies").
In 1985, he divorced Iris Pressagh, his wife of sixteen years (they had separated four years earlier after living together in Drymen). He was awarded custody of their two children. That same year, he performed An Audience with..., which was videotaped at the South Bank Television Centre in front of a celebrity audience for ITV. The uncut, uncensored version was subsequently released on video. In July 1985 he performed at the Wembley leg of Live Aid, immediately preceding Elton John.
On 20 December 1989, in Fiji, Connolly married Pamela Stephenson, he had met “Pamsy” when making a cameo appearance on the BBC sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News, in which she was one of four regular performers. He had been living with her since 1981. "Marriage to Pam didn't change me; it saved me," he later said. "I was going to die. I was on a downwards spiral and enjoying every second of it. Not only was I dying, but I was looking forward to it."
Although Connolly had performed in North America as early as the 1970s, and had appeared in several movies that played in American theatres, he nonetheless remained relatively unknown until 1990 when he was featured in the HBO special Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Connolly in Performance, produced by New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music. Goldberg introduced Connolly, and his performance has been cited as the moment that officially launched his career in the States. Soon after, Connolly succeeded Howard Hesseman as the star of the sitcom Head of the Class for the 1990–1991 season, but the series was cancelled during his tenure.
In November 1998, Connolly was the subject of a two-hour retrospective entitled Billy Connolly: Erect for 30 Years, which included tributes from Judi Dench, Sean Connery, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, and Eddie Izzard. The special was released on DVD in North America in 2004.
Also in 2001, Pamela Stephenson's first biography of her husband, Billy, was published. It outlines his career and life, including the sexual abuse by his father that lasted from his tenth to his fourteenth years. Much of the book is about 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.
Also in 2005, Connolly and Stephenson announced, after fourteen years of living in Hollywood, they were returning to live in the former'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 Candacraig House in Aberdeenshire.
Connolly is a fan of Glasgow-based Celtic F.C. and has a seat for life at their Celtic Park stadium.
In September 2013 an announcement was made that Billy had undergone minor surgery for early stage prostate cancer also included in the announcement was that he is being treated for the initial symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.
Connolly, admitted earlier this year that he had started to forget his lines during performances. He said at the time: "This is ******* terrifying. I feel like I'm going out of my mind." He plans to keep working, he will start filming a TV series in the near future, as well as undertaking an extensive theatrical tour of New Zealand in the new year
1972 – Billy Connolly Live
1974 – Cop Yer Whack for This
1974 – Solo Concert
1975 – Get Right Intae Him!
1975 – Words and Music
1975 – The Big Yin
1976 – Atlantic Bridge
1977 – Billy Connolly
1977 – Raw Meat for the Balcony!
1978 – Anthology
1979 – Riotous Assembly
1981 – The Pick of Billy Connolly (compilation)
1983 – A Change is Good as Arrest
1983 – In Concert
1984 – Big Yin Double Helping (compilation)
1985 – An Audience With Billy Connolly
1985 – Wreck on Tour
1987 – Billy & Albert
1991 – Live at the Odeon Hammersmith London
1995 – Musical Tour of Scotland
1995 – Billy Connolly – Live Down Under 1995
1996 – World Tour of Australia
1997 – Two Night Stand
1999 – Comedy and Songs (compilation)
1999 – One Night Stand Down Under
2002 – Live in Dublin 2002
2002 – The Big Yin – Billy Connolly in Concert (compilation)
2003 – Transatlantic Years (compilation of material recorded between 1969 and 1974)
2005 – Billy Connolly's Musical Tour of New Zealand
2007 – Live in Concert
2010 – The Man Live in London, recorded January 2010
2011 – Billy Connolly’s Route 66
DVDS CONCERTS
Billy Connolly Bites Yer Bum and Hand Picked by Billy 2003
An Audience with Billy Connolly 2005
Billy Connolly: Billy and Albert Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1987
Billy Connolly Live at the Odeon Hammersmith and Live 1994
Billy Connolly One Night Stand Down Under and The Best of the Rest
Billy Connolly Two Night Stand 2004
Billy Connolly: Erect for 30 Years 2004
Live 2002
Live in New York 2005
Was It Something I Said 2007
Live in London 2010
You Asked For It
Billy Quotes
I'm now a Doctor of Letters. Most of them F's and B's.
Life for me is great. I'm a very f***in' wealthy person, I'm married to a very beautiful woman and I get laid with monotonous regularity.
I think my securities far outweigh my insecurities. I am not nearly as afraid of myself and my imagination as I used to be.
In Scotland, there is no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes.
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares?... He's a mile away and you've got his shoes!
There are two seasons in Scotland - Winter and July.
There comes a point when you don't give a shit what anybody thinks. It doesn't happen all at once, but it's lovely when it does. Criticism used to worry me before, but I can suddenly write it off. It's too late. I don't have the time to spend thinking about it anymore. I need that time to live with.
Jazz makes me want to vomit!
I f**king hate sand.
http://www.billyconnolly.com/
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