24th November 1942

Comedian Billy Connolly is born

Billy Connolly was born and raised in Glasgow. He worked in the city’s shipyards, before becoming a full-time folk singer and, in the 1970s, a comedian.

In 1972, Connolly released an album of monologues, which would later become his stock in trade when performing on stage. A follow-up album entered the charts two months later and signified his growing success. Several other albums cemented his position – as did guest appearances on television, which were seen in other English-speaking countries, enormously increasing his exposure and success. He married comedian and psychologist Pamela Stephenson in 1989.

By the early 1990s he was starting to appear in films, and over the next three decades he racked up credits in, among others, Muppet Treasure Island, Brave, Mrs Brown and The X Files: I Want to Believe.