November 24 - Billy Connolly

On this day, in 1942, Sir William Connolly was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His family lived in a two room flat until he was four. At that time, with his father off fighting in Burma with the Royal Air Force, his mother ran off with another man and Billy and his sister moved in with two of their aunts. When his father returned from war, Billy would suffer years of abuse at his hands. He can remember making the decision that he wanted to spend his life making people laugh after falling in a puddle at the age of 8 and hearing the sound he rarely heard at home. It's clearly an understatement to say that Billy's childhood was rubbish.

When Billy left school at the age of 15, he took two engineering qualifications with him (although one of them was given to him by mistake). When he turned 16, he began an apprenticeship with a welding shop as a boilermaker. His term ended when he was 21 and he would stay on at the shop for another year. By the time he was 24, Billy would have sparked his last weld in favor of a career in entertainment.

After watching an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies, Billy bought himself a banjo and decided to focus on being a folk singer. He joined forces with a man named Tam Harvey, creating a duo called the Humblebums. Eventually they were joined by a third bloke, released a record, lost the third bloke, released two more records and broke up. The records were critical, if not particularly financial, successes. Following the end of the Humblebums, Billy tried starting a solo career, but the comical introductions to his songs kept getting longer and longer. Finally, his record producer suggested that he forgo singing for a career in comedy.

In 1972, Billy made both his theatrical debut (in a revue titled Connolly's Glasgow Flourish) and his first solo album, Billy Connolly Live! The following year, his next album, Solo Concert, made him famous throughout Britain. Throughout the rest of the Seventies, Billy would continue to build on that fame and export his name to other countries, like New Zealand and Canada. A brief tour in the US as the opening act for Elton John, however, only proved that Americans for the most part can't understand a Scottish accent.

During the Eighties, Billy would continue his stand up, appear in multiple films, show up regularly on British television, promote all sorts of charitable causes and nearly drink himself to death. His first marriage ended after 16 years in the first part of the decade. In the middle of the decade, he became a teetotaler. By the end, his second marriage had begun (and continues to this day).

In the Nineties, Billy would finally gain fame in America. After starring in an HBO special with Whoopi Goldberg, he would replace Howard Hesseman as the teacher on the ABC sitcom Head of the Class for the final season. A couple of world tours and multiple part BBC specials would help round out the decade.

Billy became part of the Disney family in 1995 as the voice of Ben, a shipmate of John Smith, in Pocahontas. The following year, he narrated Muppet Treasure Island as Billy Bones. His third Disney role came sixteen years later when he headed up the Scot heavy cast of 2012's Brave as the singing patriarch King Fergus.

For the better part of the 21st century (the better part of what's happened so far), Billy has continued to make both comedic and dramatic appearances on television, the silver screen (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) and more stand-up tours. Along the way, he's won a BAFTA award, gotten a Screen Actor's Guild nomination, become a member of the Order of the British Empire, been declared the top comedian by BBC's Channel Four (twice) and been fully knighted. Six years ago, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Earlier this year, he announced his retirement from touring at an exhibition of his art in his new home in Florida. Whether or not we'll see any more spectacular performances from the funnyman will depend entirely on how his disease progresses. With any luck, Billy has more than a few left in him.