RIP

Johnny Beattie funeral: TV star, 93, hailed as man who ‘gave laughter to the world’ as celebs gather for final farewell

COMIC legend Johnny Beattie was hailed as the man who ‘gave laughter to the world’ as stars of stage and screen said a final farewell to him yesterday at his funeral.

Fellow funnyman Andy Cameron, 79, told friends and family of the 93-year-old he did everything in showbusiness during his stellar 60 years in the spotlight.

Rangers-daft Andy said: “Fitba players get called a legend if they win a corner - Johnny Beattie was a real legend.

“He was a marine, he worked for the shipyards and did everything in show business - everything.

“I always think Scotland has given the world hundreds of things and Johnny Beattie gave the world laughter - the greatest sound in the world.”

Mourners gathered for the moving service in St Peter’s Church in the Glasgow’s Partick area after Johnny passed away peacefully at St Margaret’s Hospice in Clydebank on July 9.

Nurses and carers from the hospice formed a guard of honour outside the church as a lone piper played ‘Amazing Grace” and later at the crematorium, “Farewell to Govan”, Johnny’s patch.

The order of service included a gallery of pictures charting his career and included a snap of him receiving his MBE from Prince Charles in 2007.

A note of thanks from his four children read: “Maureen, Paul, Mark and Louise would like to thank you most sincerely for showing your love and affection for Dad by your presence here today.

“As the Govan Dinosaur himself would say - ‘Happy for Tabs!! xx”

As love-ones carried his coffin to the hearse there was a spontaneous round of applause from mourners who lined Hyndland Street to show their respects.

Co-stars from River City were there to say farewell to the veteran performer whose last role saw him play Shieldinch favourite Malcolm Henderson before his retirement in 2015.

His onscreen wife Eileen McCallum - who played Liz Buchanan in the BBC soap - told of her treasured memories starring with Johnny.

The 83-year-old actress said: “He was absolutely lovely and I’d known him for years and years. We were like a couple of old dinosaurs but it was lovely to have all these years.

“‘He was the one all the young people in the cast looked up to. He was so popular and so clever.”

Francis Gallagher, 58, famed for his role as River City gangster Leonard ‘Lenny’ Murdoch, added: “He was a legend. I worked with him for many years and he was never anything less than a true gent.”

Andy went on to recall a special celebration they had put on for Johnny to mark his 93rd birthday.

He said: “We had a wee lunch for him and the rest of us were aged between 75 and 80 and we all walked in with a wee bit of a stoop.

“Johnny walked in with a ramrod back - he always looked a really fit man and he was a lovely guy.

“There will be charities all over Scotland who benefited from Johnny’s input. You just had to phone him up and he’d say, ‘Aye. I’ll be there’. He was a great guy.”

Johnny got his break in 1951 after a stranger in Glasgow’s University Cafe asked him to join an amateur dramatic society show.

He went on to become a stand-up comic, panto dame and TV quiz show host on STV’s Now You See It in the 1980s.

He married wife Kitty in 1952 and they had four kids. Two, Maureen and Louise, followed him into acting. Kitty died of cancer in 1993.