Tributes were today being paid to popular Black Country comedian William “Billy Jay” Williams after his death from a fifth heart attack.

The Aldridge great-grandfather, of Westgate, worked with a host of celebrities in a four decade career.

A big club favourite, his family today paid tribute to a man “who was always there for you” and who they said could “make you laugh and cry in the same sentence”.

Joe Williams, aged 67, one of Billy’s four siblings, said of a 40-year stand-up career: “He brought enjoyment to thousands. We had some great nights and he certainly made more people happy than he did sad.”

Billy, aged 73, who leaves wife Kathleen, also 73, children Robert, 51, Julie 48, Wendy, 46, and Joanna, 35, had to retire from his life on stage after four heart attacks, followed by a triple by-pass around 15 years ago.

Joanna said her father fulfilled a final wish before his death from another heart attack on Friday morning.

“He’d been saying for a while that the last thing he wanted to do was take his granddaughter, my daughter, Charlie, to the seaside,” she said. “Well he did that on the Thursday and when I spoke to him that night he said he’d had the best time, he was made up. He passed away the next morning.”

He signed a contract to appear regularly on Noel Edmonds’ Late, Late Breakfast show in 1986 but during his first show, self-employed hod-carrier Michael Lush died in a stunt and the show was immediately cancelled.