Billy Connolly, Robin Williams shared a diagnosis and perhaps a goodbye

Billy Connolly and Robin Williams discussed their shared Parkinson’s disease diagnoses shortly before the latter comic’s suicide, and Connolly believes Williams was trying to say goodbye to him in a call days before his death.

“He was diagnosed after me and he was on the phone a lot asking me about it,” the Scottish comic-actor told the Daily Mirror on Monday at the London premiere of his new film “What We Did on Our Holiday,” which also stars “Gone Girl” actress Rosamund Pike.

“But phoning me for advice is an absolute waste of... time because I don’t have it.”

Connolly, 71, had gone public with his own early Parkinson’s diagnosis in September 2013, while revealing he had prostate cancer. His cancer was treated that October.

Williams was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson’s shortly before his Aug. 11 suicide, his widow revealed in the days following.

The Scot, who has a part in next year’s “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies,” did have one bit of advice for his friend of 30 years, it turns out: How to deal with the lack of facial expression that can be a symptom of the disease. Williams was excited that the trick was working, Connolly said.

“During the call he kept telling me he loved me. I said, ‘I know.’ But he kept repeating it, saying, ‘Do you really know I love you.’ I was thinking what ... is he on about?”

“After his death I thought, ‘Oh my God, he was saying goodbye.’”

Connolly, who was in Malta with his family when Williams died, said it hadn’t fully sunken in that his friend was gone. “I keep expecting him to walk in,” he said.

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