The special strength of Mr Showbiz Tributes pour in to Jimmy Logan, the old-time entertainer who tackled everything fate could throw at him

Fulton, himself a comic legend, said: ''He was one of the greatest, the most resilient man I have ever known. He had taken some of the biggest blows that life has ever thrown at him and he always bounced back. Sadly the cancer was the one he couldn't beat.

''He was on the phone just the other day to ask how I was. That is the kind of man that he was.''

Johnny Beattie, the entertainer, said: ''It's a very sad loss. Jimmy was a bit special, he was Mr Showbiz.''

Stanley Baxter, the comedian, said Logan would be greatly missed. ''We were contemporaries and worked together on BBC's It's All Yours programme. We became instant friends and remained great friends ever since.''

Baxter, who coined the catchphrase ''sausages is the boys'' with Logan, added: ''He was a generous man, not only in life but professionally too. He will be greatly missed.''

Henry McLeish, the first minister, said: ''Logan was a legend in Scottish theatre, not just in music hall where he was a giant of his day, but he was a very fine straight actor too.''

Logan came from a family of entertainers. His parents, Jack Short and May Dalziel, were a successful singing and comedy duo and his aunt, Ella Logan, was a Broadway singer and actress.

In a showbusiness career that was to span 65 years, Logan began by selling programmes for his parents' music hall shows during his school holidays.

At the age of 21, he appeared in the film Floodtide, a gritty Clydeside drama, with Gordon Jackson and Rona Anderson. He starred in two Carry On films, appeared at the London Palladium, and produced his own shows, including his one-man musical based on the life of Sir Harry Lauder, his music hall hero, which toured South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Logan was also a major influence on a new generation of comedians - Billy Connolly decided to be an entertainer after seeing Logan in a Glasgow pantomime.

At his peak, he owned a West End mansion, spent his weekends in the sumptuous wing of an Ayrshire castle, and had a chauffeur to drive his Rolls-Royce, but flew his own plane and piloted his own boat.

He was also famous for the Five Past Eight variety shows, which started at the Alhambra in Glasgow, and went on to buy his own theatre in the city, the Metropole at St George's Cross.

However, it lost money and was closed. Logan nevertheless continued his successful career.

His real affection had always been for the women in his life, particularly his sisters, Heather and jazz singer Annie Ross, and through four marriages. His first marriage to dancer Grace Pagan was dissolved, after 21 years, in February 1969. Later that year, he married Gina Fratini, a world-famous fashion designer. The union lasted eight years.

It was the third of his marriages that catapulted him into the headlines again, and left him devastated, when, at its end, DNA testing proved the twins he believed were his first children, Robert and Annabel - born when he was 58 - had been fathered by another man.

The twins, who are now 15, live in Inverness with their mother, Pamela Donald, whom Logan married in 1985, and natural father. Logan married Angela, a divorced mother of six who is now 55, in 1993.

He devised and starred in one of the major attractions at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, a recreation of a 1950s variety show, and became an unlikely hit at the Fringe a few years later with a one-man performance.

Logan told his own story in his memoirs, It's a Funny Life. The book, which became a bestseller when it was published in 1998, is full of excited stories of taxi rides with Liza Minnelli, dinners with Tony Bennett, meetings with American presidents, and audiences with British royalty.

He was a tireless charity worker for the Showbiz Benevolent Fund and president of both the Scottish Music Hall Society and the Sir Harry Lauder Appreciation Society. His work was recognised when he was invested with an OBE at Buckingham Palace in 1996 in the company of his wife and his sisters.

Last month, Scotland's showbiz stars led a stage spectacular at Glasgow's Pavilion theatre in his honour, raising #30,000 for the Evening Times Maggie's Centre appeal.

Iain Gordon, manager of the Pavilion, said Logan was ''one of the great legends of Scottish theatre. We feel both privileged and glad we were able to help his last few months to be memorable''.

Actress Dorothy Paul, who toured with Logan in 1982, said: ''Another of that great generation of Scots talent is lost to us all. He was not only a great comedian but a fine actor.''

Comedian and broadcaster Andy Cameron said: ''He was a tremendous entertainer and I learned a lot from him. He had a magnificent career and a great life but it is always too soon to go.''

Actor Tony Roper said: ''Jimmy was probably the bravest performer I've ever known.''

Mr McLeish added: ''Logan was loved by generations of Scots and by people with Scottish connections all over the world. He did a tremendous amount of work for charity, particularly for ex-service personnel being looked after at Erskine Hospital in Renfrewshire. He also did a great deal of work recently for cancer charities.

''He was a man of great courage and great talent and he will be sadly missed.''

SNP leader John Swinney said Logan was a great Scot and a world-class entertainer: ''He carried himself with dignity during his brave battle against illness, and will be sorely missed by his many fans.''