My sense of humor was shaped by this man.
You will always be da man, Richard.
Peace.

Awwww noooo!!!!!

"Which Way Is Up?" is da bomb!

Richard Pryor, Iconoclastic Comedian, Dies at 65
By MEL WATKINS
Richard Pryor, the iconoclastic standup comedian who brought the biting, irreverent humor of the black ghetto into mainstream America's living rooms, movie houses, clubs and concert halls, died Saturday. He was 65.

Mr. Pryor, who had been ill with multiple sclerosis, suffered a heart attack and died at a hospital near Los Angeles, his wife, Jennifer Lee Pryor, told CNN.

Mr. Pryor's health had been in decline for many years. Episodes of self-destructive, chaotic and violent behavior, often triggered by drug use, repeatedly threatened his career and jeopardized his life. "I couldn't escape the darkness," he acknowledged, but he was able to put his demons at the service of his art.

Mr. Pryor's brilliant comic imagination and creative use of the blunt cadences of street language were revelations to most Americans. He did not simply tell stories, he brought them to vivid life, revealing the entire range of black America's humor, from its folksy rural origins to its raunchier urban expressions.

At the height of his career, in the late 1970's, Mr. Pryor prowled the stage like a restless cat, dispensing what critics regarded as the most poignant and penetrating comedic view of black-American life ever afforded the American public. He was volatile yet vulnerable, crass but still sensitive, streetwise and cocky but somehow still diffident and anxious. And he could unleash an astonishing array of dramatic and comic skills to win acceptance and approval for a kind of stark humor that before him had mostly been hidden in the most unassimilated parts of the black community.

"Pryor started it all," the director and comedian Keenen Ivory Wayans said. "He made the blueprint for the progressive thinking of black comedians, unlocking that irreverent style."

For Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor was simply "better than anyone who ever picked up a microphone." The playwright Neil Simon called him "the most brilliant comic in America."

An Innovative Approach

Mr. Pryor's body language conveyed the ambivalence - at once belligerent and defensive - of the black male's provisional stance in society. His monologues evoked the passions and foibles of all segments of black society, from working-class, church-going types to prostitutes, pimps and hustlers.

He unleashed a galaxy of street characters who traditionally had been embarrassments to most middle-class blacks and mere stereotypes to most whites. And he presented them so truthfully and hilariously that he was able to transcend racial parameters and capture a huge audience of admirers that comprised virtually every ethnic, economic and cultural group in America.

Mr. Pryor's crossover appeal derived largely from his innovative approach to comedy - what Rolling Stone magazine called "a new type of realistic theater." It was essentially comedy without jokes - re-enactments of common human exchanges that not only mirrored the pretensions of the characters portrayed but also subtly revealed the minor triumphs that allowed them to endure and even prevail over the bleak realities of everyday living.

"Comedy," he said, "is when you are driving along and see a couple of dudes and one is in trouble with the others and he's trying to talk his way out of it. You say, 'Oh boy,' they got him, and you laugh. I cannot tell jokes . . . My comedy is not comedy as society has defined it."

In his autobiography, "Pryor Convictions," written in 1995 with Todd Gold, he allows Mudbone, the down-home raconteur who was perhaps Mr. Pryor's most unforgettable character and in many ways his alter ego, to comment, "the truth is gonna be funny, but it's gonna scare . . . folks."

In fact, Mr. Pryor's often harsh observations and explicit language did frighten and offend some audiences. But he insistently presented characters with little or no distortion. "A lie is profanity," he explained. "A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth, especially about oneself."

A Childhood of Characters

Richard Pryor, the only child of Leroy Pryor and Gertrude Thomas Pryor, was born in Peoria, Ill., on Dec. 1, 1940, and raised in a household where, as he wrote, "I lived among an assortment of relatives, neighbors, whores and winos - the people who inspired a lifetime of comedic material." His parents and grandmother ran a string of bars and bordellos that catered to a constant influx of transients who moved in and out of town, which was such an important stop on the black and white vaudeville circuits that it inspired the expression, "Will it play in Peoria?"

A frail child, he learned how to use his quick wit and belligerent humor to gain respect from street gangs and bigger, more aggressive peers. But the antic behavior that served him well in the streets did not translate to the classroom, and he was expelled from school in the eighth grade despite his obvious talent and intelligence. During the remainder of his teens, he worked as a truck driver, laborer and factory worker, then joined the Army, where he served in Germany until he was discharged after stabbing another serviceman during a fight.

He returned to Peoria, married, became the father of a son, Richard Jr., and, inspired by the television appearances of Redd Foxx and Dick Gregory, began performing in local nightclubs. In 1962, a variety act offered him a job as a master of ceremonies; leaving his wife and child behind, he began touring, appearing at small black nightclubs in East St. Louis, Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Youngstown.

In 1963, after honing his craft on the "chitlin" circuit," Mr. Pryor decided to take a crack at New York City. He felt ready to compete with the "big cats" and to try to emulate the success of Bill Cosby, the comedian he most admired. Soon, he was appearing regularly at such Greenwich Village clubs as Cafe Wha?, The Living Room, Papa Hud's and the Bitter End.

Mr. Pryor made his national television debut on Rudy Vallee's "On Broadway Tonight" in 1964. He had, in his own words, "entered the mainstream," presenting the kind of "white bread," nonoffensive humor that freely copied the styles of other comedians, particularly Mr. Cosby. He worked the Catskills resort hotels and opened for singer Billy Eckstine at the Apollo theater in Harlem. Big-time television appearances followed on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." Two years after his arrival in New York, he had a national reputation.

Despite his growing popularity, Mr. Pryor was frustrated. "I made a lot of money being Bill Cosby," he recalled, "But I was hiding my personality. I just wanted to be in show business so bad I didn't care how. It started bothering me - I was being a robot comic, repeating the same lines, getting the same laughs for the same jokes. The repetition was killing me."

In 1967, Mr. Pryor stormed off the stage of the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, shouting, "What am I doing here? I'm not going to do this anymore!"

In his autobiography, he recalled: "There was a world of junkies and winos, pool hustlers and prostitutes, women and family screaming inside my head, trying to be heard. The longer I kept them bottled up, the harder they tried to escape. The pressure built till I went nuts."

Despite resistance from club owners, booking agents and advisers, he began listening to those voices, developing new material during the next few years served straight from the black experience, even embracing the street vernacular use of the word "nigger."

His first comedy record album, "Richard Pryor" (1967) revealed his new direction with such routines as: "I always wanted to go to the movies and see a black hero. I figured maybe on television they'll have it - Look, up in the sky! It's a crow. It's a bat. No, it's Super Nigger. Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound; faster than a bowl of chitlins."

Becoming Himself

By 1970, he had gone underground to reassess his life and his comic approach. When he returned to show business in Los Angeles, his comedy had changed radically. After seeing his revised act, Mr. Cosby said: "Richard Pryor took on a whole new persona, his own. Richard killed the Bill Cosby in his act, made people hate it. Then he worked on them, doing pure Pryor, and it was the most astonishing metamorphosis I have ever seen. He was magnificent."

Some of his new material appeared on his second album, "Craps (After Hours)" (1971), which was originally recorded at the Redd Foxx Club in Hollywood. The nonracial material that had catapulted him to fame was gone, replaced by hard-edged satire and profane black voices and observations. He boldly engaged sensitive racial topics, mocking police harassment of blacks and exploring differences between white and black sexual attitudes.

Although "Craps" is considered one of Mr. Pryor's best comedy albums, initial sales were dismal. Even the black audience for whom it was intended largely ignored it.

Mr. Pryor persisted, however, developing his act and building a new following by returning to the small black clubs that he had abandoned with his initial success. He also appeared at better-known and challenging venues like the Apollo in Harlem and more cutting-edge comedy clubs downtown like The Improv.

The routines developed on those dates provided material for his next album, "That Nigger's Crazy" (1974), which surprised record- industry executives with its appeal to young whites as well as blacks. Despite its X-rating because of its explicit language and sexual content, the record sold more than half-a-million copies and went gold and won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album of the year. It was followed by another X-rated album, " . . . Is It Something I Said" (1975), which also went gold and won another Grammy.

Appearances on television boosted Mr. Pryor's career. He was a popular host on "Saturday Night Live" in 1975 and two years later, he agreed to do a series of television specials for NBC. Mr. Pryor's impact was not limited to comedy performance on records and the stage. He wrote for Red Foxx's popular television series "Sanford and Son" and for "The Flip Wilson Show"; he also collaborated with Lily Tomlin on her television specials, receiving an Emmy award for best comedy writing for "Lily" in 1974.

After returning from a trip to Africa in 1979, Mr. Pryor told audiences he would never use the word "nigger" again as a performer. While abroad, he said, he saw black people running governments and businesses. And in a moment of epiphany, he said he realized that he did not see anyone he could call by that name.


He appeared in 40 films during a career that began with "Busy Bodies" in 1969 and concluded with a role opposite his frequent co-star Gene Wilder in "Another You" in 1992.

His first starring role, in 1976, was as a race car driver in "Greased Lightning," and he costarred with Gene Wilder in "Silver Streak." Although he would dismiss "Silver Streak" as a "stupid film," audiences loved his performance and he became one of Hollywood's hottest box-office draws.

Comedy Sets a Standard

Mr. Pryor probably reached the pinnacle of his career in 1979 with his first concert film, "Richard Pryor, Live in Concert," a movie, filmed during an appearance at Long Beach, Calif., that more than a quarter of a century later remains the standard by which other movies of live comedy performances are judged.

The film, which was to inspire others to make their own comic performance movies, caught Mr. Pryor at peak form. He reflected often about his own tumultuous life, with monologues about a domestic quarrel in which he shot his wife's car, the death of his pet monkeys and a near-fatal heart attack, which ended with: "I woke up in the ambulance, right? And there was nothin' but white people starin' at me. I say . . . I done died and wound up in the wrong heaven. Now I gotta listen to Lawrence Welk the rest of my days."

But if he used his misadventures to earn fame and fortune, Mr. Pryor also frequently undercut his career and his life by his self-destructive behavior. In 1974, for example, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail, fined and put on probation after pleading guilty to a charge of willful failure to file an income tax return.

In 1978, a court fined him $500, placed him on probation again and ordered him to seek psychiatric care and make restitution after a New Year's Day incident in which he rammed his Mercedes into a car containing friends of his wife and then shot at it with a pistol.

In 1980, after a marathon drug binge, he set himself afire in a suicide attempt.

Mr. Pryor was critically burned in an explosion that the police said was caused by the ignition of ether being used in conjunction with cocaine. Fire Department paramedics found him walking in a daze more than a mile from his home outside Los Angeles with third-degree burns over the upper half of his body. He was hospitalized for almost two months while undergoing a series of skin transplants.

Recovering, Mr. Pryor remained a top-box office attraction during most of the 1980's. He appeared in numerous movies and released two more films of live comedy performances, but he continued to be bedeviled by drug and health problems.

In 1986, he was found to be suffering from multiple sclerosis, a disease that strikes at the central nervous system, and as the years passed he experienced its cruelest symptoms: vertigo, tremors, muscle weakness and chronic fatigue.

His performances in "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" (1989) and "Another You" (1992) with Gene Wilder revealed a frail, hesitant actor who struggled to deliver his lines. In 1998, Mr. Pryor received the Kennedy Center's award for humor, the Mark Twain Prize.

Mr. Pryor is survived by six children: Richard Jr., Rain, Elizabeth, Steven, Kelsey and Franklin. He was married and divorced six times.

NO!!!!!

I hate these kind of days, when you look @ the news & you gasp

He was a true legend

i remember him in "see no evil hear no evil" with Gene Wilder.

that was my movie.

that, and "the toy" with another comedy legend,Jackie Gleason.


he definitely made his mark

anybody remember jojo dancer,your life is calling?

saw that one too.

What the Hell...I'm just finding this out now....he's a legend one of my favorite actors. He will be missed.

He was as much a bard and a poet as he was a comedian. He could have had a successful enough career doing television and movies, emulating Bill Cosby. But he had the balls to tell Americans about each other, and make them laugh until they cry in the process.

Tonight, I'll put one of your LPs on the turntable, turn the volume down real low, and giggle like my parents were in the other room, just for you Richard.

You crazy ni. . . soul.

(in jail)"I made ni----s laugh all day long - keep their mind off the booty!"

"You go down to the jailhouse looking for justice, that's what you'll find, JUST US!"(black folks)

"White folks got themselves some new ni----s - the Vietnamese!"

"They got the Vietnamese in Army camps and sh!t, taking tests and stuff, learning how to say ni---r..so they can become good citizens!"

"Be careful if you get some Vietnamese p---y, jack - they got a VD scare the sh!t out of penicillin!"

"Someone told me you put cocaine on your d---, you could f--- all night - shouldn't have told me that! My d--- had a jones...600 dollars a day just to get my d--- hard!"


I could go on and on....

Words can't express how said I am. I grew up listening to Pryor, Redd Foxx, Rudy Ray Moore and 'Wildman' Steve Gallon. But Richard was THE KING OF COMEDY!

RIP, muthafucka

I raise my to one of the funniest motherfuckers who ever lived!

this passing 2nite is truly the end of an era. 'cause richard is the reason we tell it like it its 2day.... :spills the wine:
[Edited 12/10/05 20:10pm]

A lot of famous people have been passing lately.

This is so sad. He was one of if not the best comedian ever. My prayers go out to his family.

uPtoWnNY said:

"it got so good to me that the gun told me "go head shoot som'n else".but when she called the cops on me that's when i went in the house 'cause police got magnums too. and they dont kill cars...they kill nig-gars.

The news hit me like a ton of bricks today. Richard Pryor was one of my heros and arguably the greatest comedian to ever grace the stage because of his universal humor, brutal honesty, and wit. His insight on race and the absurdities of life were top notch and his accesibility was awe inspiring. He has yet to be replaced and never will. I will sorely miss Rich, but I will take solace in the fact that he's finally released from his physical prison. Recommended viewing Richard Pryor Live in Concert and Which Way Is Up? Both films illustrate the foundation he laid that EVERYONE has tried to copy. RIP, Richard, you've earned it.

CreamyThighs said:

Double Co-sign! Very eloquent indeed!

I was at the Tom Joyner Mistletoe Jam, when they announced the news. Patti LaBelle was heart broken, Aretha sang scat for him, everyone in the entire Joe Louis Arena seemed to feel saddened by the news...except for me.

I wasn't sad then and I'm not sad now, because I know that Richard is no longer suffering, and it makes me feel good to know that he's finally free.

Richard Pryor without a doubt was the funniest motherfucker I've ever heard. They say that laughter is good for the soul. Thanks to Richard my soul is doing incredibly well and will continue to do so for many years to come.

He actually gave me one last laugh a few minutes ago...I went his offical website to see if I could post my condolences and on the first page is an advertisment for a video tribute to Richard that was done some time recently with picture of Richard and a cartoon talk balloon that states..."I Aint Dead Yet, Motherfucker!"

Even in death, Richard Pryor gets a laugh out of me!


RIP Mr. Pryor, you funny motherfucker!

when they reminisce over you...4 real

R.I.P. Richard Pryor

wow, i thought he was already dead!!!!!

RIP to such a funny funny man- many old memoriez of watching this guy in 80s comedies as a kid during long summer breakz!! Broke my heart to hear he's gone.

namepeace said:

no schtick, no gimmicks, just baring himself, showing the humor in, and bringing the humor out, of ugly truth, pain, and brute reality of life and who we are...

RIP Jo Jo Dancer.

.
[Edited 12/11/05 14:39pm]

Check out these Richard Pryor films..

Lady Sings the Blues
The Mack
Uptown Saturday Night(cameo)
Blue Collar
Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
Which Way is Up