This article is about the stand-up comedian. For the broadcaster and humorist, see Cactus Pryor. For the album, see Richard Pryor (album).
Richard Pryor
Pryor in 1976
Birth name
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor
Born
(1940-12-01)December 1, 1940 Peoria, Illinois, U.S.
Died
December 10, 2005(2005-12-10) (aged 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Medium
Stand-up
film
television
Years active
1963–1999
Genres
Observational comedy
black comedy
improvisational comedy
character comedy
insult comedy
racial humor
satire
Subject(s)
African-American culture
American politics
human sexuality
racism
race relations
religion
self-deprecation
everyday life
recreational drug use
Spouse
Patricia Price
(m. 1960; div. 1961)
Shelley R. Bonus
(m. 1967; div. 1969)
Deborah McGuire
(m. 1977; div. 1978)
Jennifer Lee
(m. 1981; div. 1982)
(m. 2001)
Flynn Belaine
(m. 1986; div. 1987)
(m. 1990; div. 1991)
Children
7, including Rain
Relative(s)
Ludacris (second cousin once removed)
Website
richardpryor.com
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most important stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards.[1] He received the first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.[2] In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.[3]
Pryor's body of work includes numerous concert films and recordings. He won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for That Nigger's Crazy (1974), ...Is It Something I Said? (1975), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), and Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983). He is also known for Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' (1971), Wanted: Live in Concert (1978), and Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979). Pryor served as a co-writer for the Mel Brooks satirical western comedy film Blazing Saddles (1974).
As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies. He gained acclaim for his collaborations with Gene Wilder, including the films Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991). He also acted in films such as Uptown Saturday Night (1974), Blue Collar (1978), The Wiz (1978), California Suite (1978), Superman III (1983), Harlem Nights (1989), and Lost Highway (1997). He appeared as himself on Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live before hosting The Richard Pryor Show (1977), and Pryor's Place (1984).
^"Richard Pryor". Recording Academy Grammy Awards. November 23, 2020.
^"Why Chappelle is the man". Vox Magazine. September 30, 2004. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2016. Pryor was voted No. 1 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time in April.
^The 50 Best Stand-up Comics of All Time Archived December 11, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Rollingstone.com. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience...
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(1967), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and with RichardPryor in the films Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear...
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directed by Mel Brooks, who co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bergman, RichardPryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Uger, based on a story treatment by Bergman...
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