Richard Pryor: 1940-2005

Richard Pryor, one of the most groundbreaking comedians of the late 20th century, died Saturday morning of a heart attack at his home in the San Fernando Valley; he was 65. Pryor had been suffering from multiple sclerosis for years, and according to his wife Jennifer Pryor, passed away very quickly with little suffering. Born in Peoria, Illinios, Pryor reportedly grew up in a brothel run by his grandmother, and was performing at as young an age as 7, when he played drums for a nightclub. After graduating high school and serving two years in the army, Pryor began his comedy career in the 60s, working in nightclubs and earning a reputation for himself. Soon talk show and variety show appearances led to small parts in movies throughout the late 60s and early 70s, with a noteworthy supporting role opposite Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues (1972). He also wrote for a number of television shows, including Sanford and Son, and worked on the script for Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. Pryor skyrocketed to fame, however, on the strength, appeal, and hilarity of his stand-up performances, which challenged the establishment at a time when censorship laws still held sway, and his explicit, profane routines, centering on racial and sexual topics and everything in between, won him both controversy and fame. He also became a highly popular (and highly paid) actor in the 70s, with hit films such as Silver Streak to his credit and a controversial TV show on NBC. His biggest film success, though, was with a concert film of his stand-up routines, and Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979) remains one of his best and one of the most influential comedy films of all time.

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Just as his fame reached its zenith in 1980 (the year the hit film Stir Crazy was released), Pryor almost lost his life in a notorious drug-related accident, as he suffered burns on over 50% of his body while freebasing cocaine at home. The incident began Pryor's long road to recovery, and he talked and joked freely about it in his next concert film, Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip. Free to make whatever films he liked, Pryor signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures in 1983, which took him from cult hero to mainstream star, though the movies, including Superman III, The Toy and Brewster's Millions, diluted his considerable talent. He had more critical, if not commercial, success with two autobiographical-influenced films, Some Kind of Hero and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, a thinly fictionalized biopic. By the late 80s, though, Pryor's films were becoming bigger and bigger failures, and he all but retired from performing in the 90s, after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; in 1990 he suffered a massive heart attack and underwent triple bypass surgery. He made a brief appearance in the film Lost Highway, and did a guest stint on Chicago Hope, which earned him an Emmy nomination, but rarely worked; in 1998, he received the first Mark Twain Prize for humor from the JFK Center for the Performing Arts. He married six times, and had two sons and three daughters, including actress Rain Pryor. Pryor is survived by his wife Jennifer, who was his fourth wife and whom he remarried in 2001. --Prepared by IMDb staff