[Description]
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[Bio]
Richard Pryor is one of the greatest comedians of all time. He was a man who changed the face and history of comedy while also changing the way a nation looked at race and inequality. And he did it all with just a microphone and a stage.
What made Richard Pryor so amazing was his ability to extract a painful truth that everyone experienced and package it in a hilarious (and sometimes serious) little bit.
Richard Pryor grew up being raised by his grandmother who ran a brothel. Which explains a lot about Richard Pryor. He dealt with his difficult childhood by going to the movies and using comedy as a weapon.
After getting expelled from school he took any job he could get and quickly found his way into comedy.
His career got started in bit parts of Lady Sings the Blues, but he made a name for himself and earned a few Emmy nominations while doing work for the Lily Tomlin show and specials. He went on to write for Sanford and Son which starred Redd Foxx.
His career continued to grow when he helped create and write Blazing Saddles with Mel Brooks. Richard continued acting but his stand up comedy career began to take off. Richard's comedy at the time was considered very risque (it would actually be pretty risque even by today's standards as well) but that didn't stop him from earning a Grammy. He had some of the best quotes in the history of comedy.
As he continued to act, his comedy career kept growing but off screen Richard Pryor was falling apart and becoming more and more dependent on drugs. Especially cocaine and crack. It all came to a head when he famously set himself on fire and ran down the street for blocks while he was on fire. He probably should have died from this incident, but he lived and turned it into a comedy bit for his triumphant comeback "Live at the Sunset Strip."
But throughout everything Richard Pryor had done, one of my favorite bits was when he roasted the same people who had just spent an hour making fun of him at his roast.
Richard Pryor died December 10th, 2005 of a heart attack.
[/Bio]
Richard Pryor
Stats
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Birth Name
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor
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D.O.B
December 1, 1940
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Died
December 10, 2005
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Age
65
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Hometown
Peoria, Illinois, U.S.
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Nationality
American
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Alma mater
(Visited 262 times, 2 visits today) -
Years Active
1963–1997
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Medium
Stand-up, film, television
(Visited 262 times, 2 visits today) -
Genres
Satire, Observational comedy, Black comedy, Improvisational comedy, Character comedy
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Subject(s)
Racism, Race relations, American politics, African-American culture, Human sexuality, religion, Self-deprecation, Everyday life, Recreational drug use
(Visited 262 times, 2 visits today) -
Influences
Lenny Bruce, Jack Benny, Jonathan Winters, Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Redd Foxx
(Visited 262 times, 2 visits today) -
Website
Richard Pryor is one of the greatest comedians of all time. He was a man who changed the face and history of comedy while also changing the way a nation looked at race and inequality. And he did it all with just a microphone and a stage.
What made Richard Pryor so amazing was his ability to extract a painful truth that everyone experienced and package it in a hilarious (and sometimes serious) little bit.
Richard Pryor grew up being raised by his grandmother who ran a brothel. Which explains a lot about Richard Pryor. He dealt with his difficult childhood by going to the movies and using comedy as a weapon.
After getting expelled from school he took any job he could get and quickly found his way into comedy.
His career got started in bit parts of Lady Sings the Blues, but he made a name for himself and earned a few Emmy nominations while doing work for the Lily Tomlin show and specials. He went on to write for Sanford and Son which starred Redd Foxx.
His career continued to grow when he helped create and write Blazing Saddles with Mel Brooks. Richard continued acting but his stand up comedy career began to take off. Richard's comedy at the time was considered very risque (it would actually be pretty risque even by today's standards as well) but that didn't stop him from earning a Grammy. He had some of the best quotes in the history of comedy.
As he continued to act, his comedy career kept growing but off screen Richard Pryor was falling apart and becoming more and more dependent on drugs. Especially cocaine and crack. It all came to a head when he famously set himself on fire and ran down the street for blocks while he was on fire. He probably should have died from this incident, but he lived and turned it into a comedy bit for his triumphant comeback "Live at the Sunset Strip."
But throughout everything Richard Pryor had done, one of my favorite bits was when he roasted the same people who had just spent an hour making fun of him at his roast.
Richard Pryor died December 10th, 2005 of a heart attack.
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