Pathbreaking Comedian Richard Pryor Dies
By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer

30 minutes ago

Comedian-actor Richard Pryor is shown as he performs in ...

LOS ANGELES - Richard Pryor, the groundbreaking comedian whose profanely
personal insights into race relations and modern life made him one of
Hollywood's biggest black stars, died of a heart attack Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. after being taken to a hospital from his home
in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been
ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous
system.

"We loved him and will miss you," his ex-wife, Flynn Pryor, said from her
Florida home.

Pryor lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off.

He was regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed comics in
the business, but he gained a wide following for his universal and frequently
personal routines. After nearly losing his life in 1980 when he caught on fire
while freebasing cocaine, he incorporated the ordeal into his later routines.

His audacious style influenced generations of stand-up artists, from Eddie
Murphy and Chris Rock to Robin Williams and David Letterman, among others.

A series of hit comedies and concert films in the '70s and '80s helped make
Pryor one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood, and he was one of the first
black performers to have enough leverage to cut his own deals. In 1983, he
signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures.

His films included "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "Which Way Is Up?" and
"Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip."

Throughout his career, Pryor focused on racial inequality, once joking as the
host of the Academy Awards in 1977 that Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were
the only black members of the Academy.

Pryor once marveled "that I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot
of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't
do much better than that."

But he battled drug and alcohol addictions for years, most notably when he
suffered severe burns over 50 percent of his body while freebasing at his home.
An admitted "junkie" at the time, Pryor spent six weeks recovering from the
burns and much longer from his addictions.

He battled multiple sclerosis throughout the '90s.

In his last movie, the 1991 bomb "Another You," Pryor's poor health was clearly
evident. Pryor made a comeback attempt the following year, returning to standup
comedy in clubs and on television while looking thin and frail, and with
noticeable speech and movement difficulties.

In 1995, he played an embittered multiple sclerosis patient in an episode of the
television series "Chicago Hope." The role earned him an Emmy nomination as best
guest actor in a drama series.

"To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what they were
talking about," he said. "And the doctor said `Don't worry, in three months
you'll know.'

"So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn't get up.
... Your muscles trick you; they did me."

While Pryor's material sounds modest when compared with some of today's
raunchier comedians, it was startling material when first introduced. He never
apologized for it.

Pryor was fired by one Las Vegas hotel for "obscenities" directed at the
audience. In 1970, tired of compromising his act, he quit in the middle of
another Vegas stage show with the words, "What the (blank) am I doing here?" The
audience was left staring at an empty stage.

He didn't tone things down after he became famous. In his 1977 NBC television
series "The Richard Pryor Show," he threatened to cancel his contract with the
network. NBC's censors objected to a skit in which Pryor appeared naked save for
a flesh-colored loincloth to suggest he was emasculated.

In his later years, Pryor mellowed considerably, and his film roles looked more
like easy paychecks than artistic endeavors. His robust work gave way to torpid
efforts like "Harlem Nights," "Brewster's Millions" and "Hear No Evil, See No
Evil."

"I didn't think `Brewster's Millions' was good to begin with," Pryor once said.
"I'm sorry, but they offered us the money. I was a pig, I got greedy."

"I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst," he
said in 1995. "In other words, I had a life."

Recognition came in 1998 from an unlikely source: The John F. Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts in Washington gave Pryor the first Mark Twain Prize for
humor. He said in a statement that he was proud that, "like Mark Twain, I have
been able to use humor to lessen people's hatred."

Born in 1940 in Peoria, Ill., Pryor grew up in his grandmother's brothel. His
first professional performance came at age 7, when he played drums at a night
club.

Following high school and two years of Army service, he launched his performing
career, honing his comedy in bars throughout the United States. By the mid-'60s,
he was appearing in Las Vegas clubs and on the television shows of Ed Sullivan,
Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson.

His first film role came with a small part in 1967's "The Busy Body." He made
his starring debut as Diana Ross' piano man in 1972's "Lady Sings the Blues."

Pryor also wrote scripts for the television series "Sanford and Son," "The Flip
Wilson Show" and two specials for Lily Tomlin. He collaborated with Mel Brooks
on the script for the movie "Blazing Saddles."

Later in his career, Pryor used his films as therapy. "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life
is Calling," was an autobiographical account of a popular comedian re-examining
his life while lying delirious in a hospital burn ward. Pryor directed,
co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the film.

"I'm glad I did `Jo Jo,'" Pryor once said. "It helped me get rid of a lot of
stuff."

Pryor also had legal problems over the years. In 1974, he was sentenced to three
years' probation for failing to file federal income tax returns. In 1978, he
allegedly fired shots and rammed his car into a vehicle occupied by two of his
wife's friends.

Even in poor health, his comedy was vital. At a 1992 performance, he asked the
room, "Is there a doctor in the audience?" All he got was nervous laughter. "No,
I'm serious. I want to know if there's a doctor here."

A hand finally went up.

"Doctor," Pryor said, "I need to know one thing. What the (blank) is MS?"

Pryor was married six times. His children include sons Richard and Steven, and
daughters Elizabeth, Rain and Renee.

Daughter Rain became an actress. In an interview in 2005, she told the
Philadelphia Inquirer that her father always "put his life right out there for
you to look at. I took that approach because I saw how well audiences respond to
it. I try to make you laugh at life."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


--
Your friend always;
Chris