The American comedian Richard Pryor, who changed the entertainment industry in the 1970s and 1980s, loved to joke on highly social topics. Despite the fact that the beginning of his life can not be called fun at all, he managed to achieve incredible heights thanks to his talent and had a huge impact on future generations of comedians.
Important Highlights of Pryor’s Early Life
The first performances of the future star could hardly be remembered by the audience as something special. According to the recollections of Nina Simone, with whom he began his career as an opening act, Pryor appeared on stage in a modest suit and was extremely nervous before going out. Perhaps this initial self-doubt was formed in the comedian due to a difficult childhood.
All his conscious age, he was raised by a grandmother who ran a brothel and did not really try to be kind to Pryor and other abandoned children with whom he was brought up. The boys’ mother actually worked in this very brothel, and his father, after a short career as a boxer, began to engage in street hustling. It is not surprising that little Richard had to leave school at the age of 14 and start earning money in any kind of work.
He joined the US military in 1958 and has been in the service for two years. It was there that he discovered his talent to cheer up and amuse people, and upon his return, he started to seriously consider becoming a pop comedian.
The Star Is Born
However, over time, the young artist’s stage fright vanished. One time, he once again took the stage and allowed himself to do something that he had not planned at all and that the audience was not expecting from him – he asked a rhetorical question, “What am I doing here?” and left. By the way, Pryor did not skimp on the profanity in his speeches and, over time, acquired his own unique style of performances, mixing humor and philosophy. Soon, he began appearing on television entertainment shows and also tried his hand at directing films like Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, wrote scripts for films and TV series Blazing Saddles, The Richard Pryor Special, The Richard Pryor Show, Flip, and did voice acting.
But already in the late 60s, the comedian decides to take a break from his career due to the constant attempts of censorship to restrict his work. After several years of lull, the artist appears on screens in the early 1970s, trying himself not only as a comedian but also as an actor. Undoubtedly, Pryor also had an excellent acting talent, which he skillfully demonstrated in box-office films like Lady Sings the Blues and Silver Stripe. He won five Grammy awards for his stand-up performances, and as a comedy writer, Pryor won an Emmy for the TV show Lily and a Writers Guild Award for co-writing Blazing Saddles.
Despite his sharp jokes that often draw attention to racial discrimination, Pryor’s performances were attended by an equal number of both white and black folks. Despite his love for various antics, he quickly became everyone’s favorite. However, his personal life was much more complicated than stage one. Pryor was married seven times, while he married his ex-wives twice. In 1978, Pryor faced the law after shooting his ex-wife’s car. He was put on probation, fined, and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment and pay damages.
He also struggled constantly with drug problems, and in 1980, he suffered serious burns while trying to drink rum and inhale lit cocaine at the same time. As a result, he received a burn of fifty percent of his body. After recovering from this incident, Pryor returned to acting and received two more Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Recording – one for ‘Rev. Du Rite’ in 1981 and one for ‘Live on the Sunset Strip’ in 1982. And in 1986, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In the 1990s, Pryor was confined to a wheelchair but continued to perform and play. He also used this time to write his autobiography “Pryor Convictions: And Other Life Sentences” (co-written with Todd Gold) and published it in 1995.
In 2005, Pryor suffered another heart attack from which he died. This talented and unique person and actor has left behind not only a mark as an artist but also founded a charitable organization for the protection of animals, “Pryor’s Planet”. People who knew him personally claimed that, as his stage character, Pryor was an optimist and never discouraged. And he was undoubtedly the greatest artist of the spoken genre, for which Comedy Central awarded him first place in the 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.
