Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer.
Pryor reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time. He won an Emmy Award for Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety, or Music in 1973 for his work on The Lily Tomlin show.
He also won five Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Recording in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982.
He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians and in 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
In 1963, Pryor moved to New York City and began performing in clubs. On one of his first nights, he opened for singer and pianist Nina Simone (#Bi2) at New York's Village Gate. Simone wrote about his early appearances in her autobiography
He shook like he had malaria, he was so nervous. I couldn't bear to watch him shiver, so I put my arms around him there in the dark and rocked him like a baby until he calmed down. The next night was the same, and the next, and I rocked him each time.[1]
Inspired by Bill Cosby, Pryor began as a middlebrow comic, with material far less controversial than what was to come. Soon, he began appearing regularly on television variety shows, such as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffin Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His popularity led to success as a comic in Las Vegas.
In his autobiography, he writes that he had an epiphany while performing in Vegas. He started incorporating profanity into his act and talking about more controversial issues.
Among other topics, Pryor took on the topic of police brutality in a way that still feels relevant today. Be warned the following does make frequent use of the n-word and other profanity.
He worked in Hollywood, cowriting Blazing Saddles, appearing in many movies and TV shows, and briefly hosting his own variety show. Pryor was unwilling to alter his material or persona for the show for network censors and his controversial acts soon got the show canceled.
In his 2014 biography, Becoming Richard Pryor, Scott Saul talks about Pryor's relationships, the good and the bad. He was married seven times to five different women, but it seems that he was rarely faithful. His partners would not be sure if they would come home to find him in bed with another person, or what the gender of that person would be. Later, Quincy Jones said that Pryor had had an affair with Marlon Brando.[2] Pryor's widow confirmed both the affair and Pryor's bisexuality.[3]