Actors - Richard Pryor

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	Actors - Richard Pryor

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American comedian, actor, and writer.

Pryor was a gifted storyteller known for unflinching examinations of race and custom in modern life, and was well-known for his frequent use of colorful language, vulgarities, as well as such racial epithets as "nigger," "honky," and "cracker". He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations, although public opinion of his act was often divided.

Pryor was at his best when he took the tragic events that happened during his life and made them a part of his onstage routine. Some of these have been preserved in such concert movies and recordings as Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' (1971), That Nigger's Crazy (1974), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Wanted – Live In Concert (1979) and Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982). He also starred in numerous films as an actor, usually in comedies, but occasionally in the noteworthy dramatic role, such as Paul Schrader's film Blue Collar
. He won an Emmy Award in 1973, and five Grammy Awards in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982. In 1974 he also won two American Academy of Humor Awards and the Writers Guild of America Award.

Early life and career

Born on December 1, 1940 in Peoria, Illinois, Pryor grew up in his grandmother's brothel, where his mother Gertude practiced prostitution. His father LeRoy Pryor (a.k.a. Buck Carter) was a bartender, boxer, and World War II veteran.

From 1958 to 1960, Pryor served in the U.S. Army but spent virtually that entire stint in an army prison. According to a 1999 profile about Pryor in the New Yorker, Pryor was incarcerated for an incident that occurred while stationed in Germany. Annoyed that a white soldier was a bit too amused at the racially charged sections of Douglas Sirk's movie Imitation of Life
, Pryor and some other black soldiers beat the white soldier and also stabbed him (not fatally).

His mother died in 1967; his father the following year.

His first professional performance came at the age of seven, when he played drums at a night club. From his late 20s to 30s, Pryor was a middlebrow comic with a style in the Bill Cosby tradition, far less controversial than what was to come. The first five tracks on the 2005 compilation CD Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966-1974), recorded in 1966 and 1967, capture Pryor in this era.

In September 1967, Pryor had what he called in his autobiography Pryor Convictions an "epiphany" when he walked onto the stage at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas (with Dean Martin in the audience), looked at the sold-out crowd, said over the microphone "What the fuck am I doing here!?", and walked off the stage. Afterward, Pryor began working at least mild profanity into his act, including the word "nigger". His first comedy recording, the eponymous 1968 debut release on the Dove/Reprise label, captures this particular period, not long after that breakdown.

Mainstream success

In 1969 Pryor moved to Berkeley, California, where he immersed himself in the counterculture and rubbed elbows with the likes of Huey P. Newton and Ishmael Reed. He signed with the comedy-centric independent record label Laff Records in 1970 and recorded his second album, Craps (After Hours). In 1972, the relatively unknown comedian appeared in his first film, a documentary entitled Wattstax, where he riffed on the tragic-comic absurdities of race relations in Watts and the nation. Not long afterward, Pryor sought a deal with a larger label, and after a protracted period of time, signed with Stax Records. His third, breakthrough album, That Nigger's Crazy, was released in 1974 and, Laff, who claimed ownership of Pryor's recording rights, almost succeeded in getting an injunction to prevent the album from being sold. Negotiations led to Pryor being released from his Laff contract in exchange for the small label being allowed to release previously unissued material, recorded between 1968 and 1973, at their leisure.

During the legal battle, Stax briefly closed its doors. Pryor then re-signed with Reprise/Warner Bros., who immediately rereleased That Nigger's Crazy on the heels of his first album under his new Reprise/Warner Bros. deal, ...Is It Something I Said?. With every successful album Pryor recorded for Warner Bros. (or later, his concert films and his 1980 free-basing accident), Laff would quickly publish a hastily-compiled, badly-packaged album of old material to capitalize on Pryor's growing fame - a practice the label would continue until 1983.

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Actors - Richard Pryor

Early life and career

Mainstream success

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