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Pryor, Richard

in full Richard Franklin Lenox Thomas Pryor


Richard Pryor.
AP/Wide World

(born December 1, 1940, Peoria, Illinois, U.S.) American comedian and actor who was one of the leading comics of the 1970s and '80s. His comedy routines drew on a variety of downtrodden urban characters, rendered with brutal emotional honesty.

Pryor, an African American, began working in clubs in the early 1960s, developing his brand of controversial, race-based humour. He appeared in motion pictures such as Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and Silver Streak (1976), as well as his own concert films, including Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982). In 1985 he starred in the autobiographical Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. His stand-up performances also were documented in comedy albums, for which he won five Grammy Awards. As a comedy writer, he won an Emmy for the Lily Tomlin television special Lily (1973) and a Writers Guild Award as cowriter for the screenplay Blazing Saddles (1974). He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1986.

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