Richard Pryor died

LOS ANGELES - Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, died Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. of a heart attack 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.

“He did not suffer, he went quickly and at the end there was a smile on his face,” his wife, Jennifer Pryor, said. “I’m honored now that I have an opportunity to protect and continue his legacy because he’s a very, very, very amazing man and he opened doors to so many people.”

I’d like to note that the sentence at the bottom of this post contains two offensive words that I use only to commemmorate some of what Pryor is best known for. If you are at work or otherwise uncomfortable with such words appearing on your screen, simply click Back or scroll quickly past it.

This is one nigger motherfucker who will be sorely missed. :frowning:

Shit.

Like Lenny Bruce, many of his imitators just utter a stream of profanities and think they’re cutting-edge, but Pryor was a keen observer of the human condition and his racial humor was prescient and brilliant, none of this “Ever notice that black people drive like THIS, and white people drive like THIS?” shit. His observations about the world (he travelled to Africa and got some great material from it) had the underlying compassion and perspective that makes humor truly great.

My favorite routine of his (paraphrased, it’s been years) showed his versatility. He remembered working for some bookie Mafia guys when he was a teen and one day decided to try and rob them instead:

<profanity, duh>

“So, I come in doing my best scary crazy nigger: “Hands up, motherfuckers!” and Tony starts to laugh, (here Pryor imitated a middle-aged Italian guy perfectly”, “Aw, shit, kid, that’s great! Hey, Vito, come in here and look at this motherfuckin’ kid!” Richard: “Uh…hands up?” (Gangsters laugh and Vito says:) “Damn, that’s funny, c’mere kid!” <hugs and pats on head for Richard>

Life seemed to be a burden to him these last few years, so I’m not too sad, but he’ll be missed.

Great loss, he was one funny dude. I first saw him at the Hungry I in San Francisco way back in the late 60s, I think, when he was still unknown, but he had me rolling in the aisles. He was not as blue then, and still young, but the tales of his growing up were hilarious and at the same time sad.

This thread belongs in Cafe Society, but since there’s already Pryor thread over there, I’ll close this one and link to the other thread.

Linky.