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As tragic as Richard Pryor's life story may appear at a glance, his struggles and misfortune helped create and fuel the comedy in his act. Not until Pryor played himself on stage did his rise to the top truly begin. Without the pain and heartbreak he experienced, he may not have gotten there.
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In the world of stand-up comedy, Richard Pryor wasn't just hilarious, honest, and witty
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He was a trailblazer who set the world ablaze with laughter. What are you doing
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Drawing inspiration from the tragedy and misfortune in his own life, he forged a path to comedy success during a time of great change for the nation
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Today on Weird History, we're taking a closer look at the remarkable life of the late, great Richard Pryor
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Okay, let's hear more about the man who said, A lie is profanity. A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth
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Early in his stand-up career, Richard Pryor made it pretty clear to the world that he was openly
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bisexual. He was never ashamed of his sexuality and was pretty open about that aspect of his life
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He even wrote about it in his autobiography, saying, I never kept my lover a secret. My best
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friend, for instance, knew I was sleeping with a dude and a drop-dead gorgeous one at that
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I even admitted doing something different was exciting. One such relationship was with Don
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Corleone himself, Marlon Brando. During a New York Magazine interview with Quincy Jones
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the legendary producer talked about the affair. And while Pryor's daughter and Brando's son both
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denied it ever happened, Pryor's wife confirmed it to be true. Jennifer Lee Pryor told TMZ in 2018
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it was the 70s. Drugs were still good, especially quaaludes. If you did enough
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you'd make love to a radiator and send it flowers in the morning. And though it seems like a wild
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time in his life, it was far from the first and certainly wasn't the last
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Richard Pryor's life took a turn for the worse when his entire body caught on fire
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Pryor was home with some friends at the time. When he caught fire, he jumped out the window
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and ran down the street as his clothes melted and his skin blistered. He refused any help
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whatsoever until several policemen managed to get him into an ambulance. For a brief period
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following the event, no one believed he survived. Several publications went so far as to write
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obituaries for him at the time. But thankfully, Pryor lived. Suffering third-degree burns
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he spent hours at a time in a hyperbaric chamber and was practically bathed in antiseptics a few
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times a day. Much of the skin on his torso had burned away. According to a Hollywood press
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release dated June 15, 1980, Pryor was given one chance in three to survive the savage burns
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The cause of the ghastly accident is submerged in mystery. Rarely has a tragedy befallen a major
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star that has created as much speculation, outpouring of sympathy, and baffling controversy
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As he recovered in the hospital, things were a touch and go for a while. The doctors did not
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think he would pull through, but he did. Pryor refused to take medication for the pain and push
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through his recovery. His friends even joked Pryor would add material about the incident to his act
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which of course he did. 1982's Burning Up aptly describes, one thing I learned was that you can run really fast when you're on fire
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What's that Richard Pryor running down the street? For several years, many people believed the fire to be an accident. But in 1986
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Pryor told Barbara Walters something entirely different. Yeah, I wanted to tell the truth, say, look, it was no accidents
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I got crazy one night and went mad. Pryor told Walters he intentionally doused himself with rum
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then lit himself on fire in an attempt to end his own life
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But it wasn't the first or the last tragic event in his life. Well before the fire incident Richard Pryor had a heart attack in 1978 always ready to use his life experiences as a part of his act he later joked about it on stage
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If you hear, cancel Christmas. Throughout his career, he survived several minor heart attacks
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But another tragedy was lurking in the shadows. In 1986, Pryor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
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While living with the disease slowed him down, he continued to perform stand-up whenever he could
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Throughout the last two films he worked on with Gene Wilder, he appeared visibly frail
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His performance suffered, and he couldn't deliver his lines. When 1992 rolled around, he began to make appearances at Los Angeles' comedy store
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Because of his MS, he couldn't stand on stage, so he used an easy chair for his performance
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eventually switching to a wheelchair to help him move around. He planned to do another tour, but realized he was running himself ragged, so he canceled it in the end
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Sadly, he had one final heart attack in 2005, leaving a strong comedic legacy behind
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Richard Pryor's onstage performances were nothing short of amazing, but sometimes he didn't always enjoy them himself
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As a big fan of Bill Cosby, Pryor modeled his early act on the comedian's career
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He began doing short comedy bits between musical acts at the bar where he worked
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As he found success, he toured a series of New York comedy clubs
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leaving his wife and child behind in Illinois. His later appearances on Merv Griffin and The Ed Sullivan Show
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led to further performing opportunities. But his act in those early days wasn't anything his fans would recognize
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and it eventually got to the point where he was fed up with it himself. It all came to a head one night at the Aladdin
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Pryor was so sick of his act, he dropped his mic mid-show and walked off stage
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It was a literal mic drop. Some accounts say he urinated in front of the crowd
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Other stories say he asked the crowd, what am I doing here, before rolling off the stage
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Whatever the case, Pryor retired from comedy for a while. Instead, he spent his days in California
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listening to jazz and reading Malcolm X. When he returned to the stage, he
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ditched the Cosby stuff and embraced his own persona. And that wasn't the only time his act would see great changes
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Fans of Richard Pryor know he used colorful language and regularly cursed throughout his shows
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But it wasn't long before a 1979 trip to Africa ended up changing Pryor's perception
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of language, especially the N-word. After the trip, he decided to stop using it in his act entirely
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When asked about it, he simply said, something inside me said, look around you, Richard
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what do you see? I saw people, African people. I saw people from other countries too, and they
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were all kinds of colors. He became so associated with using foul language, however, that NBC
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originally wouldn't let him host Saturday Night Live. The network was worried about a few swear
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words making it out into the world. Lorne Michaels was having none of that attitude
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He had to have Richard Pryor on the show. Lorne Michaels resigned from NBC in protest
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saying, I can't do a contemporary comedy show without Richard Pryor. NBC begged him to come back
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Michaels convinced NBC to put the broadcast on delay. Pryor brought in a writer, Paul Mooney, to help write sketches
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Together, they came up with the now famous and always hilarious Word Association sketch
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Jungle Bunny. Back of work. Speaking of NBC. See? Although they were concerned about the content and language of Pryor act it didn stop them from giving him several television specials He even had his own show in 1977
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The Richard Pryor Show only lasted four episodes, playing at 8 p.m. on only a few nights
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The show only widened the rift between Pryor and the network. After changing the time slot and restricting the content
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Pryor walked off the show. NBC convinced him to return, but he only agreed to do four episodes
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They would agree to make up the difference with a few more specials over the years
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but Pryor was unimpressed. Heavy censorship and changes made him angry. He later talked about the
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show, saying, they retained about 6,000 people to do nothing but mess with my material. The
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Richard Pryor show was promptly canceled, and Pryor walked away, never to work with NBC again
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In September of 1977, Pryor headlined the Star-Spangled Night for Rights
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It was intended to be an event in support of gay rights, but Pryor grew frustrated by what he saw
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Few black audience members were in attendance. Worse, he saw firsthand the unequal treatment black performers were receiving
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He aired his frustrations when he took the stage. I came here for human rights, he said, and I found out what it was really about was about not getting caught with another man
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Afterward, he told the crowd about his own positive gay experience. Then he went a little harder on the audience
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He began blasting women's rights and accusing the audience of abandoning the black community
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A controversy followed, lasting several weeks. One onlooker even wrote to the Los Angeles Times saying
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it takes a certain talent, genius if you will, to insult 17,000 people, black, white, male
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female, straight, gay, rich, and poor, at one time. But that wasn't even close to the most
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outlandish thing he did. Before Cleavon Little took on the role of Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles
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Pryor was supposed to take the lead role. But due to his unpredictable behavior
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he was refused the role. Pryor instead worked as a writer on the film, on most days anyway
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Gene Wilder once recalled Pryor missing a writing work day. His reasons
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Pryor found himself in Cleveland, somehow, not knowing how he got there
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The two reunited for a 1976 film, Silver Streak, and again for 1980's Stir Crazy
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By that time, Pryor's addictions and use spiraled out of control. He didn't always make it to the movie set on time
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Some days, he didn't show up at all. This frustrated director Sidney Poitier
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But Stir Crazy still went on to be a great success. During the shoot, Pryor didn't want to stay in the same hotel
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as the other cast and crew. He got his own room, ostensibly so he could freebase by himself
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He got his stash from a local motorcycle gang. And then he decided to share it with some of the inmates
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of the prison they were filming in. Pryor tried to promote the film in an interview
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He was under the influence at the time, frequently going off on tangents
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Worse, he told the audience the film was terrible. You want to talk about this movie
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Yeah, sure. What do you want to know about this movie? It sucks
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Then he asked the interviewer if he could get fresh with him. The influence really did a number on Pryor
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Unfortunately, Pryor's Achilles heel ended up playing a significant role in his life
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and would often lead to erratic behavior. He once used a fork to stab his landlord
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Another time, he faced accusations of assaulting a hotel clerk. In 1978, he spent some time at court facing a different assault charge
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Apparently, he asked a few house guests to leave his home. When they did, he got in his Mercedes and followed them
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He then proceeded to ram their car before whittling it with bullets His experience with the fire helped him kick the habit a little but he later relapsed Throughout his life Richard Pryor married at least seven
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times. He had a tumultuous love life that often resulted in divorce or separation. He had a son
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with his first wife, Patricia Price, shortly after the divorce. Later, he married Shelley Bonas
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Their daughter, Rain, would later recount an anecdote that occurred shortly after his fire
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incident. At the hospital, the doctor comes out and says, Mrs. Pryor, and eight women stood up
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That was our reality. His dating life was pretty busy, too. He dated Pam Greer on the set of Greased
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Lightning and later married model Deborah McGuire. Their marriage only lasted a scant four months
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before they divorced. His fourth wife, Jennifer Lee, worked as an interior designer and actress
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Pryor hired her to redo his home, and they fell in love. Unfortunately, Pryor's addiction drove them to split
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but they found love again decades later when they remarried. She would stay with him until his death in 2005
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Pryor also dated actress and later Superman III co-star Margot Kidder before marrying Flynn Blaine in 1986
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Pryor's biographer, Scott Saul, wrote about these marriages in the book Becoming Richard Pryor
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In terms of his relationship with women, I think that the closer they came to him
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were with him, the more ugliness they often experienced, Scott told ABC
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Just as he had lived in fear when he was growing up, he learned from his childhood that love was
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tangled up in violence, and he could never quite separate those in terms of his relationships with
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women. It probably goes without saying that Richard Pryor had a rough childhood. He grew
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up in Illinois, mostly in one of his grandmother's three massage parlors. These were essentially
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brothels run by his grandmother. He was often confused when he heard the cries of women in the
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parlors. His mother, Gertrude, rarely saw her son and worked in one of these parlors. His father
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Buck, worked as a sort of hired muscle for the family business. Buck won a boxing tournament
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early in his life and was skilled in fist fighting. He was cold and uncaring toward his son
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sometimes abusing his wife in front of a young Pryor. This had a significant impact in his later life
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and he used the events of his early years as inspiration for his act
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His grandmother often hid razors in her bra. She'd often have Pryor cut out branches
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which she'd then strike him with as a form of punishment. And things got much worse when he went to school
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At the age of six, a neighbor abused him, as did a priest. Things did not go any better when he went to school. At the age of nine
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the young Pryor was expelled after staff learned about his family's work. Afterward, they sent him
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to a different Catholic school. While there, he faced another expulsion after punching a science
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teacher in the face. Richard was only 15 at the time. Having never attained more than an eighth
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grade education, Pryor took low-paying jobs in factories. He also drove trucks and stole on
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occasion just to get by. He often escaped his sad reality by attending movies and working a series
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of odd jobs before finally hitting it big as a comedian. Richard Pryor lived a hard life but
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forged a legendary path. Singer, writer, comedian, film star, cultural icon. Richard Pryor was all
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these and more, and his legend will go on forever. Even two decades after his passing
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we can still look back at his astute observations, recordings, and films
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and thank him for all the laughter. I say, God, thank you for not burning my d***