Richard Pryor

Sunday, 07 October 2012

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Richard Pryor Live And Smokin' (1971) FULL LENGTH

Classic Sesame Street - Richard Pryor's alphabet

Richard Pryor - That N**ger's Crazy Part 3

Richard Pryor owns at his own roast! part 1/2

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Aladdin, Las Vegas
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Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington. The eastern city limits coincide with the county line (bordering Contra Costa County), which generally follows the ridge line of the Berkeley Hills. Berkeley is located in northern Alameda County.
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Encino, California
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Germany
Germany (), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (, ), is a country in Western Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The territory of Germany covers 357.021 km2 and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state of the European Union, and home to the third-largest number of international migrants worldwide.
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Kennedy Center
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Las Vegas Valley
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New York
New York (; locally or ) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the north and west, and Quebec to the north. New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a country and sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island nation, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border with another sovereign state, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Great Britain is linked to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel.
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United States
The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
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Village Gate
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Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, singer, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.
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Al Bell
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Al Jackson, Jr.
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Alan Alda
Alan Alda (born January 28, 1936) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. A five-time Emmy Award and six-time Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was viewed as the archetypal sympathetic male, though in recent years, he has appeared in roles that counter that image.
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Albert King
Albert King (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992) was an American blues guitarist and singer.
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Angie Stone
Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961) is an American R&B; and soul singer-songwriter, keyboardist, record producer, and occasional actress.
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Armen Keteyian
Armen Keteyian (born March 6, 1953) is an American television journalist and author. He is currently CBS News' Chief Investigative Correspondent based out of New York, reporting primarily for the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric," while also contributing to "60 Minutes."
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Artie Lange
Arthur Steven "Artie" Lange, Jr. (born October 11, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, radio personality and author. Lange is most notable for replacing Jackie Martling on The Howard Stern Show, and for being an original cast member of the sketch comedy series MADtv. Lange co-wrote a book with Anthony Bozza, titled Too Fat to Fish. It was released on November 11, 2008, and debuted at number one on the New York Times best-seller list on November 21, 2008.
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Barry Michael Harman
Barry Michael Harman (b. 14 March 1952; Brooklyn, New York) is an American Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, director and producer for television.
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Bernie Mac
Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (October 5, 1957August 9, 2008) better known by his stage name Bernie Mac, was an American actor and comedian. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L. Hughley as The Original Kings of Comedy.
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Big Star
Big Star is an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the work of British Invasion groups including The Beatles and The Kinks, as well as The Byrds, The Beach Boys, and other U.S. acts. To the resulting power pop, Big Star added dark, nihilistic themes, and produced a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Before it broke up, Big Star created a "seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations" in the words of Rolling Stone, earning recognition decades later, according to Allmusic, as the "quintessential American power pop band" and "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll".
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Bill Hicks
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Billy Crystal
William Edward "Billy" Crystal (born March 14, 1948) is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes When Harry Met Sally... and City Slickers. Additionally, he has hosted the Academy Awards eight times.
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Bob Dylan
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Bob Newhart
George Robert Newhart (born September 5, 1929), known professionally as, Bob Newhart, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart is best known for playing psychologist Dr. Robert "Bob" Hartley on the 1970s sitcom The Bob Newhart Show and as innkeeper Dick Loudon on the 1980s sitcom Newhart.
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Bob Schiller
Bob Schiller (b. 8 November 1918; San Francisco, California) is an American Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer for television.
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Bob Weiskopf
Bob Weiskopf (13 March 1914; Chicago, Illinois – 20 February 2001; Los Angeles, California) was an American screenwriter and producer for television. He has credits for I Love Lucy which he and his writing partner Bob Schiller joined in the fifth season. They also wrote for The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Maude, All in the Family, ''Archie Bunker's Place, The Red Skelton Show, the short-lived Pete and Gladys, and Sanford (the spin-off of Sanford and Son'').
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Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones (born November 12, 1944) is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known for fronting the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with some of the highest regarded artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
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Cactus Pryor
Richard "Cactus" Pryor (born January 7, 1923) is considered a legend in Texas broadcasting. A native Austinite, Pryor has been a fixture in Texas broadcasting and entertainment since 1944. He received his nickname after the old Cactus Theater on Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, which was run by his father, Skinny Pryor.
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Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner (born March 20, 1922) is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career. He has the distinction of being the only person to appear on all five incarnations of The Tonight Show. He is well known for his work in the remake of ''Ocean's Eleven, and its two sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen''.
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Carla Thomas
Carla Thomas (born December 21, 1942, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of the late Rufus Thomas.
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Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedienne, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she debuted on television. After successful appearances on The Garry Moore Show, Carol moved to Los Angeles and began an eleven-year run on The Carol Burnett Show which was aired on CBS television from 1967 to 1978. With roots in vaudeville, The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show combining comedy sketches, song, and dance. The comedy sketches ranged from film parodies to character pieces which featured the many talents of Burnett herself who created and played several well-known and distinctive characters.
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Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston (October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor of film, theatre and television.
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Chevy Chase
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Cleavon Little
Cleavon Jake Little (June 1, 1939 – October 22, 1992) was an American film and theatre actor, known for his lead role as Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles and as the irreverent Dr. Jerry Noland in the early 1970s sitcom Temperatures Rising. In 1978 he played "The Prince of Darkness" in the radio station comedy FM. He was also in the 1984 action film Toy Soldiers and acted out the role of Super Soul in the film Vanishing Point in 1971.
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Colin Quinn
Colin Quinn (born June 6, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian and writer best known for his five years in the cast of Saturday Night Live, as the sidekick/announcer of MTV's wildly popular late-1980s gameshow Remote Control and as host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central from 2002-2004.
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Dave Chappelle
David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle (; born August 24, 1973) is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer and actor. Chappelle began his film career in the film in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His first lead role in a film was in Half Baked in 1998. In 2003, he became widely known for his popular sketch comedy television series, ''Chappelle's Show'', which ran until 2006. Comedy Central ranked him forty-third in its list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians.
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David Letterman
David Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. Only Letterman's friend and mentor Johnny Carson has had a longer late-night hosting career.
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David Lloyd (writer)
http://wn.com/David_Lloyd_(writer)
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker and visual artist. Over a lengthy career, Lynch has employed a distinctive, unorthodox (and now known as "Lynchian") approach to narrative filmmaking that has become instantly recognizable to many audiences and critics worldwide. Lynch's films are known for nightmarish and dreamlike images and meticulous sound design. Lynch's work often depicts a seedy underside to small-town America (particularly Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks) or sprawling California metropolises (Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and his latest release, Inland Empire). Beginning with his experimental film-school feature Eraserhead (1977), he has maintained a strong cult following while experiencing inconsistent commercial success.
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David Niven
James David Graham Niven (1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983), known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom," in The Pink Panther. He was awarded the 1958 Academy Award for Best Actor in Separate Tables.
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Dean Martin
Dean Martin (June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, film actor and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "Mambo Italiano", "Sway", "Volare" and posthumous smash "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?". Nicknamed the "King of Cool", he was one of the members of the "Rat Pack" and a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television.
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Deborah Mcguire
http://wn.com/Deborah_Mcguire
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary (born August 18, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and director. He is known for his often biting comedic style and his chain smoking. Leary is the star and co-creator of the television show Rescue Me, which began its sixth season in June 2010.
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Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. During the 1960s, she helped shape the Motown sound as lead singer of The Supremes, before leaving the group for a solo career on January 14, 1970. Since the beginning of her career with The Supremes and as a solo artist, Ross has sold more than 150 million records.
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Dick Gregory
Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory (born on October 12, 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur.
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Donald "Duck" Dunn
Donald V "Duck" Dunn (born November 24, 1941) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn is notable for the "feel" and groove of his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax Records, which specialized in Blues and Gospel-infused southern soul and Memphis soul music styles. Dunn also performed on recordings with The Blues Brothers, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Albert King, Neil Young, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Guy Sebastian, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan and Roy Buchanan
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Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; April 26, 1897 – January 14, 1987) was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.
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Dudley Moore
Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE (19 April 1935 – 27 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.
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Ed. Weinberger
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Eddie Floyd
Eddie Floyd (born Eddie Lee Floyd, June 25, 1935, Montgomery, Alabama) is a soul/R&B; singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".
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Eddie Izzard
Edward John "Eddie" Izzard (born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and voice-over artist. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime.
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Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, voice actor, film director, producer, comedian and singer. The box office take from his films makes him the second highest grossing actor in the United States. He was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984, and has worked as a stand-up comedian. He was ranked #10 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.
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Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn (born December 7, 1932) is an American actress, who has worked in film, stage and television.
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Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres (; born January 26, 1958) is an American stand-up comedian, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was also a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season.
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Estelle Axton
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Frank Sinatra
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Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer. A major exponent of 20th century filmed dance, Kelly was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks and the likeable characters that he played on screen.
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Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman; June 11, 1933) is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.
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Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Wildcats, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, The Banger Sisters, and Cactus Flower'', for which she won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is also the mother of actors Oliver Hudson and Kate Hudson. Hawn has maintained a relationship with actor Kurt Russell since 1983.
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Gregory Hines
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Harve Brosten
Harve Brosten (b. 15 May 1943) is an American Emmy Award-winning screenwriter for television.
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Heart attack
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Hilton Als
'
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Ice-T
Tracy Marrow (born February 16, 1958), better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American rapper and actor. He was born in Newark, New Jersey and moved to Los Angeles, California when he was in the 7th grade. After graduating from high school he served in the United States Army for four years. He began his career as a rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, when he released his debut album Rhyme Pays. The next year, he founded the record label Rhyme Syndicate Records (named after his collective of fellow Hip-Hop artists called the Rhyme Syndicate) and released another album, Power. He became the lead vocalist in heavy metal band Body Count, which he introduced in his 1991 album . Body Count released its self-titled debut album in 1992. Ice-T encountered controversy over his track "Cop Killer", which was perceived to glamorize killing police officers. In the following year, pressure upon Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Bros. Records, to censor or hold back any music or form of content that was deemed too dangerous for public consumption -- including Ice-T's next Hip-Hop album, Home Invasion which was supposed to be released early in 1993 and was under scrutiny for its album cover artwork -- ultimately prompted a severance of the relationship between them and Ice-T. Home Invasion was released later in the Fall of 1993 directly on his Rhyme Syndicate label through a new distribution deal with Priority Records instead. Body Count's next album was released in 1994, and Ice-T released two more albums in the late 1990s.
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Ishmael Reed
Ishmael Scott Reed (born 22 February 1938) is an American poet, essayist, and novelist. A prominent African-American literary figure, Reed is known for his satirical works challenging American political culture, and highlighting political and cultural oppression.
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Jack Benny
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Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts (for which he won the 1955 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award), Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger (for which he won the 1973 Best Actor Academy Award), The Out-of-Towners, The China Syndrome, Missing, Glengarry Glen Ross, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men.
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Jackie Gleason
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Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne (born Clyde Jackson Browne; October 9, 1948) is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician who has sold in excess of 17 million albums in the United States alone.
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James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the CBS News broadcasts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to work on David L. Wolper's documentaries. After being laid off he met producer Allan Burns who secured him a job as a writer on the series My Mother the Car.
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Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other awards and nominations. After 15 years of retirement, she returned to film in 2005 with Monster in Law followed by Georgia Rule two years later. She also produced and starred in several exercise videos released between 1982 and 1995.
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Jerry Seinfeld
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Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s. He coined the term "rhythm and blues", and was integral in signing and/or producing many of the biggest acts of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers, Chris Connor, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield and Bob Dylan. Wexler was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Jerry Wexler was one of the most highly-regarded A&R; men in popular music history, a status bolstered by his accomplishments with Aretha Franklin.
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Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born October 8, 1941) is an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. In an AP-AOL "Black Voices" poll in February 2006, Jackson was voted "the most important black leader" with 15% of the vote.
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Jim Stewart (music)
Jim Stewart (born July 29, 1930) is a former record company executive and producer who co-founded Stax Records.
http://wn.com/Jim_Stewart_(music)
Joan Rivers
Joan Alexandra Molinsky Sanger Rosenberg aka Joan Rivers (born June 8, 1933) is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner, her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent, as well as her numerous cosmetic surgeries. Rivers's comic style relies heavily on poking fun at herself and other celebrities, mostly about their fashion sense. A documentary film about Rivers, , premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre on May 6, 2010.
http://wn.com/Joan_Rivers
Joe Rogan
Joe Rogan (born August 11, 1967) is an American comedian, actor and color commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
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John Huston
John Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered "classics": The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), The Misfits (1960), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975). During his 46-year career, Huston received 15 Oscar nominations, winning twice, and directed both his father, Walter Huston, and daughter, Anjelica Huston to Oscar wins in different films.
http://wn.com/John_Huston
Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Taylor (May 5, 1937 – May 31, 2000) was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from gospel, blues and soul to pop, doo-wop and disco.
http://wn.com/Johnnie_Taylor
Johnny Carson
http://wn.com/Johnny_Carson
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian. He is widely known as host of The Daily Show, a satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central.
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Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Harshman Winters III (born November 11, 1925) is an American comedian and actor.
http://wn.com/Jonathan_Winters
Lalah Hathaway
Eulaulah Donyll Hathaway (born on December 16, 1968) best known as Lalah Hathaway is a contemporary R&B; and jazz singer. She is the daughter of soul singer Donny Hathaway and classically trained vocalist Eulaulah. In 1990, Lalah Hathaway released her self-titled album, Lalah Hathaway. The album's first single was "Heaven Knows," produced by Derek Bramble. The follow-up single was "Baby Don't Cry," produced by Angela Winbush.
http://wn.com/Lalah_Hathaway
Lee Kalcheim
Lee Kalcheim (June 27, 1938, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American Emmy Award-winning screenwriter.
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Leela James
Leela James (born June 2, 1983 in Los Angeles, California) is an American R&B; and soul singer-songwriter. James cites legendary singers James Brown, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, and Stevie Wonder as her influences. Her deep, rich, gritty vocals have drawn comparisons to Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, and Tina Turner.
http://wn.com/Leela_James
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was an extremely influential and controversial American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s, whose comedy revolved heavily around the social stigmas and taboos of the era in which he lived. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in New York state history.
http://wn.com/Lenny_Bruce
Leon Ware
Leon Ware (born 6 February 1940, Detroit, Michigan) is a soul music singer, songwriter and producer.
http://wn.com/Leon_Ware
Lewis Black
http://wn.com/Lewis_Black
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. She has won multiple awards from many quarters, including Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award and has also been nominated for an Academy Award.
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Linda Lyndell
Linda Lyndell is an American soul singer from Gainesville, Florida.
http://wn.com/Linda_Lyndell
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946) is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.
http://wn.com/Liza_Minnelli
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM (born November 17, 1944) is a Canadian television producer, writer and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.
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Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race, sexuality, and sex. She has also directed and appeared in music videos and has her own clothing line. She has frequently supported LGBT rights and has won awards for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of women, the transgender community, Asians, and the LGBT community.
http://wn.com/Margaret_Cho
Margot Kidder
Margaret Ruth "Margot" Kidder (born October 17, 1948) is a Canadian-American actress, best known for playing Lois Lane in the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve.
http://wn.com/Margot_Kidder
Martin Lawrence
Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence (born April 16, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, director, and producer. He came to fame during the 1990s, establishing a Hollywood career as a leading actor, most notably the films Bad Boys and Bad Boys II. Lawrence has acted in numerous movie roles and starred in his own television series, Martin, which ran from 1992 to 1997.
http://wn.com/Martin_Lawrence
Mel and Tim
Mel and Tim were an American soul music duo active in the 1960s and early 1970s, and best known for the hit, "Backfield in Motion"(1969). They are also well known for: "Hope, Life's Goal" and "Starting All Over Again"(1972).
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Mel Brooks
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Bust honoring Richard Pryor unveiled in Peoria 05 Oct 2012

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For the Texas radio broadcaster, see Cactus Pryor.

Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor, February 1986
Birth name	Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor
Born	(1940-12-01)December 1, 1940 Peoria, Illinois, United States
Died	December 10, 2005(2005-12-10) (aged 65) Encino, California, United States
Medium	Stand-up, Film, Television
Nationality	American
Years active	1958–1999
Genres	Satire, Observational comedy, Black comedy, Improvisational comedy, Character comedy
Subject(s)	Racism, Race relations, American politics, African-American culture, Human sexuality, Self-deprecation, Everyday life, Recreational drug use
Influences	Lenny Bruce,^[1] Jack Benny, Jonathan Winters, Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Redd Foxx, Paul Mooney
Influenced	George Carlin,^[2] Martin Lawrence,^[3] George Lopez,^[4] Denis Leary, Margaret Cho,^[5] Eddie Izzard, Dave Chappelle,^[6] Chris Rock,^[7] Eddie Murphy,^[7] Whoopi Goldberg,^[8] Bill Hicks,^[9] Robin Williams,^[8] Lewis Black^[10] Colin Quinn,^[11] Bernie Mac,^[7] Joe Rogan, Chris Tucker^[12], Louis C.K.,^[13] Patton Oswalt^[14] Artie Lange,^[15] Jon Stewart,^[16]Richard Lewis,^[17] and Jim Norton^[18]
Spouse	Patricia Price (1960–1961; divorced) 1 child Shelley R. Bonis (1968–1969; divorced) 1 child Deborah McGuire (1977–1978; divorced) Jennifer Lee (1979–1982; divorced) Flynn Belaine (1986–1987; divorced) 2 children Flynn Belaine (1990–1991; divorced) Jennifer Lee (2001–2005; widow)
Notable works and roles	Himself in Richard Pryor: Live in Concert and Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip Daddy Rich in Car Wash Wally Karue in See No Evil, Hear No Evil Harry Monroe in Stir Crazy Gus Gorman in Superman III
Website	RichardPryor.com

Emmy Awards
Writing in Variety or Music 1974 Lily
Grammy Awards
Best Comedy Album 1975 That Nigger's Crazy 1976 ...Is It Something I Said? 1977 Bicentennial Nigger 1982 Rev. Du Rite 1983 Live on the Sunset Strip
American Comedy Awards
Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy 1993

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer, and MC.^[19] Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of his era: Jerry Seinfeld called Pryor "The Picasso of our profession";^[20] Bob Newhart has called Pryor "the seminal comedian of the last 50 years.".^[21] This legacy can be attributed, in part, to the unusual degree of intimacy Pryor brought to bear on his comedy. As Bill Cosby reportedly once said, "Richard Pryor drew the line between comedy and tragedy as thin as one could possibly paint it."

His body of work includes the concert movies and recordings Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' (1971), That Nigger's Crazy (1974), ...Is It Something I Said? (1975), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), and Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983). He also starred in numerous films as an actor, such as Superman III (1983) but was usually in comedies such as Silver Streak (1976), and occasionally in dramatic roles, such as Paul Schrader's film Blue Collar (1978). He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder. Another frequent collaborator was actor/comedian/writer Paul Mooney.

Pryor won an Emmy Award (1973), and five Grammy Awards (1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982). In 1974, he also won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award. The first ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998. Pryor is listed at Number 1 on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.

1 Early life
2 Career
- 2.1 Early career
- 2.2 Mainstream success
3 Personal life
4 Later life
5 Death
6 Remembrance and legacy
7 Discography
- 7.1 Albums
- 7.2 Compilations
8 Filmography
9 References
10 External links

Early life [link]

Born in Peoria, Illinois, Pryor grew up in his grandmother's brothel, where his mother, Gertrude L. (Thomas), practiced prostitution. His father, LeRoy "Buck Carter" Pryor was a former bartender and boxer.^[22]

After his mother abandoned him when he was 10, he was raised primarily by his grandmother Marie Carter,^[23] a violent woman who would beat him for any of his eccentricities.^[24] Pryor was one of four children raised in his grandmother's brothel and was molested as a child.^[22]^[25]

He was expelled from school at the age of 14. His first professional performance was playing drums at a night club. Pryor served in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1960, but spent virtually the 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. Angered 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 and stabbed him, though not fatally.^[26] According to Live on the Sunset Strip, when he was 19, he worked at a Mafia-owned nightclub in Youngstown, Ohio, as the MC. On hearing that they would not pay a stripper friend of his, he attempted to hold up the owners with a cap pistol. The owners were greatly amused.

During this time, Pryor's girlfriend gave birth to a girl named Renee. Years later, however, he found out that she was not his child. In 1960, he married Patricia Price and they had one child together, Richard Jr. (his first child and first son). They divorced in 1961.

Career [link]

Early career [link]

In 1963, Pryor moved to New York City and began performing regularly in clubs alongside performers such as Bob Dylan and Woody Allen. On one of his first nights, he opened for singer and pianist Nina Simone at New York's Village Gate. Simone recalls Pryor's bout of performance anxiety:

“

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.^[27]

”

Publicity photo of Richard Pryor for one of his Mister Kelly's appearances, 1968 - 1969.

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 and The Tonight Show. His popularity led to success as a comic in Las Vegas. 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, exclaimed over the microphone "What the f@#k am I doing here!?", and walked off the stage. Afterward, Pryor began working profanity into his act, including "nigger". His first comedy recording, the eponymous 1968 debut release on the Dove/Reprise label, captures this particular period, tracking the evolution of Pryor's routine. Around this time, his parents died — his mother in 1967 and his father in 1968.

In 1967, his second child and first daughter, Elizabeth Ann, was born to his girlfriend Maxine Anderson. Later that year, he married Shelley Bonis. In 1969, his third child and second daughter, Rain Pryor, was born. Pryor and Bonis divorced later that year.

Mainstream success [link]

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-oriented independent record label Laff Records in 1970, and in 1971 recorded his second album, Craps (After Hours). In 1973, the relatively unknown comedian appeared in the documentary 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 some 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's release from his Laff contract. In return for this concession, Laff was enabled to release previously unissued material, recorded between 1968 and 1973, at will.

During the legal battle, Stax briefly closed its doors. At this time, Pryor returned to Reprise/Warner Bros. Records, which re-released That Nigger's Crazy, immediately after ...Is It Something I Said?, his first album with his new label. With every successful album Pryor recorded for Warner (or later, his concert films and his 1980 freebasing accident), Laff would quickly publish an album of older material to capitalize on Pryor's growing fame—a practice they continued until 1983. The covers of Laff albums tied in thematically with Pryor movies, such as The Wizard of Comedy for his appearance in The Wiz, Are You Serious? for Silver Streak, and Insane for Stir Crazy.

Pryor also performed in the Lilly Tomlin specials. He is seen here with Tomlin and Alan Alda in Tomlin's 1973 special.

In the 1970s, Pryor wrote for such television shows as Sanford and Son, The Flip Wilson Show and a Lily Tomlin special, for which he shared an Emmy Award^[28]. During this period, Pryor tried to break into mainstream television. He was a guest host on the first season of Saturday Night Live. Richard took long time girlfriend, actress-talk show host Kathrine McKee (sister of Lonette McKee) with him to New York, and she made a brief guest appearance with Pryor on SNL. He participated in a "racist word association" skit^[29] with Chevy Chase.

The Richard Pryor Show premiered on NBC in 1977, but was canceled after only four episodes. Television audiences did not respond to the show's controversial subject matter, and Pryor was unwilling to alter his material for network censors. During the short-lived series, he portrayed the first African-American President of the United States, spoofed the Star Wars cantina, took on gun violence, and in another skit, used costumes and visual distortion to appear nude.^[30]

In 1974, Pryor was arrested for income tax evasion and served 10 days in jail. He married actress Deborah McGuire in 1977, but they divorced in 1978. He soon began dating Jennifer Lee and they married in 1981. They divorced the following year.

In 1979, at the height of his success, Pryor visited Africa. Upon returning to the United States, Pryor swore he would never use the word "nigger" in his stand-up comedy routine again.^[31] (However, his favorite epithet, "motherf@#ker", remains a term of endearment on his official website.)

In the 1970s and 1980s, Pryor appeared in several popular films, including Lady Sings the Blues; The Mack; Uptown Saturday Night; Silver Streak; Which Way Is Up?; Car Wash; Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings; Greased Lightning; Blue Collar & Bustin' Loose. In 1982, Pryor co-starred with Jackie Gleason in The Toy.

Pryor in February 1986.

In 1983, Pryor signed a five-year contract with Columbia Pictures for $40,000,000.^[32] This resulted in the gentrification of Pryor's onscreen persona and softer, more formulaic films like Superman III, (which earned Pryor $4,000,000), Brewster's Millions, Stir Crazy, Moving, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. The only film project from this period that recalled his rough roots was Pryor's semi-autobiographic debut as a writer-director, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, which was not a major success. Though he made four films with Gene Wilder, the two comic actors were never as close as many thought, according to Wilder's autobiography.

Pryor co-wrote Blazing Saddles, directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder. Pryor was to play the lead role of Bart, but the film's production studio would not insure him, and Mel Brooks chose Cleavon Little instead. Before his infamous 1980 freebasing accident, Pryor was about to start filming Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I, but was replaced at the last minute by Gregory Hines. Pryor was also originally considered for the role of Billy Ray Valentine on Trading Places, before Eddie Murphy won the part.

Despite a reputation for constantly using profanity on and off camera, Pryor briefly hosted a children's show on CBS in 1984 called Pryor's Place. Like Sesame Street, Pryor's Place featured a cast of puppets, hanging out and having fun in a surprisingly friendly inner-city environment along with several children and characters portrayed by Pryor himself. However, Pryor's Place frequently dealt with more sobering issues than Sesame Street. It was canceled shortly after its debut, despite the efforts of famed puppeteers Sid and Marty Krofft and a theme song by Ray Parker, Jr. of Ghostbusters fame.

Pryor co-hosted the Academy Awards twice, and was nominated for an Emmy for a guest role on the television series, Chicago Hope.

Pryor developed a reputation for being demanding and disrespectful on film sets, and for making selfish and difficult demands. In his autobiography Kiss Me Like a Stranger, co-star Gene Wilder says that Pryor was frequently late to the set during filming of Stir Crazy, and that he demanded, among other things, a helicopter to fly him to and from set because he was the star. Pryor was also accused of using allegations of on-set racism to force the hand of film producers into giving him more money. Also from Wilder's book:

“

One day during our lunch hour in the last week of filming, the craft service man handed out slices of watermelon to each of us. Richard, the whole camera crew, and I sat together in a big sound studio eating a number of watermelon slices, talking and joking. As a gag, some members of the crew used a piece of watermelon as a Frisbee, and tossed it back and forth to each other. One piece of watermelon landed at Richard's feet. He got up and went home. Filming stopped. The next day, Richard announced that he knew very well what the significance of watermelon was... He said that he was quitting show business and would not return to this film. The day after that, Richard walked in, all smiles... I wasn't privy to all the negotiations that went on between Columbia and Richard's lawyers, but the camera operator who had thrown that errant piece of watermelon had been fired that day. I assume now that Richard was using drugs during "Stir Crazy".

”

In 1989, he appeared in Harlem Nights, a comedy-drama crime film starring Eddie Murphy. It was a financial success, grossing three times the amount it cost to make it (worldwide) and is well known for starring three generations of black comedians (Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Redd Foxx).

Personal life [link]

Health problems [link]

Pryor suffered a mild heart attack in November 1977. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1986.^[33] In 1990, Pryor suffered a second and more severe heart attack and underwent triple heart bypass surgery. By the early 1990s, he was confined to using a wheelchair as well as a motor powered scooter for the remainder of his life to get around when his multiple sclerosis began to take its toll on his body.

The freebasing incident [link]

On June 9, 1980, during the making of the film Bustin' Loose, Pryor set himself on fire after freebasing cocaine while drinking 151-proof rum. He ran down Parthenia Street from his Northridge, California, home, on fire, until subdued by police. He was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for burns covering more than half of his body. Pryor spent six weeks in recovery at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. His daughter, Rain Pryor, stated that Pryor poured high-proof rum over his body and set himself on fire in a bout of drug-induced psychosis.^[34]

Pryor incorporated a description of the incident into his comedy show Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip in 1982. He joked that the event was caused by dunking a cookie into a glass of low-fat and pasteurized milk, causing an explosion. At the end of the bit, he poked fun at people who told jokes about it by waving a lit match and saying, "What's that? Richard Pryor running down the street."

After his "final performance", Pryor did not stay away from stand-up comedy long. In 1983, he filmed and released a new concert film and accompanying album, Richard Pryor: Here and Now, which he directed himself. In 1986, he wrote and directed a fictionalized account of his life, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling which revolved around the 1980 freebasing incident.

In 1984, his fourth child and second son, Steven, was born to his girlfriend Flynn Belaine. Pryor married Belaine in October 1986. They divorced in July 1987. Before their divorce was final, Belaine conceived Kelsey Pryor. Meanwhile, another of Pryor's girlfriends, Geraldine Mason, gave birth to Franklin Mason, his fifth child and third son, in April 1987. Six months later in October 1987, Belaine gave birth to Kelsey Pryor, Richard's sixth child and third daughter.

Marriages and relationships [link]

Pryor was married seven times to five different women:

Patricia Price (1960–1961, divorced) with one child named Richard Pryor Jr.
Shelly Bonis (1967–1969, divorced) with one child named Rain Pryor
Deborah McGuire (September 22, 1977 – 1979, divorced)
Jennifer Lee (August 1981 – October 1982, divorced)
Flynn Belaine (October 1986 – July 1987, divorced) with son Steven (born before the marriage) and daughter Kelsey (before divorce finalized)
Flynn Belaine (1 April 1990 – July 1991, divorced)
Jennifer Lee (June 29, 2001 – December 10, 2005, his death)

His marriages were characterized by accusations of domestic violence, except for his relationship with Belaine. Most of these allegations were connected to Pryor's drug use. The exception was Patricia Price, who was married to Pryor before his rise to stardom. During his relationship with Pam Grier, Pryor proposed to Deborah McGuire (1977).

He had six children: Richard Jr., Elizabeth, Rain, Steven, Franklin and Kelsey.

Pryor had a relationship with actress Margot Kidder.^[35]

Later life [link]

In his later years starting in the early 1990s, Richard Pryor used a power operated vehicle/scooter due to multiple sclerosis (M.S., which he said stood for "More S#!t"). He appears on the scooter in his last film appearance, a small role in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997) playing an auto repair garage manager named Arnie.

In 1998, Pryor won the first Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. According to former Kennedy Center President Lawrence J. Wilker,

“

Richard Pryor was selected as the first recipient of the new Mark Twain Prize because as a stand-up comic, writer, and actor, he struck a chord, and a nerve, with America, forcing it to look at large social questions of race and the more tragicomic aspects of the human condition. Though uncompromising in his wit, Pryor, like Twain, projects a generosity of spirit that unites us. They were both trenchant social critics who spoke the truth, however outrageous.

”

In 2000, Rhino Records remastered all of Pryor's Reprise and WB albums for inclusion in the box set ...And It's Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968–1992).

In early 2000, he appeared in the cold open of The Norm Show in the episode entitled "Norm vs. The Boxer". He played an elderly man in a wheelchair who lost the rights to in-home nursing when he kept attacking the nurses, before attacking Norm himself (using a body double).^[36]

In 2001, he remarried Jennifer Lee, who had also become his manager.

In 2002 a television documentary depicted Pryor's life and career. Broadcast in the UK as part of the Channel 4 series Kings of Black Comedy, it was produced, directed and narrated by David Upshal. It featured rare clips from Pryor's 1960s stand-up appearances and movies such as Silver Streak, Blue Collar, Stir Crazy, and Richard Pryor Live In Concert. Contributors included Whoopi Goldberg, Dave Chappelle, Lily Tomlin, George Carlin, Joan Rivers, Ice-T, and Paul Mooney. The show tracked down the two cops who rescued Pryor from his "freebasing incident", former managers and even school friends from Pryor's home town of Peoria, Illinois. In the US the show went out as part of the Heroes of Black Comedy series on Comedy Central, narrated by Don Cheadle.

In 2002, Pryor and his wife and manager, Jennifer Lee Pryor, won legal rights to all the Laff material, which amounted to almost 40 hours of reel-to-reel analog tape. After going through the tapes and getting Richard's blessing, Jennifer Lee Pryor gave access to the tapes to Rhino Records in 2004. These tapes, including the entire Craps album, form the basis of the double-CD release Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966–1974).

A 2003 television documentary, Richard Pryor: I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$#@!! consisted of archival footage of Pryor's performances and testimonials from fellow comedians, including Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, and Denis Leary, on Pryor's influence on comedy.

In 2004, Pryor was voted #1 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. In a 2005 British poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, Pryor was voted the 10th greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

In late 2004, his sister said he had lost his voice as result of his multiple sclerosis. However, on January 9, 2005, Pryor's wife, Jennifer Lee, rebutted this statement in a post on Pryor's official website,^[37] citing Richard as saying: "I'm sick of hearing this s#!t about me not talking... not true... I have good days, bad days... but I still am a talkin' motherf@#ker!"

Pryor was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.^[38] The animal rights organization PETA gives out an award in Pryor's name to people who have done outstanding work to alleviate animal suffering. Pryor was active in animal rights and was deeply concerned about the plight of elephants in circuses and zoos.

Death [link]

Richard Pryor's star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame covered with flowers, beer bottles, fan letters etc.

On December 10, 2005, nine days after his birthday, Pryor suffered a heart attack in Encino, California. He was taken to a local hospital after his wife's attempts to resuscitate him failed. He was pronounced dead at 7:58 am PST. He was 65 years old. His widow Jennifer was quoted as saying, "At the end, there was a smile on his face."^[32] He was cremated and his ashes were given to his family.

Remembrance and legacy [link]

A planned biopic entitled "Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?" is being produced by Chris Rock and Adam Sandler.^[39] The film will star Marlon Wayans as the young Pryor.^[40] Other actors previously attached include Mike Epps and Eddie Murphy. The film will be directed by Bill Condon and is still in development who no release start set as of 11th April 2012.^[41]

On December 19, 2005, BET aired a Pryor special. It included commentary from fellow comedians, and insight into his upbringing.

An image of Pryor can be seen on the Rage Against the Machine music video for their Soulsonic Force cover of "Renegades of Funk".

There is a street just west of the downtown Peoria area named in his honor.

On March 1, 2008, fellow comedian George Carlin performed his final HBO special. An image of Pryor can be seen in the background throughout his set. Carlin would mention Pryor's death in his memoir, Last Words, noting their friendly rivalry that lasted until Carlin finally beat him "in the Heart Attack 5000."

In Jackson Browne's tribute to the roadies and fans, The Load-Out, released on the 1977 album Running on Empty, the lyrics state that "we got Richard Pryor on the video" on the tour bus.

Discography [link]

Albums [link]

Official canon

1968 - Richard Pryor (Dove/Reprise)
1971 - Craps (After Hours) (Laff Records, reissued 1993 by Loose Cannon/Island)
1974 - That Nigger's Crazy, (Partee/Stax, reissued 1975 by Reprise)
1975 - ...Is It Something I Said?, (Reprise, reissued 1991 on CD by Warner Archives)
1976 - Holy Smoke!, (Laff)
1976 - Bicentennial Nigger, (Reprise)
1976 - L.A. Jail, (Tiger Lily)
1977 - Are You Serious ???, (Laff)
1977 - Who Me? I'm Not Him, (Laff)
1978 - Black Ben The Blacksmith, (Laff)
1978 - The Wizard of Comedy, (Laff)
1978 - Wanted: Live in Concert (2-LP set), (Warner Bros. Records);Others
1979 - Outrageous, (Laff)
1980 - Insane, (Laff)
1981 - Rev. Du Rite, (Laff)
1982 - Richard Pryor Live! (picture disc), (Phoenix/Audiofidelity)
1982 - Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (Warner Bros. Records)
1983 - Here and Now, (Warner Bros. Records)
1983 - Supernigger, (Laff)

Compilations [link]

1973 - Pryor Goes Foxx Hunting, (Laff.)
- Split LP with Redd Foxx, containing previously released tracks from Craps (After Hours)
1975 - Down And Dirty, (Laff.)
- Split LP with Redd Foxx, containing previously released tracks from Craps (After Hours)
1976 - Richard Pryor Meets... Richard & Willie And... The SLA!!, (Laff)
- Split LP with black ventriloquist act Richard And Willie, containing previously released tracks from Craps (After Hours)
1977 - Richard Pryor's Greatest Hits, (Warner Bros. Records)
- Contains tracks from Craps (After Hours), That Nigger's Crazy, and ...Is It Something I Said?, plus a previously unreleased track from 1975, "Ali".
2000 - ...And It's Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968–1992) (9-CD box set) (Warner Bros. Records/Rhino)
- Box set collection containing all Warner Bros. albums plus a bonus disc of previously unissued material from 1973 to 1992.
2002 - The Anthology (1968–1992) (2-CD set) (Warner Bros. Records/Rhino, 2002 in music)
- Highlights culled from the albums collected in the ...And It's Deep Too! box set.
2005 - Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966–1974) (2-CD set) (Warner Bros. Records/Rhino, 2005 in music)
- Pryor-authorized compilation of material released on Laff, including the entire Craps (After Hours) album.

Filmography [link]

1967 - The Busy Body
1968 - Uncle Tom's Fairy Tales
1968 - Wild in the Streets
1970 - Black Brigade
1970 - The Phynx
1971 - You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat
1972 - Dynamite Chicken
1972 - Lady Sings the Blues
1973 - The Mack
1973 - Wattstax
1973 - Hit!
1973 - Some Call It Loving
1974 - Uptown Saturday Night
1975 - The Lion Roars Again
1976 - Adios Amigo
1976 - Car Wash
1976 - The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
1976 - Silver Streak
1977 - Which Way Is Up?
1977 - Greased Lightning
1978 - Blue Collar
1978 - The Wiz
1978 - California Suite
1979 - Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
1979 - The Muppet Movie - (cameo)

1980 - Wholly Moses
1980 - In God We Tru$t
1980 - Stir Crazy
1981 - Bustin' Loose
1982 - Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
1982 - Some Kind of Hero
1982 - The Toy
1983 - Superman III
1983 - Richard Pryor: Here and Now
1983 - Motown 25
1985 - Live & Smokin'
1985 - Brewster's Millions
1986 - Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
1987 - Critical Condition
1988 - Moving
1989 - See No Evil, Hear No Evil
1989 - Harlem Nights
1991 - The Three Muscatels
1991 - Another You
1994 - A Century of Cinema
1996 - Mad Dog Time
1997 - Lost Highway
1999 - The Norm Show - (Cameo in Opening of Season 2, Episode 11)
2003 - Bitter Jester
2003 - I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$@!!
2005 - Richard Pryor: The Funniest Man Dead Or Alive (BET Special)
2009 - Black Dynamite - Cameo via archive footage

References [link]

^ Staff writer (2004-05-21). "Pryor: I Owe It All to Lenny Bruce". Contactmusic.com. http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/pryor.-i-owe-it-all-to-lenny-bruce. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
^ "George Carlin". Inside the Actors Studio. episode 4. season 1. 2004-10-31. Bravo.
^ Allis, Tim (1993-04-12). "Court Jester". People. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20110142,00.html. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
^ Lopez, George; Keteyian, Armen (2004). Why You Crying?: My Long, Hard Look at Life, Love, and Laughter. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-5994-7.
^ Margaret Cho. "Richard Pryor". http://www.margaretcho.com/content/2003/12/04/richard-pryor/. Retrieved 4 December 2003.
^ "Dave Chappelle". Inside the Actors Studio. episode 10. season 12. 2006-02-12. Bravo.
^ ^a ^b ^c Reid, Shaheem (December 12, 2005). "Chris Rock, Bernie Mac, Eddie Murphy Call Pryor The Real King Of Comedy — 'Without Richard, There Would Be No Me,' Bernie Mac Says". MTV. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
^ ^a ^b Richard Pryor: I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$@!!, 2003, Comedy Central
^ Fade to Black - Interviews - Bill Hicks^{[dead link]}
^ Gillette, Amelie (2006-06-07). "Lewis Black". The A.V. Club. http://www.avclub.com/content/node/49217. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
^ "Colin Quinn". Popentertainment.com. http://www.popentertainment.com/quinn.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
^ Chris Tucker – Movie and Film Biography and Filmography – AllRovi.com
^ "Interview with Louis C.K.". One Night Stand. HBO. 2005. http://www.hbo.com/onenightstand/interviews/louis_ck.html. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
^ "aspecialthing.com :: View topic - THE AST INTERVIEW: PATTON OSWALT". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20071013165258/http://aspecialthing.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1465. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
^ Kirschling, Gregory (2008-11-07). "Artie Lange: 'F--- It, I'll Write a Book'". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20239025_3,00.html. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
^ Jeremy Gillick; Nonna Gorilovskaya (November/December 2008). "Meet Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz (aka) Jon Stewart: The wildly zeitgeisty Daily Show host". Moment. http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2008/12/JonStewart.html. Retrieved August 10, 2009.
^ Interview with Bill Zehme, Richard Lewis: Concerts from Hell: The Vintage Years, Image Entertainment, Released 2005-09-13
^ "Interview with Jim Norton". One Night Stand. HBO. 2005. http://www.hbo.com/onenightstand/interviews/jim_norton.html. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
^ Richard Pryor-the Mafia Night Club YouTube
^ Morton, Bruce (December 28, 2005). "Those We Lost". CNN. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
^ American Masters . Bob Newhart PBS
^ ^a ^b http://www.richardpryor.com/0/4113/0/1240D1271/ Richard Pryor's official biography
^ "Richard Pryor website". Richardpryor.com. http://www.richardpryor.com/0/4113/0/1240D1271/. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
^ "Richard Pryor". Nndb.com. http://www.nndb.com/people/342/000022276/. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
^ Jones, Steve. "Comedian Richard Pryor dies at 65" USA Today. December 10, 2005
^ Als, Hilton (September 13, 1999). "A Pryor Love". The New Yorker.
^ Simone, Nina; Cleary, Stephen (1991). I Put a Spell on You — The Autobiography of Nina Simone. Pantheon Books (New York City, New York). pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-0-679-41068-3
^ Richard Pryor Emmy Winner
^ "SNL Transcripts: Richard Pryor: 12/13/75: Racist Word Association Interview". Snltranscripts.jt.org. http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75ginterview.phtml. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
^ Silverman, David S. (2007). "You Can't Air That": Four Cases of Controversy and Censorship in American Television Programming. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
^ The word 'Nigger' - Richard Pryor & George Carlin YouTube
^ ^a ^b Staff writer (December 10, 2005). "Comedian Richard Pryor Dead at 65 — Groundbreaking Black U.S. Comedian Richard Pryor Has Died after Almost 20 Years with Multiple Sclerosis". BBC News. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
^ "Richard Pryor". Richard Pryor. http://www.richardpryor.com/0/4113/0/1240/. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
^ Interview with Rain Pryor, November 6, 2006, edition of People, page 76.
^ Nathan Rabin. Random Roles: Margot Kidder (interview) The A.V. Club, March 3, 2009
^ "The Norm Show - Norm vs. the Boxer". Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com Inc. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0662160/. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
^ "Richard Pryor". Richard Pryor. http://www.richardpryor.com. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
^ ^{[dead link]}"Richard Pryor to Get Posthumous Grammy Award". VOA News (Voice of America). January 11, 2006. http://voanews.com/english/archive/2006-01/Richard-Pryor-to-Get-Posthumous-Grammy-Award.cfm. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
^ All Voices Article July 5th 2010
^ Flick Direct article 10th September 2009
^ Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? at the Internet Movie Database

External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Richard Pryor

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Richard Pryor

Richard Pryor at Emmys.com

Obituaries

"Entertainment | Comedian Richard Pryor dead at 65". BBC News. 2005-12-10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4517714.stm. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
"CNN.com - Comedian Richard Pryor dies at 65 - Dec 11, 2005". Edition.cnn.com. http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/12/11/pryor.obit/. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
Feeney, Mark (2005-12-11). "Richard Pryor, whose profane, incisive humor revolutionized American comedy, dies at 65 - The Boston Globe". Boston.com. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2005/12/11/richard_pryor_whose_profane_incisive_humor_revolutionized_american_comedy_dies_at_65/. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
Schudel, Matt (2005-12-11). "With Humor and Anger On Race Issues, Comic Inspired a Generation". washingtonpost.com. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/10/AR2005121001406.html. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
Watkins, Mel (2005-12-11). "Richard Pryor, Iconoclastic Comedian, Dies at 65 - New York Times". Nytimes.com. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/arts/11pryor.html?ex=1291957200&en=ea88c61b92de25e6&ei=5090. Retrieved 2010-06-17.

v t e Hosts of the Academy Awards ceremonies (1961–1980)

Bob Hope (1961) Bob Hope (1962) Frank Sinatra (1963) Jack Lemmon (1964) Bob Hope (1965) Bob Hope (1966) Bob Hope (1967) Bob Hope (1968) None (1969) None (1970) None (1971) Helen Hayes / Alan King / Sammy Davis, Jr. / Jack Lemmon (1972) Carol Burnett / Michael Caine / Charlton Heston / Rock Hudson (1973) John Huston / Burt Reynolds / David Niven / Diana Ross (1974) Sammy Davis, Jr. / Bob Hope / Shirley MacLaine / Frank Sinatra (1975) Goldie Hawn / Gene Kelly / Walter Matthau / George Segal / Robert Shaw (1976) Warren Beatty / Ellen Burstyn / Jane Fonda / Richard Pryor (1977) Bob Hope (1978) Johnny Carson (1979) Johnny Carson (1980)

Complete list (1927–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020)

v t e Hosts of the Academy Awards ceremonies (1981–2000)

Johnny Carson (1981) Johnny Carson (1982) Liza Minnelli / Dudley Moore / Richard Pryor / Walter Matthau (1983) Johnny Carson (1984) Jack Lemmon (1985) Alan Alda / Jane Fonda / Robin Williams (1986) Chevy Chase / Goldie Hawn / Paul Hogan (1987) Chevy Chase (1988) None (1989) Billy Crystal (1990) Billy Crystal (1991) Billy Crystal (1992) Billy Crystal (1993) Whoopi Goldberg (1994) David Letterman (1995) Whoopi Goldberg (1996) Billy Crystal (1997) Billy Crystal (1998) Whoopi Goldberg (1999) Billy Crystal (2000)

Complete list (1927–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020)

v t e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (1970–1979)

James L. Brooks / Allan Burns for "Support Your Local Mother" (1971) Burt Styler for "Edith's Problem" (1972) Lee Kalcheim / Michael Ross / Bernie West for "The Bunkers and the Swingers" (1973) Treva Silverman for "The Lou and Edie Story" (1974) Stan Daniels / Ed. Weinberger for "Will Mary Richards Go to Jail?" (1975) David Lloyd for "Chuckles Bites the Dust" (1976) James L. Brooks / Allan Burns / Stan Daniels / Bob Ellison / David Lloyd / Ed. Weinberger for "The Last Show" (1977) Harve Brosten / Barry Harman / Bob Schiller / Bob Weiskopf for "Cousin Liz"(1978)

Complete list (1955–1959) (1960–1969) (1970–1979) (1980–1989) (1990–1999) (2000–2009) (2010–present)

v t e Richard Pryor

Albums	Richard Pryor Craps (After Hours) That Nigger's Crazy ...Is It Something I Said? Bicentennial Nigger Wanted: Live in Concert

Compilations	L.A. Jail Richard Pryor's Greatest Hits …And It's Deep Too! The Anthology (1968–1992) Evolution/Revolution

TV & Films	Live & Smokin' The Richard Pryor Show Live in Concert Live on the Sunset Strip Here and Now Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling I Ain't Dead Yet The Funniest Man Dead or Alive

v t e Mark Twain Prize winners

Richard Pryor (1998) · Jonathan Winters (1999) · Carl Reiner (2000) · Whoopi Goldberg (2001) · Bob Newhart (2002) · Lily Tomlin (2003) · Lorne Michaels (2004) · Steve Martin (2005) · Neil Simon (2006) · Billy Crystal (2007) · George Carlin (2008) · Bill Cosby (2009) · Tina Fey (2010) · Will Ferrell (2011) · Ellen DeGeneres (2012)

v t e Stax/Volt Records

Major figures	Jim Stewart · Estelle Axton · Al Bell · Steve Cropper · Booker T. Jones · Donald "Duck" Dunn · Al Jackson, Jr. · Isaac Hayes · David Porter · Jerry Wexler · Clive Davis

Major artists (Atlantic years)	Otis Redding · Sam & Dave · Carla Thomas · Rufus Thomas · The Mar-Keys · Booker T. & The MG's · William Bell · Eddie Floyd · Johnnie Taylor · Albert King · The Bar-Kays

Major artists (Post-Atlantic)	Isaac Hayes · David Porter · Eddie Floyd · Johnnie Taylor · The Rance Allen Group · The Soul Children · The Staple Singers · The Temprees · The Emotions · Mel & Tim · The Bar-Kays · Linda Lyndell · Richard Pryor · Bill Cosby · William Bell · Little Milton · Jesse Jackson · Big Star

Modern Stax artists	Soulive · Angie Stone · Lalah Hathaway · Leela James · Isaac Hayes · Leon Ware · N'dambi · Nikka Costa · Teena Marie

Related articles	Memphis soul · Wattstax · Stax Museum of American Soul Music · Atlantic Records · Union Planters Bank · CBS Records · Fantasy Records · Concord Records

Persondata
Name	Pryor, Richard
Alternative names
Short description	American comedian and actor
Date of birth	December 1, 1940
Place of birth	Peoria, Illinois
Date of death	December 10, 2005
Place of death	Encino, Los Angeles, California

http://wn.com/Richard_Pryor

http://it.wn.com/Richard Pryor

http://es.wn.com/Richard Pryor

http://ru.wn.com/Прайор, Ричард

http://nl.wn.com/Richard Pryor

http://pt.wn.com/Richard Pryor

http://pl.wn.com/Richard Pryor

http://fr.wn.com/Richard Pryor

http://de.wn.com/Richard Pryor

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

The N-Word
File:THE N WORD DVD COVER.jpg Movie cover for The N-Word
Directed by	Todd Larkins Williams
Produced by	Helena Echegoyen Nelson George
Written by	Todd Larkins Williams
Starring	Various actors, actresses, comedians, musicians, politicians, and activists
Music by	Michael Cohen
Distributed by	Trio Films
Release date(s)	June 26, 2004
Running time	86 min.
Language	English

The N-Word is a 2004 documentary directed and written by Todd Larkins Williams. The movie, as the title may suggest, looks into the history and usage of the word nigger and its variations.

Interviews With:

External links [link]

The N-Word at the Internet Movie Database

This article about a documentary film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

http://wn.com/The_N-Word

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_N-Word

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

This article is about Ed Sullivan, the person. For his TV show, see The Ed Sullivan Show.

For other people named Edward Sullivan, see Edward Sullivan (disambiguation).

Ed Sullivan
Sullivan in 1955
Born	Edward Vincent Sullivan (1901-09-28)September 28, 1901 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	October 13, 1974(1974-10-13) (aged 73) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Television host Writer
Years active	1932–1973
Spouse	Sylvia (m. 1930–1973)

Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the TV variety show The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from 1948 to 1971 (a total of 23 years), which made it one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S. broadcast history.^[1]

In 1996, Ed Sullivan was ranked #50 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time".^[2]

1 Early life and career
2 Television
3 Sullivan, the starmaker
4 Personality
5 Politics
6 Later years and death
7 Personal life
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links

Early life and career [link]

Sullivan was born in New York City, New York, the son of Elizabeth F. (née Smith) and Peter Arthur Sullivan, a customs house employee.^[3] He was of Irish descent.^[4] A former boxer, Sullivan began his media work as a newspaper sportswriter for The New York Evening Graphic.^[5] When Walter Winchell, one of the original gossip columnists and the most powerful entertainment reporter of his day, left the newspaper for the Hearst syndicate, Sullivan took over as theatre columnist. His theatre column was later carried in The New York Daily News. His column, 'Little Old New York', concentrated on Broadway shows and gossip, as Winchell's had and, like Winchell, he also did show business news broadcasts on radio. Again echoing Winchell, Sullivan took on yet another medium in 1933 by writing and starring in the film Mr. Broadway, which has him guiding the audience around New York nightspots to meet entertainers and celebrities. Sullivan soon became a powerful starmaker in the entertainment world himself, becoming one of Winchell's main rivals, setting the El Morocco nightclub in New York as his unofficial headquarters against Winchell's seat of power at the nearby Stork Club. Sullivan continued writing for The News throughout his broadcasting career and his popularity long outlived that of Winchell.

Television [link]

Sullivan with Cole Porter on Toast of the Town in 1952.

In 1948, the CBS network hired Sullivan to do a weekly Sunday night TV variety show, Toast of the Town, which later became The Ed Sullivan Show. Debuting in June 1948, the show was broadcast from CBS Studio 50, at 1697 Broadway (at 53rd Street) in New York City, which in 1967 was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater (and is now the home of The Late Show with David Letterman).^[6]

Television critics gave the new show and its host poor reviews.^[7] Harriet Van Horne alleged that "he got where he is not by having a personality, but by having no personality." (The host wrote to the critic, "Dear Miss Van Horne: You bitch. Sincerely, Ed Sullivan."^[8]) Sullivan had little acting ability; in 1967, 20 years after his show's debut, Time magazine asked "What exactly is Ed Sullivan's talent?"^[8] His mannerisms on camera were so awkward that some viewers believed the host suffered from Bell's palsy.^[8] Time in 1955 stated that Sullivan resembled

a cigar-store Indian, the Cardiff Giant and a stone-faced monument just off the boat from Easter Island. He moves like a sleepwalker; his smile is that of a man sucking a lemon; his speech is frequently lost in a thicket of syntax; his eyes pop from their sockets or sink so deep in their bags that they seem to be peering up at the camera from the bottom of twin wells.^[7]

The magazine concluded, however, that "Yet, instead of frightening children, Ed Sullivan charms the whole family."^[7] Sullivan appeared to the audience as an average guy who brought the great acts of show business to their home televisions. ("Ed Sullivan will last", comedian Fred Allen said, "as long as someone else has talent",^[7] and frequent guest Alan King said "Ed does nothing, but he does it better than anyone else in television."^[8]) He had a newspaperman's instinct for what the public wanted, and programmed his variety hours with remarkable balance. There was something for everyone.^[7] A typical show would feature a vaudeville act (acrobats, jugglers, magicians, etc.), one or two popular comedians, a singing star, a hot jukebox favorite, a figure from the legitimate theater, and for the kids, a visit with puppet "Topo Gigio, the little Italian mouse." The bill was often international in scope, with many European performers augmenting the American artists.^[8]

Sullivan had a healthy sense of humor about himself and permitted—even encouraged—impersonators such as John Byner, Frank Gorshin, Rich Little and especially Will Jordan to imitate him on his show. Johnny Carson also did a fair impression, and even Joan Rivers imitated Sullivan's unique posture. The impressionists exaggerated his stiffness, raised shoulders, and nasal tenor phrasing, along with some of his commonly used introductions, such as "And now, right here on our stage...", "For all you youngsters out there...", and "a really big shew" (his pronunciation of the word "show"). Will Jordan portrayed Sullivan in the films I Wanna Hold Your Hand, The Buddy Holly Story, The Doors, Mr. Saturday Night, Down with Love, and in the 1979 TV movie Elvis.^[9]

In 1963, Ed Sullivan appeared as himself in the film Bye Bye Birdie.

Sullivan, the starmaker [link]

Ed Sullivan congratulates Izhak Perlman after a concert at Tel-Aviv, in 1958.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Sullivan was a respected starmaker because of the number of performers that became household names after appearing on the show. He had a knack for identifying and promoting top talent and paid a great deal of money to secure that talent for his show.

When Elvis Presley became popular, Sullivan was wary of the singer's bad-boy style and said that he would never invite Presley on his program. However, Presley became too big a name to ignore, and Sullivan scheduled him to appear on September 8, 1956. In August, however, Sullivan was injured in an automobile accident that occurred near his country home in Southbury, Connecticut. Sullivan had to take a medical leave from the series and missed the Elvis Presley show. Charles Laughton wound up introducing Presley on the Sullivan hour.^[10] After Sullivan got to know Presley personally, he made amends by telling his audience, "This is a real decent, fine boy."^[11]

Sullivan's failure to scoop the TV industry with Presley made him determined to get the next big sensation first. In 1964, he achieved that with the first live American appearance of The Beatles, on February 9, 1964, the most-watched program in TV history to that point and still one of the most-watched programs of all time.^[12] The Beatles appeared three more times on the Sullivan show in person, and submitted filmed performances later. Sullivan struck up such a rapport with the Beatles that he agreed to introduce them at their momentous Shea Stadium concert on August 15, 1965. The Dave Clark Five, heavily promoted as having a "cleaner" image than the Beatles, made 13 appearances on the Sullivan show, more than any other UK group.

Unlike many shows of the time, Sullivan asked that most musical acts perform their music live, rather than lip-synching to their recordings. Some of these performances have recently been issued on CD.^[13] Examination of performances show that exceptions were made, as when a microphone could not be placed close enough to a performer for technical reasons. An example was B.J. Thomas' 1969 performance of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", in which actual water was sprinkled on him as a special effect. In 1969, Sullivan presented the Jackson 5 with their first single "I Want You Back", which ousted the B. J. Thomas song from the top spot of Billboard's pop charts.

Sullivan, shown here dressed up in a clown suit, hosted the 1972 special Clownaround.

Sullivan appreciated African American talent. He paid for the funeral of dancer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson out of his own pocket. He also defied pressure to exclude African American musicians from appearing on his show. One of Sullivan's favorite and most frequent acts was The Supremes, who appeared 17 times on the show, helping to pave the way for other Motown acts to appear on the show such as The Temptations, The Four Tops, and Martha and the Vandellas.

At a time when television had not yet embraced country and Western music, Sullivan was adamant about featuring Nashville performers on his program. This insistence paved the way for shows such as Hee Haw and variety shows hosted by country singers like Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell.

The act that appeared most frequently through the show's run was the Canadian comedy duo of Wayne & Shuster, making 67 appearances between 1958 and 1969.

Sullivan also appeared as himself on other television programs, including an April 1958 episode of the Howard Duff and Ida Lupino CBS sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve. On September 14, 1958 Sullivan appeared on What's My Line? as a mystery guest, and showed his comedic side by donning a rubber mask. In 1961, Sullivan was asked by CBS to fill in for an ailing Red Skelton on The Red Skelton Show. Sullivan took Skelton's roles in the various comedy sketches; Skelton's hobo character "Freddie the Freeloader" was renamed "Eddie the Freeloader."

Personality [link]

There was another side to Sullivan: he could be very quick to take offense if he felt he had been crossed, and could hold a grudge for a long time. This could sometimes be seen as a part of his TV personality. Jackie Mason, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, and The Doors became intimately familiar with Sullivan's negative side.

On November 20, 1955, Bo Diddley was asked by Sullivan to sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit "Sixteen Tons". Diddley sensed the choice of song would end his career then and there, and instead sang his #1 hit "Bo Diddley". He was banned from the show.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets had first appeared on the Sullivan show in 1957, singing two songs and making a favorable impression on Sullivan. He invited the band to make another appearance in January 1958. Sullivan thought their record hit "Oh, Boy!" was too raucous and ordered Holly to substitute another song. Holly had already told his hometown friends in Texas that he would be singing "Oh, Boy!" for them, and told Sullivan as much. Sullivan was unaccustomed to having his instructions disobeyed. When the band was summoned to the rehearsal stage on short notice, only Holly was in their dressing room. Sullivan said, "I guess The Crickets are not too excited to be on The Ed Sullivan Show," to which Holly, still annoyed by Sullivan's attitude, replied, "I hope they're damn more excited than I am." Sullivan, already bothered by the choice of songs, was now even angrier. He cut the Crickets' act from two songs to one, and when introducing them mispronounced Holly's name, so it came out vaguely as "Buddy Hollett." In addition, Sullivan saw to it that the microphone for Holly's electric guitar was turned off. Holly tried to compensate by singing as loudly as he could. The band was received so well that Sullivan was forced to invite them back for a third appearance. Holly's response was that Sullivan did not have enough money. Footage of the performance survives; photographs taken that day show Sullivan looking angry and Holly smirking and perhaps ignoring Sullivan.

In 1963, Bob Dylan was set to appear on the show, but network censors rejected the song he wanted to perform, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", as potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Refusing to perform a different song, Dylan walked off the set at dress rehearsal. Sullivan, who had approved the song at a previous rehearsal, backed Dylan's decision. The incident resulted in accusations against the network of engaging in censorship. This was not the first incident of apparent network censorship on Sullivan's show. In 1956, Sullivan flew to Europe and was able to film an interview with Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes on the set of the film Anastasia. When he arrived home, Sullivan learned he would not be able to air the Bergman material from it.^[10]

Jackie Mason was banned from the series in October 1964 (the ban was removed a year and a half later, and Mason made his final appearance on the show). During a taping of Mason's monologue Sullivan, off camera, gestured that Mason should wrap things up, as the show was suddenly shown live following an abbreviated address by President Lyndon Johnson, which was expected to preempt the entire show.^[14] The nervous Mason told the audience, "I'm getting two fingers here!" and made his own frantic hand gesture: "Here's a finger for you!" Videotapes of the incident are inconclusive as to whether Mason's upswept hand was intended to be an indecent gesture, but Sullivan's body language immediately afterward made it clear that he was convinced of it, despite Mason's panic-stricken denials later.^[15] Sullivan later invited Mason back for a return engagement, but the notoriety of the "finger" incident lingered with the studio audience.

When The Byrds performed on December 12, 1965, David Crosby got into a shouting match with the show's director. They were never asked to return.^[16]^[17]

On January 15, 1967 The Rolling Stones were told to change the chorus of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's spend some time together". Lead singer Mick Jagger complied, but deliberately called attention to this censorship by rolling his eyes and mugging when he uttered the new words.^[18] Shortly, after the performance, the Stones went backstage, and came back on stage, dressed in Nazi uniforms with swastikas, which caused an angry Sullivan to tell them to go back to their dressing rooms and change back into their performing outfits, however, the Stones left the studio and Sullivan banned the group from ever appearing on his show again.^[19]^{[Full citation needed]}^{[page needed]} Nonetheless, the Stones appeared on the show one final time on November 23, 1969.^[20]

The Doors were banned on September 17, 1967 after they were asked to remove the lyric "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" from their song "Light My Fire" (CBS censors believed that it was too overt a reference to drug use). The band was asked to change the lyric to "girl we couldn't get much better". Morrison sang the original lyric.^[21]

Moe Howard of the Three Stooges recalled in 1975 that Sullivan had a memory problem of sorts: "Ed was a very nice man, but for a showman, quite forgetful. On our first appearance, he introduced us as the Three Ritz Brothers. He got out of it by adding, 'who look more like the Three Stooges to me'."^[22] Joe DeRita, who worked with the Stooges after 1959, had commented that Sullivan had a personality "like the bottom of a bird cage."^[23]

Diana Ross later recalled Sullivan's forgetfulness during the many occasions The Supremes performed on his show. In a 1995 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman (which is filmed in Ed Sullivan Theater), Ross stated, "he could never remember our names. He called us 'the girls'." ^[24]^[25]

In a 1990 press conference Paul McCartney recalled meeting Sullivan again in the early 1970s. Sullivan apparently had no idea who McCartney was. McCartney tried to remind Sullivan that he was one of The Beatles but Sullivan obviously could not remember and, nodding and smiling, simply shook McCartney's hand and left.

Politics [link]

Sullivan, like many American entertainers, was pulled into the Cold War fervor of the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1949, Sullivan booked dancer Paul Draper to appear on Toast of the Town. However, Draper’s scheduled appearance in January 1950 was met with opposition from Hester McCullough, a woman who involved herself in the hunt for subversives. McCullough accused Draper of sympathizing with the communist party, and although Draper denied the accusation, McCullough demanded that Sullivan’s lead sponsor, the Ford Motor Company, cancel Draper’s appearance. Despite McCullough’s protest, Draper was a guest on Toast of the Town, as was originally scheduled. After the program was broadcast, Ford received over a thousand angry letters and telegraphs in response to Draper’s appearance. Consequently, Sullivan was obligated to write a letter of apology to Ford’s advertising agency, Kenyon & Eckhardt, promising to never again move forward with such a controversial guest. Meanwhile, Draper was forced to move to Europe to earn a living.^[26]

Another guest who never appeared on the show because of the controversy surrounding him was legendary African-American singer-actor Paul Robeson, who, at the time of the Draper incident, was undergoing his own troubles with the industry's hunt for supposed Communist sympathizers.

After the Draper incident, Sullivan began to work closely with Theodore Kirkpatrick of the anti-communist Counterattack newsletter. Sullivan would check with Kirkpatrick if a potential guest had some "explaining to do" about his politics. Sullivan wrote in his June 21, 1950 New York Daily News column that "Kirkpatrick has sat in my living room on several occasions and listened attentively to performers eager to secure a certification of loyalty."^[27] Jerome Robbins, in his PBS American Experience biography, claimed that he was forced to capitulate to the House Un-American Activities Committee, identifying eight Communist sympathizers and disgracing himself among his fellow artists, allegedly because Sullivan threatened to reveal Robbins's homosexuality to the public.

Later years and death [link]

In the fall of 1965, CBS began televising the weekly programs in color. Although the Sullivan show was seen live in the Central and Eastern time zones, it was taped for airing in the Pacific and Mountain time zones. Most of the taped programs (as well as some early kinescopes) were preserved, and excerpts have been released on home video.

By 1971, the show's ratings had plummeted. In an effort to refresh their lineup, CBS cancelled the program along with some of its other longtime shows. Sullivan was angered by this so greatly that he refused to do a final show, although he remained with the network in various other capacities and hosted a 25th anniversary special in 1973.

In early September 1974, X-rays revealed that Sullivan had advanced esophageal cancer. Only his family was told, however, and as the doctors gave Sullivan very little time, the family chose to keep the diagnosis from him. Sullivan, still believing his ailment to be yet another complication from a long-standing battle with ulcers, died five weeks later, on October 13, 1974, at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital.^[28] His funeral was attended by 3,000 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York on a cold, rainy day. Sullivan is interred in a crypt at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Personal life [link]

Sullivan was engaged to champion swimmer Sybil Bauer, but she died of cancer in 1927 at the age of 23.^[29] He was married to the former Sylvia Weinstein from April 28, 1930, until her death on March 16, 1973. They had one daughter, Betty Sullivan (who married the Ed Sullivan Show's producer, Bob Precht). Sullivan was in the habit of calling Sylvia after every program to get her immediate critique.

Sullivan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd.

References [link]

^ Ed Sullivan Bio on EdSullivan.com
^ "Special Collectors' Issue: 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time". TV Guide (December 14–20). 1996.
^ [1]
^ [2]
^ Yagoda, Ben (1981), "The True Story of Bernarr Macfadden," American Heritage 33(1), December, 1981; reference used for this article was the online version,Ben Yagoda (December 1981). "The True Story of Bernarr Macfadden: Lives and Loves of the Father of the Confession Magazine". American Heritage. http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1981/1/1981_1_22.shtml. Retrieved 2006-12-13.
^ The Ed Sullivan Theater at EdSullivan.com
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Big As All Outdoors" Time, 17 October 1955.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Plenty of Nothing" Time, 13 October 1967.
^ Will Jordan at the Internet Movie Database
^ ^a ^b Merwin, Gregory (May 1957). Fifty Million People Can't Be Wrong. TV-Radio Mirror. pp. 32–33. http://www.otrr.org/FILES/Magz_pdf/TV_Radio_Mirror/TV%20Radio%20Mirror%205705.pdf. Retrieved 12 February 2012. (PDF)
^ Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show at EdSullivan.com
^ The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show on EdSullivan.com
^ www.amazon.com
^ http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/vince-calandra
^ CBS special, The Very Best of the Ed Sullivan Show
^ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2105166789756539416&q=the+ed+sullivan+show+byrds&ei=e2NwSLuhCYSSrgLNvPylBw&hl=en
^ The Byrds on The Ed Sullivan Show at EdSullivan.com
^ The video of this performance can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uewUcr-BYo
^ "Dick Clark's 25 Years of Rock and Roll" (1981)
^ The Rolling Stones on The Ed Sullivan Show at EdSullivan.com
^ The Doors on Ed Sullivan at EdSullivan.com
^ Howard, Moe. (1977, rev. 1979) Moe Howard and the Three Stooges, p. 165; Citadel Press. ISBN 978-0-8065-0723-1.
^ Lenburg, Jeff; Howard Maurer, Joan; Lenburg, Greg; (1982). The Three Stooges Scrapbook, Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0946-5
^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMeZCg98_2U&feature=related
^ The Supremes on The Ed Sullivan Show at EdSullivan.com
^ Barnouw, E. (1990). Tube of plenty : the evolution of American television / Erik Barnouw. New York : Oxford University Press, 1990.
^ Tube of Plenty, Eric Barnouw, Oxford University Press, 1990
^ "Ed Sullivan Dies Of Cancer At Age 72". Associated Press. October 14, 1974. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tiAtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hqQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=628,4719415&dq=ed+sullivan+dead&hl=en. Retrieved 2010-09-18. "... the Great Stone Face whose "really big shew" entertained millions of American television viewers on Sunday nights for more than two ..."
^ Sisson, Richard; Zacher, Christian K.; Cayton, Andrew R. L. (2007). The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. p. 901. ISBN 0-253-34886-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=n3Xn7jMx1RYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA901#v=onepage&q&f=false.

External links [link]

Biography portal

The Official Ed Sullivan Show Website
Ed Sullivan at the Internet Movie Database
Ed Sullivan at TVGuide.com
Overview of Ed Sullivan's life
The Ed Sullivan Show – Rock 'n' Roll Classics

Persondata
Name	Sullivan, Ed
Alternative names
Short description	American entertainment writer and television host
Date of birth	September 28, 1901
Place of birth	New York City, New York, U.S.
Date of death	October 13, 1974
Place of death	New York City, New York, U.S.

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Sullivan

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Born: 1940-12-01

Died: 2005-12-10

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