50 Fun Facts About Richard Pryor

In which Illinois city was Richard Pryor born and raised?

Richard Pryor was born in Peoria on 1 December 1940 and grew up there; the city unveiled a bronze statue of him downtown in 2015.

How many Grammy Awards did Pryor win during his career?

Pryor won 5 Grammys, all for Best Comedy Album, between 1975 and 1983; a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy followed in 2006.

Pryor was the first recipient of which award in 1998?

Pryor received the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at its first presentation in October 1998, praised as a social critic in Twain's mould.

Which Mel Brooks comedy did Pryor help write?

Pryor shared the Blazing Saddles (1974) writing credit with Brooks and three others, and hoped to play Sheriff Bart before Cleavon Little was cast.

With which actor did Pryor make four films, starting with Silver Streak in 1976?

Gene Wilder and Pryor paired in Silver Streak (1976), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and two other comedies, the last being Another You (1991).

What business did Pryor's grandmother run, in which he grew up?

Pryor grew up in a brothel run by his grandmother Marie, where his mother had worked as a prostitute; the grandmother raised him from about the age of ten.

At what age was Pryor expelled from school?

Pryor was expelled at 14 and drifted through odd jobs before enlisting in the Army in 1958.

Where did Pryor spend virtually his entire 1958-60 stint in the US Army?

Posted to West Germany, Pryor spent nearly the whole stint in a military prison after he and other Black soldiers beat a white soldier who mocked the film Imitation of Life.

Which singer rocked a terrified young Pryor 'like a baby' before he opened for her?

Nina Simone recalled that Pryor, opening for her at the Village Gate, 'shook like he had malaria' and she rocked him in her arms night after night.

Which comedian was Pryor's initial model before he found his own controversial voice?

Pryor's early act was a clean, Bill Cosby-style routine that got him onto The Ed Sullivan Show and The Merv Griffin Show in the mid-1960s.

At which Las Vegas hotel did Pryor walk off stage in 1967 with Dean Martin watching?

Pryor was playing the Aladdin in 1967 when, seeing Dean Martin in the audience, he asked aloud what he was doing there and walked off stage.

What was the title of the comedian's 1995 autobiography?

Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences (1995), written with Todd Gold, is Pryor's own account; Kiss Me Like a Stranger is his frequent co-star's memoir.

To which Californian city did Pryor move in 1969 to immerse himself in the counterculture?

In Berkeley, Pryor fell in with Black Panther Huey P. Newton and novelist Ishmael Reed, and rebuilt his act around race and street life.

For which comedian's 1973 TV special did Pryor share an Emmy as a writer?

Pryor shared the 1974 Emmy for writing Lily Tomlin's 1973 CBS special Lily, having also written for Sanford and Son and The Flip Wilson Show.

Which label tried to block sales of Richard Pryor's That Nigger's Crazy in 1974?

Laff Records, which held Pryor's contract, sued to stop the album's release by a rival label; the settlement let Laff keep issuing older recordings, which it did into 1983.

Which Memphis soul label had Pryor signed with in 1973?

Pryor signed with Stax in 1973 and released That Nigger's Crazy on its Partee imprint in 1974; when Stax collapsed, he moved to Reprise, which reissued it.

Which documentary of a 1972 Los Angeles concert intercuts Pryor riffing on race?

Wattstax, released in 1973, intercuts the August 1972 Los Angeles Coliseum benefit concert with Pryor's monologues on race and the police.

Pryor was the first Black host of which show, in its debut 1975 season?

Pryor hosted Saturday Night Live on 13 December 1975, in its first season, and NBC ran the show on a five-second delay in case he swore.

Which SNL cast member appeared with Pryor in the famous 'word association' sketch?

Chevy Chase played the interviewer trading racial slurs with Pryor's job applicant in the 'Word Association' sketch, written by Paul Mooney.

How many episodes of The Richard Pryor Show aired on NBC in 1977 before cancellation?

He said they offered ten but he had said all he wanted to in four.

On his short-lived 1977 variety show, Pryor played which figure in a famous sketch?

In the first episode, Pryor played the first Black President at a press conference that ends with him lunging at a reporter who insults his mother.

After a 1979 trip to which country did Pryor swear off using a racial slur in his act?

After a 1979 trip to Kenya, where he said he saw no one he could call by that word, Pryor dropped the slur, as he explained in Live on the Sunset Strip.

Which 1980 comedy, grossing over $100 million, was Pryor's biggest box-office hit?

Stir Crazy, with Pryor and Wilder jailed for a bank robbery they didn't commit, took about $101 million in North America on a $10 million budget, third-best of 1980.

Who directed the 1980 prison comedy in which Pryor plays a framed innocent?

Sidney Poitier, by then a veteran director of comedies like Uptown Saturday Night, made the 1980 film in which the framed friends draw 125-year sentences; it grossed over $100 million.

On what date did Pryor set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine?

On June 9, 1980, at his Northridge home, Pryor doused himself in rum and set himself alight, then ran burning down Parthenia Street until police caught up with him.

In his 1982 concert film, Pryor joked that the fire was caused by dunking a cookie into what?

In Live on the Sunset Strip he blamed a cookie dunked in a glass of low-fat milk that 'exploded', then waved a match: 'What's that? Richard Pryor running down the street.'

Who replaced Pryor at the last minute in Mel Brooks's History of the World, Part I after the fire?

Gregory Hines, the tap-dancing Broadway star, took over the role of the slave Josephus shortly before shooting began.

How much was Pryor's five-year deal with Columbia Pictures, signed in 1983?

The 1983 Columbia deal was worth $40 million over five years and funded Pryor's Indigo Productions, run for a time by football star Jim Brown.

In which superhero sequel did Pryor play computer programmer Gus Gorman?

Superman III (1983), directed by Richard Lester, cast Pryor as the hapless programmer Gus Gorman for a reported $4 million fee.

Which role, eventually played by a younger comedian, was Pryor originally considered for?

Pryor was the intended Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places (1983), with his usual partner as Winthorpe, before a younger comedian took the part in only his second film.

What was the comedian's short-lived 1984 CBS children's show called?

Pryor's Place ran on CBS Saturday mornings in autumn 1984, with Sid and Marty Krofft puppets and a theme song by Ray Parker Jr.

How much must Pryor's Brewster spend in a month to inherit ten times as much?

Brewster, a minor-league pitcher, must spend $30 million in 30 days with nothing to show for it in order to inherit $300 million from a great-uncle.

Pryor's only directorial effort, a 1986 fictionalised autobiography, was titled Jo Jo Dancer, what?

He co-wrote it with Paul Mooney and Rocco Urbisci and shot early scenes in his hometown.

Which 1989 film cast Pryor, Redd Foxx and its writer-director as three generations of comedians?

Harlem Nights (1989) paired Pryor, Redd Foxx and the film's writer-director, whose screenplay won that year's Razzie for Worst Screenplay.

What distinction is Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979) usually credited with?

Live in Concert is usually called the earliest full-length feature made only of stand-up; shot at Long Beach's Terrace Theater, it joined the National Film Registry in 2021.

Who directed Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979)?

Jeff Margolis, later a veteran of awards-show telecasts, directed Live in Concert at the Terrace Theatre in Long Beach; Joe Layton directed the 1982 follow-up Live on the Sunset Strip.

What is Richard Pryor's old storyteller character from Tupelo, Mississippi, called?

Mudbone, the rambling old storyteller from Tupelo, Mississippi, first appeared on the 1975 album Is It Something I Said? and returned in Live on the Sunset Strip.

With which disease was Pryor diagnosed in 1986, leading him to use a mobility scooter?

Pryor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1986; he joked that MS stood for 'More Shit' and by the 1990s performed from a scooter.

Which director's 1997 film Lost Highway gave Pryor his final movie role?

David Lynch cast Pryor as Arnie, the garage boss, in Lost Highway (1997); Pryor played the scene from his mobility scooter.

How many times was Pryor married?

Pryor married seven times to five women, wedding both Flynn Belaine and Jennifer Lee twice; Lee was his widow.

Which actress helped Pryor learn to read while they dated in the late 1970s?

Pam Grier wrote in her memoir Foxy that Pryor struggled to read scripts and that she coached him through them during their late-1970s romance.

Which of Pryor's daughters wrote the 2006 memoir Jokes My Father Never Taught Me?

Rain Pryor, his daughter with Shelley Bonis, published Jokes My Father Never Taught Me in 2006 and toured a one-woman show, Fried Chicken and Latkes, about growing up Black and Jewish.

Where were Pryor's ashes scattered in 2019?

Pryor's widow Jennifer Lee Pryor scattered his ashes in the bay at Hana, Hawaii, in 2019; the couple had a home on Maui.

Which magazine ranked Pryor first on its 2017 list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time?

Rolling Stone put Pryor at number one on its 2017 list of the 50 best stand-up comics, as Comedy Central had on its 2004 ranking of 100.

Which British writer replaced Pryor as a Muppet Show guest star after his 1980 freebasing accident?

Chris Langham, a writer on the show, stepped in as guest star of a fifth-season Muppet Show episode when Pryor's burns kept him away.

Pryor co-hosted the 49th Academy Awards in 1977 with Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn and which actor?

Warren Beatty joined Pryor, Jane Fonda and Ellen Burstyn as co-hosts of the 49th Oscars in March 1977; Pryor returned to co-host the 55th ceremony in 1983.

For a guest role on which medical drama did Pryor earn a Primetime Emmy nomination?

Pryor's 1995 guest role on Chicago Hope, playing a patient, brought a 1996 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

How old was Pryor when he suffered his first mild heart attack in November 1977?

Pryor was 36, a few weeks short of his 37th birthday, when the first heart attack struck in November 1977; he was back on stage by early 1978.

Which label issued the 2005 set Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years 1966–1974?

Rhino issued the two-disc Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966–1974) in 2005, gathering Pryor's earliest recorded club routines.

On which 1977 film did Pryor begin a romance with his leading lady?

Greased Lightning (1977), with Pryor as the pioneering Black stock-car driver Wendell Scott, was the set where he and his leading lady became a couple; he soon married someone else.