Richard Pryor
Highest Rated: 100% Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip (1982)
Lowest Rated: 9% The Toy (1982)
Birthday: Dec 1, 1940
Birthplace: Peoria, Illinois, USA
African-American comedian Richard Pryor grew up bombarded by mixed messages. Pryor's grandmother owned a string of brothels, his mother prostituted herself, and his father was a pimp. Still, they raised Richard to be honest, polite, and religious. Living in one of the worst slums in Peoria, IL, Pryor found that he could best defend himself by getting gang members to laugh at instead of pummeling him. This led to his reputation as a disruptive class clown, although at least one understanding teacher allowed Pryor one minute per week to "cut up" so long as he behaved himself the rest of the time. At age 14, he became involved in amateur dramatics at Peoria's Carver Community Center, which polished his stage presence. In 1963, Pryor headed to New York to seek work as a standup comic; after small gigs in the black nightclub circuit, he was advised to pattern himself after Bill Cosby -- that is, to be what white audiences perceived as "nonthreatening." For the next five years, the young comic flourished in clubs and on TV variety shows, making his film bow in The Busy Body (1967). But the suppression of Pryor's black pride and anger by the white power structure frustrated him. One night, sometime between 1969 and 1971, he "lost it" while performing a gig in Las Vegas; he either walked off-stage without a word or he obscenely proclaimed that he was sick of it. Over the next few years, Pryor found himself banned from many nightclubs, allegedly due to offending the mob-connected powers-that-be, and lost many of his so-called friends who'd been sponging off of him. Broke, Pryor went underground in Berkeley, CA, in the early '70s; when he re-emerged, he was a road-company Cosby no more. His act, replete with colorful epithets, painfully accurate character studies of street types, and hilarious (and, to some, frightening) hostility over black-white inequities, struck just the right note with audiences of the committed '70s. Record company executives, concerned that Pryor's humor would appeal only to blacks, were amazed at how well his first post-Berkeley album, That Nigger's Crazy!, sold with young white consumers. As for Hollywood, Pryor made a key early appearance in the Diana Ross vehicle Lady Sings the Blues. But ultra-reactionary Tinseltown wasn't quite attuned to Pryor's liberal use of obscenities or his racial posturing. Pryor had been commissioned to write and star in a Mel Brooks-directed Western-comedy about a black sheriff, but Brooks replaced Pryor with the less-threatening Cleavon Little; Pryor nonetheless retained a credit as one of five writers on the picture, alongside such luminaries as Andrew Bergman. When Pryor appeared onscreen in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings and Silver Streak (both 1976), it was as a supporting actor. But Pryor's popularity built momentum, and by the end of the '70s he became the highest-paid starring comedian in films, with long-range contracts ensuring him work well into the next decade - when such efforts as Stir Crazy, Bustin' Loose, and The Toy helped to both clean up the foul-mouthed comic's somewhat raunchy public image, and endear him to a whole new generation of fans. His comedy albums -- and later, videocassettes -- sold out as quickly as they were recorded. The only entertainment arena still too timid for Pryor was network television -- his 1977 NBC variety series has become legendary for the staggering amount of network interference and censorship imposed upon it.By the early '80s, Pryor was on top of the entertainment world. Then came a near-fatal catastrophe when he accidentally set himself afire while freebasing cocaine. Upon recovery, he joked liberally (and self-deprecatively) about his brush with death, but, otherwise, he appeared to change; his comedy became more introspective, more rambling, more tiresome, and occasionally (as in the 1983 standup effort Richard Pryor: Here and Now) drew vicious heckling and catcalls from obnoxious audiences. His cinematic dec
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
Movies
| Credit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Score Yet | Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business Of America | Actor | — | 2008 |
| No Score Yet | Black and White Trypps Number Four | Actor | — | 2007 |
| No Score Yet | Richard Pryor:Stand Up | Actor | — | 2005 |
| No Score Yet | Richard Pryor - I Ain't Dead Yet #%$#@!! Uncensored | Actor | — | 2004 |
| No Score Yet | Richard Pryor - I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$#@!! | Actor | — | 2003 |
| No Score Yet | Adios Amigo | Sam Spade | — | 2003 |
| No Score Yet | Bitter Jester | Actor | — | 2003 |
| 86% | Wattstax | Actor | — | 2000 |
| No Score Yet | Bingo Long And His Traveling All Stars | Actor | — | 1998 |
| 60% | Lost Highway | Arnie | — | 1997 |
| No Score Yet | Century of Black Cinema | Actor | — | 1997 |
| No Score Yet | Sam Kinison: Why Did We Laugh? | Actor | — | 1997 |
| 17% | Mad Dog Time | Jimmy the Gravedigger | — | 1996 |
| 11% | Another You | Eddie Dash | — | 1991 |
| No Score Yet | The Three Muscatels | Russell | — | 1991 |
| 21% | Harlem Nights | Sugar Ray | — | 1989 |
| 28% | See No Evil, Hear No Evil | Wally | — | 1989 |
| 33% | Moving | Arlo Pear | — | 1988 |
| No Score Yet | Critical Condition | Eddie Lenahan/Dr. Kevin Slattery | — | 1987 |
| No Score Yet | Lily Tomlin | Actor | — | 1986 |
| 55% | Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling | Jo Jo Dancer/Alter Ego Director Screenwriter Producer | — | 1986 |
| 35% | Brewster's Millions | Montgomery Brewster | — | 1985 |
| 83% | Richard Pryor Here and Now | Himself Screenwriter Director | — | 1983 |
| 26% | Superman III | Gus Gorman | — | 1983 |
| No Score Yet | Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever | Actor | — | 1983 |
| 9% | The Toy | Jack Brown | — | 1982 |
| 40% | Some Kind of Hero | Eddie Keller | — | 1982 |
| 100% | Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip | Producer Screenwriter Himself | — | 1982 |
| 60% | Bustin' Loose | Producer Joe Braxton | — | 1981 |
| No Score Yet | Richard Pryor - Live and Smokin' | Actor | — | 1981 |
| 67% | Stir Crazy | Harry Monroe | — | 1980 |
| No Score Yet | In God We Tru$t (In God We Trust) (Gimme That Prime Time Religion) | God | — | 1980 |
| 14% | Wholly Moses! | Pharaoh | — | 1980 |
| 88% | The Muppet Movie | Balloon Man | — | 1979 |
| 92% | Richard Pryor---Live in Concert | Screenwriter Actor | — | 1979 |
| 57% | California Suite | Dr. Chauncy Gump | — | 1978 |
| 42% | The Wiz | The Wiz | — | 1978 |
| 100% | Blue Collar | Zeke Brown | — | 1978 |
| 18% | Which Way Is Up? | Leroy Jones / Rufus Jones / Rev. Lenox Thomas | — | 1977 |
| No Score Yet | Greased Lightning | Wendell Scott | — | 1977 |
| 80% | Silver Streak | Grover Muldoon | — | 1976 |
| 87% | Car Wash | Daddy Rich | — | 1976 |
| 88% | The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings | Charlie Snow/Carlos Nevada/Chief Takahoma, All-Star | — | 1976 |
| 75% | Uptown Saturday Night | Sharp Eye Washington | — | 1974 |
| 91% | Blazing Saddles | Screenwriter | — | 1974 |
| No Score Yet | Hit! | Mike Willmer | — | 1973 |
| No Score Yet | The Mack | Slim | — | 1973 |
| No Score Yet | Some Call It Loving | Jeff | — | 1973 |
| 69% | Lady Sings the Blues | Piano Man | — | 1972 |
| No Score Yet | Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' | Actor | — | 1971 |
| No Score Yet | Dynamite Chicken | Himself | — | 1971 |
| No Score Yet | The Phynx | Himself | — | 1970 |
| No Score Yet | Carter's Army | Pvt. Jonathan Crunk | — | 1970 |
| No Score Yet | Black Brigade | Crunk | — | 1969 |
| 63% | Wild in the Streets | Stanley X | — | 1968 |
| No Score Yet | The Busy Body | Whittaker | — | 1967 |
TV
| Credit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 67% |
Norm 1999-2001 |
Mr. Johnson |
1999 |
| No Score Yet |
Malcolm & Eddie 1996-2000 |
Uncle Bucky |
1996 |
| No Score Yet |
Chicago Hope 1994-2000 |
Joe Springer |
1995 |
| No Score Yet |
Martin 1992-1997 |
Himself |
1993 |
| 45% |
The Academy Awards 1978 |
1983 |
|
| No Score Yet |
Saturday Night Live 1975 |
Guest Host |
1975 |
| No Score Yet |
The Flip Wilson Show 1970-1974 |
Guest |
1974 1973 |
| No Score Yet |
The Partridge Family 1970-1974 |
Guest |
1971 |
| No Score Yet |
The Wild Wild West 1965-1969 |
Villar |
1966 1965 |
| 60% |
The Richard Pryor Show 1977 |
QUOTES FROM Richard Pryor CHARACTERS
Sugar Ray says: How was your date?
Quick says: I killed her.
Sugar Ray says: Ah, tore the pussy up, huh!
Quick says: No, man, I killed her.
Sugar Ray says: What the fuck you talking about.
Quick says: I shot her, man.
Sugar Ray says: Hmm. Was the pussy that bad, man?
Sugar Ray says: Quick, you're not a gangster. We're not. We're club owners. We run a dance hall. Calhoune... he's a cold-hearted killer. He'll have your ass killed. Now, the man probably doesn't know about La Rue yet. But in the morning, he's going to want you really dead. So, we got to find a place where we can lay low. Till we can run the scam and split.
Quick says: You telling me I should hide?
Sugar Ray says: No. I'm telling you you're gonna hide. You don't hide, Quick, they're gonna kill you. I'm not gonna let that happen to you. I didn't come this far with you so you can prove you ain't no punk and die. What are they gonna put on your tombstone? "Here lies a man, 27 years old. He died, but he ain't no punk." Hey man, that's bullshit. OK? You know when you die? When you're 89... got your children and your grandchildren around the bed... that's cool. It ain't cool to die at 27. I'm not gonna let you do that to yourself. I'm not gonna let you do it to me. 'Cause they kill you, they're gonna have to kill me. 'Cause I'm gonna kill them.
Phil Cantone says: OK Ray, here's the deal. I got a call from a friend of mine by the name of Bugsy Calhoune. He told me you're sitting on a little gold mine here. Now don't get me wrong. I know there's always gonna be after-hour places. We pretty much leave them alone when the money's not that significant, but you guys are doing about 10-15,000 a week. I mean, that's a lot of money. And to be perfectly honest. Mr. Calhoune & myself want some of it.
Sugar Ray says: How much money you talking about, you maggot motherfucker?
Phil Cantone says: Well, you guys are doing 15.000 a week. Let's say our cut is 10,000.
Sugar Ray says: You're robbing us, you son of a bitch.
Phil Cantone says: No, no, no. You're robbing the system, Ray. What do you want... sympathy from me? You're criminals, for Christ's sake. And I think it's a pretty fair deal. I wanted more, but Bugsy said it was fair. I mean, he's a real softy, Bugsy. I mean, if it was up to me, I'd give you jigs just enough money to function. So when I see you guys with the... with the fancy suits and cars and nice houses, and I'm living in a FUCKING HOVEL... I mean, that bothers me.
Sugar Ray says: Vera, you know we tally up at 4 o'clock. What is your problem?
Vera says: Kiss my ass, Sugar. I've got to watch my girls until the last trick is gone. And I'm not about to ask no customer to roll over so I can punch some goddamn clock. Now, this is your place, but I am in charge of the girls... and you can just kiss my ass.
Sugar Ray says: [Sugar Ray makes kisses toward Vera] Oh baby!
Vera says: No, stop it, Sugar, stop doing... Don't do that. Stop that!
Quick says: So, baby, how'd we do tonight?
Vera says: We made about 200.
Quick says: 200? Your girls have been back there all night. How'd they only make 200 dollars?
Vera says: You kiss my ass, Quick! I don't ever say nothing to you when the crap table and the bar come up short.
Quick says: Cause the bar and the crap table never come up short, just the girls.
Sugar Ray says: Now, calm down, Vera.
Vera says: Kiss my ass, Sugar! I wanna know what it is Quick is trying to say?
Quick says: I ain't trying to say shit. You're in charge of the girls, right?
Vera says: I am in charge of the girls.
Quick says: Are you in charge of the girls?
Vera says: I AM in charge of the girls.
Quick says: OK, The girls are always coming up short. Alright, let's get this shit out in the open. The girls are always coming up short even when the place is packed the girls come up short. Now, either you or them got a problem with their arithmetic.
Vera says: Are you saying I'm stealing?
Bennie Wilson says: The man didn't say you was stealing, Vera. Now, come over here and sit down and shut the fuck up!
Vera says: You shut the fuck up, Bennie. I would tell you to kiss my ass too, but you probably can't find it you blind motherfucker.
Bennie Wilson says: Fuck you, bitch.
Vera says: [Vera turning and looking at Quick] Me and you got to step out back.
Sugar Ray says: Hey, it was just a misunderstanding.
Vera says: [Vera starts taking off her hat] nuh-uh, No it ain't, it ain't no misunderstanding. Quick just accused me of stealing. and if you gonna take up for Quick in here, we can all be some fighting motherfuckers in here this evening. Bring your ass, nigger. Bring it on. Come on. Bring your ass! Come on, get up and come on, motherfucker!
Quick says: All right, bitch, you want to fight? We can fight then, you fat motherfucker, l'm tired of your shit!
Vera says: Just bring your ass!
Eddie/Kevin says: Youâ??re suffering from a severe case of full-of-shitness.
Eddie/Kevin says: You're suffering from a severe case of full-of-shitness.
Sheriff Chauncey says: Hello, Car 36, what the hell happened to you guys?
Grover Muldoon says: [into the radio] Hey Chauncey, this is Grover T. Muldoon. You wanna know what happened? We just whooped your ass. We whooped your ass. Ha ha ha!
Eddie Keller says: green fog
Eddie Keller says: Green fog.