Richard Pryor (born 1940) was one of the most influential stand- up comedians of his generation, and starred in a number of hit films and comedy recordings. He created a new type of humor, one that blended self-effacing statements about being African...

In the 1970s and 1980s, Richard Pryor was one of America's top comedians, creating a daring new comedy of character by transforming African-American culture into humorous performance art. Pryor called upon both personal and social tragedy for...

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American comedian, actor, and writer. Pryor was a storyteller known for unflinching examinations of racism and customs in modern life, and was well-known for...

In Deutschland wurde der afroamerikanische Komiker Richard Pryor, der am 10. Dezember mit 65 Jahren in Encino (Kalifornien) starb, nicht zuletzt durch seine gemeinsamen Filme mit Gene Wilder wahrgenommen, mit dem er eine Art schwarzweiÃes SpaÃmacher-Duo bildete. In den Vereinigten Staaten kannte man Pryor...

RICHARD PRYOR is remembered primarily as an influence on black comedians, but his reach extended to any comedian interested in challenging an audience. While there's no doubt he paved the way for Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock, he was a trailblazer for honesty and...

Pryor had been suffering from multiple sclerosis before he died at Encino Hospital near Los Angeles at 7:58 a.m. PT on Saturday [December 10], according to CNN. "He enjoyed life right up until the end," his wife, Jennifer Lee Pryor, told The Associated Press....

Billy Crystal will be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.He's the 10th recipient of the award, given annually by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It'll be presented Oct. 11 at a tribute performance that will be televised by PBS."The...

At the center of Richard Pryor's comedy is his grasp of poverty and weakness, pain and defeat—the very reverse of that strength and self-confidence which he can project so powerfully on a stage. Within the taut dynamics of his performance art, complex attitudes about success and failure, pride and shame, wealth and poverty, love and self-interest are constantly being formulated in relation to one another—guaranteeing the authenticity of his popular appeal, and the beauty and honesty of ...

When [Charlie] Chaplin began to talk on-screen, he used a cultivated voice and high-flown words, and became a deeply unfunny man; if he had found the street language to match his low-life, tramp movements, he might have been something like Richard Pryor, who's all of a piece—a master of lyrical obscenity. Pryor is the only great poet satirist among our comics. His lyricism seems to come out of his thin-skinned nature; he's so empathic he's all wired up. His 1979 film "Rich...

Almost singlehandedly, [Richard Pryor] is creating a new style in American comedy, a style that some of his admirers have called "theater" because there is no other category available for what he does. His style relies on extremely subtle dimensions which must be observed and heard at the same time in order to be completely understood and appreciated. Indeed, there is no way his brand of comedy can be described in writing without the generous use of parentheses noting nuances in sound and faci...