Death of Richard Pryor

Richard Pryor, one of the great comic actors of the past 30 years, died on Saturday, 10 December following a heart attack. He was aged 65.

Born in the state of Illinois in 1940 and raised in a brothel by his grand mother, Richard Pryor began his dazzling career at the age of 7, firstly as a drummer and later as a night club comedian in the course of which as an adult he regularly shocked the establishment with his no-holds-barred take on sex and racism. His biting humour landed him minor film roles in the 60's and to figure in several TV series in addition to appearances in talk shows which made him a star over the course of the next decade whilst also doing comedy (appearing numerous times alongside his friend Gene Wilder) for the bid screen. In 1980, at the peak of his fame he was victim – under the influence of narcotics – of an accident which left him badly burnt. After some commercial successes including «Superman 3», the latter half of the 1980's proved to be a descent to hell for Richard Pryor: his films no longer hit the mark and he was compelled to prematurely end his career after having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and in the breath suffered a heart attack. In 1997, he made a final, brief cinema appearance in «Lost Highway» by David Lynch. A father of 5 children and married 6 times over – twice with the same women – Richard Pryor died of a heart attack in his own home last Saturday at the age of 65.