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Legendary Richard Pryor Passes At Age 65
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Saturday, 10 December 2005
 Groundbreaking and legendary comedian Richard Pryor died Saturday (December 10) of a heart attack days after celebrating his 65th birthday in his Encino hills home.
Pryor, whose full name was Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III, suffered from multiple sclerosis since 1986. He'd previously suffered a massive heart attack and underwent triple-bypass surgery in 1990. He died at Encino Hospital near Los Angeles at 7:58 a.m. PST.
His wife, Jennifer Lee Pryor, told CNN she tried to revive him at their home before paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital.
"He enjoyed life right up until the end," she said, adding that Pryor had been laughing a lot and was in good spirits in the two weeks preceding his death. "At the end there was a smile on his face."
Pryor started his career in 1962 and became famous by emulating the success of his mentor Mr. Bill Cosby. After a while though, Pryor could not deny his upbringing - a childhood spent raised by his prostitute mother and madam grandmother - and felt compelled to work the pain of growing up in the ghetto into his routine. He abandoned the Cosby-inspired routine for new material.
Upon seeing Pryor's revised act, Cosby said: "Richard Pryor took on a whole new persona, his own. Richard killed the Bill Cosby in his act, made people hate it. Then he worked on them, doing pure Pryor, and it was the most astonishing metamorphosis I have ever seen. He was magnificent."
Pryor rose to epic comic heights in the 1970s and subsequently earned Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.
He repeatedly used the "N" word in his comic routines until a trip to Africa in 1979 after-which he swore he would never use the "N" word in his stand-up comedy routine again.
In addition to appearances in almost 40 films, Pryor also was part of the team that created the script for the Mel Brooks classic, "Blazing Saddles."
Mr. Pryor is survived by six children: Richard Jr., Rain, Elizabeth, Steven, Kelsey and Franklin, along with his wife Jennifer Lee Pryor, whom he divorced in only to re-marry 19 years later.
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| Last Updated (
Saturday, 10 December 2005 ) |
