Richard Pryor, who helped transform comedy with biting commentary on race and often profane reflections on his own shortcomings, died yesterday at age 65 after a long illness.
Pryor died of heart failure after efforts to resuscitate him failed and after he was taken to a hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, his wife, Jennifer Pryor, said. He had been suffering from multiple sclerosis for almost 20 years.
Credited for paving the way for a generation of comic performers, including the likes of Robin Williams, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, Pryor began performing in New York in the 1960s but found his voice with an edgier kind of comedy after moving to California in about 1970.
While he appeared in successful mainstream movies, it was Pryor's confessional style of stand-up, in which nothing was off-limits, that made him a controversial star. Racism was a major theme of his routine and he co-opted a racial epithet in punch lines, although he said after a 1979 trip to Africa he regretted having brought the word into the entertainment mainstream with Grammy-winning comedy albums like "That Nigger's Crazy" and 1976's "Bicentennial Nigger."
Pryor, who battled drug and alcohol abuse for years, also famously joked about a 1980 incident in which he nearly died after dousing himself with cognac and lighting himself on fire while freebasing cocaine.
In the incident, which Pryor later called a suicide attempt, he jumped out a window and ran down a Los Angeles street, burning. ("You know something I noticed? When you run down the street on fire people will move out of your way," he joked in 1982's "Richard Pryor Live on Sunset Strip").
Pryor, who marked his 65th birthday on December 1st, had survived two heart attacks, triple bypass surgery and several run-ins with the law, including a 1978 incident in which he shot up the car of his then-wife when she tried to leave him.
He was married seven times, including twice to Jennifer and twice to Flynn Belaine, and had seven children.
Pryor grew up in a Peoria, Illinois, brothel run by his grandmother. After a stint in the Army, he pursued a comedy career that landed him spots on the Ed Sullivan and Merv Griffin shows in the 1960s.
He won Grammy Awards for his comedy albums and portrayed Billie Holiday's piano player in the 1972 Oscar-nominated film "Lady Sings the Blues." Other film roles paired him with comic Gene Wilder in "Silver Streak" of 1976 and "Stir Crazy" four years later.
The 1986 movie "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling," was based loosely on Pryor's life and recalled his battle with drug addiction and his own near-death experience. "He was an innovator, a trailblazer," director Spike Lee told CNN. "It's a great loss."