1963–1969: Early performances appearances, 1968–1969 In 1963, Pryor moved to New York City and began performing regularly in clubs alongside performers such as
Bob Dylan and
Woody Allen. On one of his first nights, he opened for singer and pianist
Nina Simone at New York's
Village Gate. Simone recalls Pryor's bout of
performance anxiety: Initially inspired by
Bill Cosby, Pryor began as a
middlebrow comic, with material less controversial than what was to come. He began appearing regularly on television
variety shows such as
The Ed Sullivan Show,
The Merv Griffin Show, and
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His popularity led to success as a comic in
Las Vegas. The first five tracks on the 2005 compilation CD
Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966–1974), recorded in 1966 and 1967, capture Pryor in this period. In 1966, Pryor was a guest star on an episode of
The Wild Wild West. In September 1967, Pryor had what he described in his autobiography
Pryor Convictions (1995) as an "
epiphany". He walked onto the stage at the
Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas (with
Dean Martin in the audience), looked at the sold-out crowd, exclaimed over the microphone, "What the fuck am I doing here!?", and walked off the stage. Afterward, Pryor began working profanity into his act, including the word
nigger. His first comedy recording, the 1968 debut
Richard Pryor on the
Dove/Reprise label, captures this particular period, tracking the evolution of Pryor's routine. His parents died—his mother in 1967 and his father in 1968. By 1968, Pryor had broken with Cosby's style of comedy and became more controversial. In 1969, Pryor moved to
Berkeley, California, where he immersed himself in the
counterculture and met people like
Huey P. Newton and
Ishmael Reed.
1970–1979: Breakthrough and acclaim specials. He is seen here with Tomlin and
Alan Alda in Tomlin's 1973 special. In the 1970s, Pryor wrote for television shows such as
Sanford and Son,
The Flip Wilson Show, and a 1973
Lily Tomlin special, for which he shared an
Emmy Award. During this period, Pryor tried to break into mainstream television. He appeared in several films, including
Lady Sings the Blues (1972),
The Mack (1973),
Uptown Saturday Night (1974),
Silver Streak (1976),
Car Wash (1976),
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976),
Which Way Is Up? (1977),
Greased Lightning (1977),
Blue Collar (1978), and
The Muppet Movie (1979). Pryor signed with the comedy-oriented independent record label
Laff Records in 1970, and in 1971 recorded his second album,
Craps (After Hours). Two years later Pryor, still relatively unknown, appeared in the documentary
Wattstax (1972), wherein he riffed on the tragic-comic absurdities of
race relations in
Watts and the United States. Not long afterward, Pryor sought a deal with a larger label, and he signed with
Stax Records in 1973. When his third breakthrough album ''
That Nigger's Crazy'' (1974) was released, Laff, which claimed ownership of Pryor's recording rights, almost succeeded in getting an
injunction to prevent the album from being sold. Negotiations led to Pryor's release from his Laff contract. In return for this concession, Laff was enabled to release previously unissued material, recorded between 1968 and 1973, at will. ''That Nigger's Crazy'' was a commercial and critical success; it was eventually certified gold by the
RIAA and won the
Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the
1975 Grammy Awards. During the legal battle, Stax briefly closed its doors. At this time, Pryor returned to
Reprise/
Warner Bros. Records, which re-released ''That Nigger's Crazy
, immediately after ...Is It Something I Said?, his first album with his new label. Like That Nigger's Crazy'', the album was a critical success; it was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA and won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording at the 1976 Grammy Awards. Pryor's 1976 release
Bicentennial Nigger continued his streak of success. It became his third consecutive gold album, and he collected his third consecutive Grammy for Best Comedy Recording for the album in 1977. With every successful album Pryor recorded for Warner (or later, his concert films and his 1980
freebasing accident), Laff published an album of older material to capitalize on Pryor's growing fame—a practice they continued until 1983. The covers of Laff albums tied in thematically with Pryor films, such as
Are You Serious? for
Silver Streak (1976),
The Wizard of Comedy for his appearance in
The Wiz (1978), and
Insane for
Stir Crazy (1980). Pryor co-wrote
Blazing Saddles (1974), directed by
Mel Brooks and starring
Gene Wilder. Pryor was to play the lead role of Bart, but Mel Brooks didn't want to share credit with the quickly-rising comic. Brooks has always maintained Warner Brothers' executives vetoed Pryor's casting, but no studio executive has ever corroborated this claim. It was only after Pryor's death (in 2005) that Brooks began insisting the comic was "uninsurable" because of a "drug arrest;" but to date, no studio executive employed at Warner Brothers during this era has ever gone
on the record to corroborate these assertions—either the director's vigorously advocating or the studio's absolute rejection for hiring Pryor to act in
Blazing Saddles. According to director
Michael Shultz, "Richard wrote it and Mel Brooks chased him out," Shultz said at the time (during the film's theatrical exhibition). "Mel Brooks was trying to get total credit for the picture. . . . To be outmaneuvered and ripped off at that early stage in his career is something that's a little hard for him to get over. I'd feel the same way." Moreover, Brooks assured Pryor that the role of Sheriff Bart was his, but after Pryor departed the director's writer's suite, he never heard from Brooks again. In early-1972, Pryor was reportedly dumbfounded when he had to first learn from
Cleavon Little that Brooks wasn't going to use him on-screen. in 1978 In 1975, Pryor was a guest host on the
first season of
Saturday Night Live (
SNL), making him the first black host. Pryor's longtime girlfriend, actress and talk-show host Kathrine McKee (sister of
Lonette McKee), made a brief guest appearance with Pryor on
SNL. One of the highlights of the night was the controversial
"word association" skit with
Chevy Chase. He later did his own variety show,
The Richard Pryor Show, which premiered on
NBC in 1977. The show was cancelled after only four episodes, probably because television audiences did not respond well to his show's controversial subject matter, and Pryor was unwilling to alter his material for network censors. He later said, "They offered me ten episodes, but I said all I wanted to in four." During the short-lived series,
he portrayed the first black President of the United States, spoofed the
Star Wars Mos Eisley cantina, examined
gun violence in a non-comedy skit, lampooned racism on the sinking
Titanic, and used costumes and visual distortion to appear nude. In 1979, at the height of his success, Pryor visited
Kenya. Upon returning to the United States from Africa, Pryor swore he would never use the word "
nigger" in his stand-up comedy routine again.
1980–1989: Established career In 1980, Pryor became the first black actor to earn a million dollars for a single film when he was hired to star in
Stir Crazy. On June 9, 1980, while on a
freebasing binge during the making of the film, Pryor incorporated a description of the incident into his comedy show
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982). He joked that the event was caused by dunking a cookie into a glass of low-fat and
pasteurized milk, causing an explosion. At the end of the bit, he poked fun at people who told jokes about it by waving a lit match and saying, "What's that? Richard Pryor running down the street." Before the freebasing incident, Pryor was about to start filming Mel Brooks'
History of the World, Part I (1981), but was replaced at the last minute by
Gregory Hines. Likewise, Pryor was scheduled for an appearance on
The Muppet Show at that time, which forced the producers to cast their British writer,
Chris Langham, as the guest star for that episode instead. After his "final performance", Pryor did not stay away from stand-up comedy for long. Within a year, he filmed and released a new concert film and accompanying album,
Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983), which he directed himself. He wrote and directed a fictionalized account of his life,
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, which was inspired by the 1980 freebasing incident. In 1983 Pryor signed a five-year contract with
Columbia Pictures for $40 million and he started his own production company, Indigo Productions. Softer, more formulaic films followed, including
Superman III (1983), which earned Pryor $4 million, ''
Brewster's Millions (1985), Moving (1988), and See No Evil, Hear No Evil'' (1989). The only film project from this period that recalled his rough roots was Pryor's semiautobiographic debut as a writer-director,
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, which was not a major success. Pryor was also originally considered for the role of Billy Ray Valentine on
Trading Places (1983), before
Eddie Murphy won the part. Despite his reputation for constantly using profanity on and off camera, Pryor briefly hosted a children's show on
CBS called ''
Pryor's Place (1984). Like Sesame Street (where Pryor appeared in a few oft-repeated segments), Pryor's Place
featured a cast of puppets (animated by Sid and Marty Krofft), hanging out and having fun in a friendly inner-city environment along with several children and characters portrayed by Pryor himself. Its theme song was performed by Ray Parker Jr. Pryor's Place
frequently dealt with more sobering issues than Sesame Street''. It was cancelled shortly after its debut. Pryor co-hosted the
Academy Awards twice—the
49th Academy Awards in 1977 with
Warren Beatty,
Ellen Burstyn, and
Jane Fonda and again at the
55th Academy Awards in 1983 alongside
Liza Minnelli,
Dudley Moore, and
Walter Matthau. He was also nominated for an
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series on the television series
Chicago Hope. Network censors had warned Pryor about his profanity for the Academy Awards, and after a slip early in the program, a five-second delay was instituted when returning from a commercial break. Pryor is one of only three
Saturday Night Live hosts to be subjected to a five-second delay (along with
Sam Kinison in 1986 and
Andrew Dice Clay in 1990). Pryor developed a reputation for being demanding and disrespectful on film sets, and for making selfish and difficult requests. In his autobiography
Kiss Me Like a Stranger, co-star Gene Wilder says that Pryor was frequently late to the set during filming of
Stir Crazy, and that he demanded, among other things, a helicopter to fly him to and from set because he was the star. Pryor was accused of using allegations of on-set racism to force the hand of film producers into giving him more money: Pryor appeared in
Harlem Nights (1989), a comedy-drama crime film starring three generations of black comedians (Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and
Redd Foxx).
1990–2005: Later years and final works In his later years starting in the early to mid-1990s, Pryor used a power-operated
mobility scooter due to
multiple sclerosis (MS). He often said that MS stood for "More Shit". He appears on the scooter in his last film appearance, a small role in
David Lynch's
Lost Highway (1997) playing an auto-repair garage manager named Arnie.
Rhino Records remastered all of Pryor's Reprise and WB albums for inclusion in the box set ''
... And It's Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968–1992)'' (2000). In December 1999, Pryor appeared in the
cold open of an episode of
The Norm Show entitled "Norm vs. The Boxer". He played Mr. Johnson, an elderly man in a wheelchair who has lost the rights to in-home nursing when he kept attacking the nurses before attacking Norm himself. This was his last television appearance. In 2002, Pryor and Jennifer Lee Pryor, his wife and manager, won legal rights to all the Laff material, which amounted to almost 40 hours of reel-to-reel analog tape. After going through the tapes and getting Richard's blessing, Jennifer Lee Pryor gave Rhino Records access to the tapes in 2004. These tapes, including the entire
Craps (After Hours) album, form the basis of the February 1, 2005, double-CD release
Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966–1974). == Influences ==