Jennifer lee pryor

Richard Pryor dedicated his 1995 autobiography, Pryor Convictions: And Other Life Sentences, “to my angels,” and it does not take long to understand why. A comic genius, a movie star, and a revolutionary stand-up, Pryor seemed to have the devil perpetually perched on his shoulder, whispering in his ear.

In this unflinchingly honest book, Pryor recounts his journey from abused child to multimillionaire drug-addict abuser. Along the way, he tells tales both heartbreaking and hilarious. From shooting rounds into the sky while high on coke with Freddie Prinze to getting weed for Jackie Gleason or sneaking drugs to prisoners in Arizona during the filming of Stir Crazy, Pryor lived hard, and made millions laugh even harder along the way.

“My job, as I saw it, was to throw light where there had only been darkness,” he writes in Pryor Convictions. “What I’m saying might be profane. But it’s also profound.”

The Minefield

“I was a skinny little black kid, with big eyes that took in the whole world and a wide, bright smile that begged for more attention than anybody had time to g

This month, I had the wonderful privilege of interviewing Professor Scott Saul on his recent book, Saul teaches in the Department of English at UC-Berkeley, where he offers courses in 20th-century American literature and history. He is the author of Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties (Harvard University Press, 2004). His second book, Becoming Richard Pryor, was longlisted for the PEN Award for Biography. The digital companion to his Pryor biography, “Richard Pryor’s Peoria,” was named a top digital archive of 2014 by Slate. He hosts a books-and-arts podcast entitled “Chapter & Verse.” You can follow him on Twitter @scottsaul4.

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Guy Emerson Mount: Thank you for producing such a thoughtful and carefully researched work on arguably the most pivotal black comedian the world has ever known.  Your biography is unique in a number of ways, not the least of which is that you offer something of a return to the inquiry into psychology that underwrites so many of the great biographies such as David Levering Le

Richard Pryor

American comedian and actor (1940–2005)

This article is about the stand-up comedian. For the broadcaster and humorist, see Cactus Pryor. For the album, see Richard Pryor (album).

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Known for reaching a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most important stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards.[1] He received the first Kennedy CenterMark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.[2] In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.[3]

Pryor's body of work includes numerous concert films and recordings. He won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for That Nigger's Crazy (1974), ...Is It

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