Post by Slim K team on Dec 10, 2005 20:45:13 GMT -8
[glow=red,2,300]Pathbreaking Comedian RICHARD PRYOR Dies[/glow]
Dez 10, 4:41 EST
The Associated Press
official website: www.richardpryor.com
"We loved him and will miss him....,"
Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, died Saturday. He was 65.
Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. of a heart attack after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.
"We loved him and will miss you," his ex-wife, Flynn Pryor, said from her Florida home.
Pryor was regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed comics in the business, but he gained a wide following for his expletive-filled but universal and frequently personal insights into modern life and race relations.
His audacious style influenced an array of stand-up artists, including Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and Damon Wayans, as well as Robin Williams, David Letterman and others.
A series of hit comedies in the '70s and '80s, as well as filmed versions of his concert performances, helped make him Pryor one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. He was one of the first black performers to have enough leverage to cut his own Hollywood deals. In 1983, he signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures.
His films included "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "Which Way Is Up?" and "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip."
Throughout his career, Pryor focused on racial inequality, once joking as the host of the 1977 Academy Awards that Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were the only black members of the Academy.
Pryor once marveled "that I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that."
In 1980, he nearly lost his life when he suffered severe burns over 50 percent of his body while freebasing cocaine at his home. An admitted "junkie" at the time, Pryor spent six weeks recovering from the burns and much longer from drug and alcohol dependence.
He battled multiple sclerosis throughout the '90s.
In his last movie, the 1991 bomb "Another You," Pryor's poor health was clearly evident.
Pryor made a comeback attempt the following year, returning to standup comedy in clubs and on television while looking thin and frail, and with noticeable speech and movement difficulties.
In 1995, he played an embittered multiple sclerosis patient in an episode of the television series "Chicago Hope." The role earned him an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a drama series.
"To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what they were talking about," he said. "And the doctor said 'Don't worry, in three months you'll know.'
"So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn't get up. ... Your muscles trick you; they did me."
While Pryor's material sounds modest when compared with some of today's raunchier comedians, it was startling material when first introduced. He never apologized for it.
In his 1977 NBC television series "The Richard Pryor Show," he threatened to cancel his contract with the network after NBC's censors objected to a skit in which Pryor appeared naked save for a flesh-colored loincloth to suggest he was emasculated.
In his later years Pryor mellowed considerably, and his film roles looked more like easy paychecks than artistic endeavors. His robust work gave way to torpid efforts like "Harlem Nights," "Brewster's Millions" and "See No Evil, Here No Evil."
Pryor was married six times. He and Flynn Pryor had a son, Steven. Previous children included another son, Richard, and daughters Elizabeth, Rain and Renee.
Daughter Rain became an actress. In an interview in 2005, she told the Philadelphia Inquirer that her father always "put his life right out there for you to look at. I took that approach because I saw how well audiences respond to it. I try to make you laugh at life."
=======================================
DEUTSCH:
11. Dezember 2005 01:21
US-Komödiant und Schauspieler Richard Pryor gestorben
LOS ANGELES - Der amerikanische Komödiant und Schauspieler Richard Pryor ist tot. Er habe einen Herzinfarkt erlitten, sagte die sechste Ehefrau des Schauspielers, Jennifer Lee Pryor, dem Nachrichtensender CNN.
Pryor starb im Alter von 65 Jahren. Der Afroamerikaner mit dem bissigen Humor litt seit fast 20 Jahren an Multipler Sklerose. In einer seiner letzten Rollen war er 1996 in dem Streifen "Eine Sippschaft zum Ermorden" auf der Leinwand zu sehen.
Der aus ärmlichen Verhältnissen stammende Künstler stieg als Komiker in Unterhaltungsclubs auf. Er wirkte in über 50 Filmen mit, darunter in "Lady sings the Blues" mit Billie Holiday und 1989 mit Gene Wilder in der Komödie "Die Glücksjäger".
In den siebziger und achtziger Jahren war er einer der beliebtesten schwarzen Schauspieler seiner Generation. Im Fernsehen hatte er seine eigenen Shows. Ausserdem schrieb er Drehbücher für TV-Sendungen.
Dez 10, 4:41 EST
The Associated Press
official website: www.richardpryor.com
"We loved him and will miss him....,"
Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, died Saturday. He was 65.
Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. of a heart attack after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.
"We loved him and will miss you," his ex-wife, Flynn Pryor, said from her Florida home.
Pryor was regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed comics in the business, but he gained a wide following for his expletive-filled but universal and frequently personal insights into modern life and race relations.
His audacious style influenced an array of stand-up artists, including Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and Damon Wayans, as well as Robin Williams, David Letterman and others.
A series of hit comedies in the '70s and '80s, as well as filmed versions of his concert performances, helped make him Pryor one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. He was one of the first black performers to have enough leverage to cut his own Hollywood deals. In 1983, he signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures.
His films included "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "Which Way Is Up?" and "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip."
Throughout his career, Pryor focused on racial inequality, once joking as the host of the 1977 Academy Awards that Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were the only black members of the Academy.
Pryor once marveled "that I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that."
In 1980, he nearly lost his life when he suffered severe burns over 50 percent of his body while freebasing cocaine at his home. An admitted "junkie" at the time, Pryor spent six weeks recovering from the burns and much longer from drug and alcohol dependence.
He battled multiple sclerosis throughout the '90s.
In his last movie, the 1991 bomb "Another You," Pryor's poor health was clearly evident.
Pryor made a comeback attempt the following year, returning to standup comedy in clubs and on television while looking thin and frail, and with noticeable speech and movement difficulties.
In 1995, he played an embittered multiple sclerosis patient in an episode of the television series "Chicago Hope." The role earned him an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a drama series.
"To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what they were talking about," he said. "And the doctor said 'Don't worry, in three months you'll know.'
"So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn't get up. ... Your muscles trick you; they did me."
While Pryor's material sounds modest when compared with some of today's raunchier comedians, it was startling material when first introduced. He never apologized for it.
In his 1977 NBC television series "The Richard Pryor Show," he threatened to cancel his contract with the network after NBC's censors objected to a skit in which Pryor appeared naked save for a flesh-colored loincloth to suggest he was emasculated.
In his later years Pryor mellowed considerably, and his film roles looked more like easy paychecks than artistic endeavors. His robust work gave way to torpid efforts like "Harlem Nights," "Brewster's Millions" and "See No Evil, Here No Evil."
Pryor was married six times. He and Flynn Pryor had a son, Steven. Previous children included another son, Richard, and daughters Elizabeth, Rain and Renee.
Daughter Rain became an actress. In an interview in 2005, she told the Philadelphia Inquirer that her father always "put his life right out there for you to look at. I took that approach because I saw how well audiences respond to it. I try to make you laugh at life."
=======================================
DEUTSCH:
11. Dezember 2005 01:21
US-Komödiant und Schauspieler Richard Pryor gestorben
LOS ANGELES - Der amerikanische Komödiant und Schauspieler Richard Pryor ist tot. Er habe einen Herzinfarkt erlitten, sagte die sechste Ehefrau des Schauspielers, Jennifer Lee Pryor, dem Nachrichtensender CNN.
Pryor starb im Alter von 65 Jahren. Der Afroamerikaner mit dem bissigen Humor litt seit fast 20 Jahren an Multipler Sklerose. In einer seiner letzten Rollen war er 1996 in dem Streifen "Eine Sippschaft zum Ermorden" auf der Leinwand zu sehen.
Der aus ärmlichen Verhältnissen stammende Künstler stieg als Komiker in Unterhaltungsclubs auf. Er wirkte in über 50 Filmen mit, darunter in "Lady sings the Blues" mit Billie Holiday und 1989 mit Gene Wilder in der Komödie "Die Glücksjäger".
In den siebziger und achtziger Jahren war er einer der beliebtesten schwarzen Schauspieler seiner Generation. Im Fernsehen hatte er seine eigenen Shows. Ausserdem schrieb er Drehbücher für TV-Sendungen.