RIP Richard Pryor (1940-2005)

When I was on the bus from London to Cambridge (on the morning of 12/11 in England), I heard that Richard Pryor had died (on 12/10). I meant to have an entry on this earlier, but I had tons of entries on other things, so this had to wait.

OK, so why is Richard Pryor part of my paradigm? I remember him most vividly in Brewster's Millions (which had the inimitable John Candy racquetball scene at or near the beginning of the movie), although that film was good rather than great. (It also had the unforgettable mantra of "10 million, 10 million, 10 million dollars! 10 million, 10 million, 10 million dollars!" followed by a very pained scream by Pryor. I especially enjoyed See no Evil, Hear no Evil, which was one of Pryor's last movies and which was done in conjunction with Gene Wilder (as were a few other films). Pryor's obituary in the NY Times indicated he could barely say his lines when recording that film, but I was 13 years old when I saw it and didn't notice. I really enjoyed that film back in the day, although it's hard to say whether it has aged as gracefully as has Spaceballs. It's also worth noting that the Wilder/Pryor pair was one of the long-standing buddy teams in Hollywood and my understanding is that that helped pioneer the modern era buddy flick.

Pryor co-wrote Blazing Saddles with Mel Brooks and that alone is sufficient to make him part of my paradigm. He also wrote for Sanford and Son and was one of the early comics with a very racy stand-up routine (where he was a contemporary of Pat Morita, among others). In this respect, he was especially pioneering. He pushed the envelope a great deal in terms of what entertainers (and especially comics) could get away with, and given where my own sense of humor often goes, this is something I appreciate a great deal.