Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was a comedian, actor, film director, social critic, satirist, writer, and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities and profanity, as well as racial epithets. O&A NYC Magazine takes a look at three different points in Pryor’s groundbreaking career.
He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time: Jerry Seinfeld called Pryor “The Picasso of our profession”, and Bob Newhart has called Pryor “the seminal comedian of the last 50 years”
1964 – Standup Comedy
Pryor won an Emmy Award (1973) and five Grammy Awards (1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982). In 1974, he also won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award. The first ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998. Pryor is listed at Number 1 on Comedy Central’s list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.
1974 – Standup Comedy
1982 Stand up (Mancho Man)