Richard Pryor

As a comedian, actor, and writer, Richard Pryor (1940-2005) became famous for defying the boundaries of taste and decency. Beginning in the late 1960s, his irreverent and often foul-mouthed stand-up performances shocked audiences. Yet it was his desire to probe difficult subjects such as race relations, as much as his raunchy language, that made him so unique. Pryor was a prolific entertainer, appearing in more than thirty feature films and recording more than twenty albums. Although his life was marred by arrests, failed marriages, and drug abuse, he attained a level of popularity and influence unmatched by any comedian of his day. In accepting the first-ever Mark Twain Prize for Humor at the Kennedy center in 1998, Pryor commented that "I am proud that, like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people's hatred."