Background and career
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor (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 regarded as one of the greatest and most influential comedians ever. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards. He received the first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974.
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 Something I Said? (1975), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), and Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983). He is also known for Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' (1971), Wanted: Live in Concert (1978), and Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979). Pryor served as a co-writer for the Mel Brooks satirical western comedy film Blazing Saddles (1974).
As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies. He gained acclaim for his collaborations with Gene Wilder, including the films Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991). He also acted in films such as Uptown Saturday Night (1974), Blue Collar (1978), The Wiz (1978), California Suite (1978), Superman III (1983), Harlem Nights (1989), and Lost Highway (1997). He appeared as himself on Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live before hosting The Richard Pryor Show (1977), and Pryor's Place (1984).
Pryor was born on December 1, 1940, in Peoria, Illinois, and grew up in a brothel run by his grandmother, Marie Carter. His mother, Gertrude L. (née Thomas), was a prostitute. His father, LeRoy "Buck Carter" Pryor (June 7, 1915 – September 27, 1968), was a former boxer, hustler and pimp. After Gertrude lost custody of him in court when he was 10, Pryor was raised primarily by his grandmother Marie, a tall, strict woman who would slap him for any of his eccentricities but was still much loved by Richard. Pryor was one of four children raised in his grandmother's brothel. He was sexually abused at age seven and was expelled from school at the age of 14. Fortunately, he met Juliette Whittaker, the head of the Carver Center's theater program and the center's resident bohemian, at this formative juncture in his life. Juliette learned to live by the motto “You shoot for the moon, you’re bound to hit a star, but if you never shoot, you’ll never hit anything. You’ve got to aim.”
How Richard Pryor makes money
In 1983 Pryor signed a five-year contract with Columbia Pictures for $40 million and he started his own production company, Indigo Productions. Softer, more formulaic films followed, including Superman III (1983), which earned Pryor $4 million, Brewster's Millions (1985), Moving (1988), and See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989).
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (2025-02-06), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
