Richard Pryor dies at 65

Posted on: Sun, 12/11/2005 - 11:16 By: Tom Swiss

Richard Pryor has left us.

Just last Friday, I was watching Stir Crazy, the Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor comedy about two New Yorkers who end up in a southwestern prison rodeo. It's one of those films that my whole family loves and quotes, such as Wilder's line about an ax murderer: "No one has ever just sat down and talked with that man", or Pryor's "That's right, we bad."

The film is really more of a Wilder vehicle than one for Pryor - and that says something. Pryor could play the straight man. The two actors had great chemistry together.

Pryor's standup comedy is of course legendary. When he received the first Mark Twain Prize for humor from the Kennedy center, he said that he was proud that "like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people's hatred."

You can't ask for a man to do more than that.

Rest in peace.