Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up 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. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time: receiving praise from notable comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Newhart, and Bill Cosby. His body of work includes the concert movies and recordings starting in the 70s and spanning three decades. He also starred in numerous films as an actor, in both comedic and dramatic roles. He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder and actor/comedian/writer Paul Mooney. 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.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 19.33 |
| Birthday | 1940-12-01 |
| Place of Birth | Peoria, Illinois, USA |
| Also Known As | Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor, Ρίτσαρντ Πραιορ, Річард Прайор, |
1997
Lost Highway
7.571/2467
A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transfo...
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Lost Highway
1973
Wattstax
6.8/15
A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage...
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Wattstax
1985
Brewster's Millions
6.556/554
Brewster, an aging minor-league baseball player, stands to inherit 300 million dollars if he can successfully spend 30 million dollars in 30 days with...
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Brewster's Millions
1989
See No Evil, Hear No Evil
6.7/919
A murder takes place in the shop of David Lyons, a deaf man who fails to hear the gunshot being fired. Outside, blind man Wally Karue hears the shot b...
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See No Evil, Hear No Evil
1980
Stir Crazy
6.452/414
New Yorkers Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe have no jobs and no prospects, so they decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, landing jobs wearing...
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Stir Crazy
1983
Richard Pryor: Here and Now
6.6/38
One of comedian Richard Pryor's later stand-up performances. As foul-mouthed as ever, Pryor touches on most of the same topics as in his previous live...
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Richard Pryor: Here and Now
1982
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
7.266/80
Richard Pryor's stand-up act includes his frank discussion about his freebasing addiction, as well as the infamous night on June 9, 1980 that he caugh...
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Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
1970
Carter's Army
4.7/10
A racist officer is put in charge of an all-black squad of troops charged with the mission of blowing up an important hydro-dam in Nazi Germany. Their...
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Carter's Army
1979
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
7.248/109
Richard Pryor delivers monologues on race, sex, family and his favorite target—himself, live at the Terrace Theatre in Long Beach, California.
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Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
1976
Silver Streak
6.719/303
A somewhat daffy book editor on a rail trip from Los Angeles to Chicago thinks that he sees a murdered man thrown from the train. When he can find no...
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Silver Streak
1972
Lady Sings the Blues
6.89/59
Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday. Her late childhood, stint as a prostitute, early tours, marriages and drug addi...
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Lady Sings the Blues
1977
Which Way Is Up?
6/29
Orange picker Leroy Jones inadvertently becomes a union leader and is forced out of town, leaving behind his sex-obsessed father, Rufus, and timid spo...
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Which Way Is Up?
1991
Another You
5.4/88
George has been in a mental hospital for 3 years and is finally ready to go out into the real world again. Eddie Dash, a dedicated con-man, is suppose...
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Another You
1982
The Toy
5.799/199
On one of his bratty son Eric's annual visits, the plutocrat U.S. Bates takes him to his department store and offers him anything in it as a gift. Eri...
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The Toy
1981
Bustin' Loose
5.9/47
After ex-con Joe Braxton violates his probation, he is given a second chance. All he has to do is drive a group of special kids across the country.
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Bustin' Loose
1987
Critical Condition
5.6/62
Eddie is a con artist. When he's framed and comes before a judge, he hopes to get off the hook by climbing insanity—but instead ends up in a hospital...
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Critical Condition
1978
The Wiz
6.004/240
Dorothy Gale, a shy kindergarten teacher, is swept away to the magic land of Oz where she embarks on a quest to return home.
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The Wiz
1989
Harlem Nights
6.074/291
'Sugar' Ray is the owner of an illegal casino and must contend with the pressure of vicious gangsters and corrupt police who want to see him go out of...
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Harlem Nights
1980
Wholly Moses
4.8/32
Harvey and Zoey, two tourists in Israel, discover an ancient scroll about Herschel, the man who was almost Moses. Herschel receives the command from G...
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Wholly Moses
1983
Superman III
5.511/1611
Aiming to defeat the Man of Steel, wealthy executive Ross Webster hires bumbling but brilliant Gus Gorman to develop synthetic kryptonite, which yield...
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Superman III
1978
California Suite
5.8/93
The misadventures of four groups of guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
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California Suite
2003
Richard Pryor: I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$#@!!
8/4
This documentary praises comedian Richard Pryor by showing fragments of various shows Pryor made and having famous comedians talk about the importance...
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Richard Pryor: I Ain't Dead Yet, #*%$#@!!
1974
Uptown Saturday Night
6.2/32
Two blue-collar buddies search the underworld for a winning lottery ticket lost in a nightclub holdup.
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Uptown Saturday Night
1973
The Mack
6.4/53
Goldie returns from five years at the state pen and winds up king of the pimping game. Trouble comes in the form of two corrupt white cops and a crime...
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The Mack
1967
The Busy Body
7.1/7
Sid Caesar is a bumbling gopher to a mob boss who must recover a fortune in cash stowed in the suit of a corpse.
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The Busy Body
1988
Moving
5.5/108
Arlo accepts what seems to him to be a dream promotion to Idaho. He soon discovers, however, that moving has its own share of problems.
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Moving
1976
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
6/17
In the world of 1930s Negro League baseball, a spirited team of renegade players travels around the Midwest looking for that one big score. Richard Pr...
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The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
1977
Greased Lightning
6.4/35
The true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing driver to win an upper-tier NASCAR race.
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Greased Lightning
1968
Wild in the Streets
5.9/30
Musician Max Frost lends his backing to a Senate candidate who wants to give 18-year-olds the right to vote, but he takes things a step further than e...
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Wild in the Streets
1978
Blue Collar
7.392/157
Fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and union brass, and coupled with financial hardships on each man's end, three auto assembly...
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Blue Collar
1982
Some Kind of Hero
5.5/36
A Vietnam vet returns home from a prisoner of war camp and is greeted as a hero, but is quickly forgotten and soon discovers how tough survival is in...
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Some Kind of Hero
1971
Richard Pryor: Live and Smokin'
6.3/22
Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' is the first stand-up act of Richard Pryor to be filmed out of the four that were released in total. This film was f...
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Richard Pryor: Live and Smokin'
1986
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
6.36/25
Although Jo Jo Dancer has achieved success as a stand-up comedian, he hasn't found happiness. After receiving severe burns in a narcotics-related inci...
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Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
1999
Sam Kinison: Why Did We Laugh?
6/3
For fans of comedy, Sam Kinison needs no introduction. His scathing comedy tackled tough topics no other comedian dared to touch. Fed up and disenfran...
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Sam Kinison: Why Did We Laugh?
2007
Cutting Edge Comedians of the '60s & '70s
0/0
In the late 1950s, a fresh, unconventional style of standup comedy emerged in sharp contrast to the standard "Take my wife, please" approach. It tackl...
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Cutting Edge Comedians of the '60s & '70s
1973
Hit!
5.7/19
A federal agent whose daughter dies of a heroin overdose is determined to destroy the drug ring that supplied her. He recruits various people whose li...
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Hit!
1980
In God We Tru$t
6.074/27
A naive monk, named Brother Ambrose, is sent by the abbot on a mission to raise $5,000 in order to save their monastery from closing. He goes to Holly...
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In God We Tru$t
1975
Adiós Amigo
3.7/3
Two incompetent Western outlaws engineer several failed crimes, including a botched stagecoach holdup. Fred Williamson, a tough-guy perennial in blaxp...
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Adiós Amigo
1973
Some Call It Loving
4.7/13
A jazz musician falls in love with a comatose woman at a carny sideshow and takes her to his mansion to join his cabinet of sexual curiosities.
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Some Call It Loving
1994
But... Seriously
10/1
A documentary juxtaposing the events of the 20th century with the commentary of stand-up comedians.
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But... Seriously
2014
Richard Pryor: Icon
6.2/11
Richard Pryor's impact on the craft of comedy and today's top comics is legendary and unrivaled. This program surveys the profound and enduring influe...
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Richard Pryor: Icon
1979
The Muppet Movie
7.145/559
A Hollywood agent persuades Kermit the Frog to pursue a career in Hollywood. On his way there he meets his future muppet crew while being chased by th...
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The Muppet Movie
1977
The Richard Pryor Special?
6.3/3
Richard Pryor wanders around the NBC Studio, encountering various eccentrics. Meanwhile, the Reverend James L. White, the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Da...
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The Richard Pryor Special?
1971
Dynamite Chicken
5.4/8
A collection of subversive comedy sketches and routines relating to the peace movement.
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Dynamite Chicken
1971
You've Got To Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat
8.5/2
This oddball counterculture comedy/drama follows Zalman King through a series of kooky misadventures while he searches for his life's purpose in New Y...
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You've Got To Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat
1969
Uncle Tom's Fairy Tales
0/0
A white man goes on trial for having raped a black woman.
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Uncle Tom's Fairy Tales
2008
Black and White Trypps Number Four
5.8/4
Using a 35mm strip of motion picture slug featuring the recently deceased American comedian Richard Pryor, this extended Rorschach assault on the eyes...
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Black and White Trypps Number Four
1969
The Young Lawyers
0/0
Attorney Michael Cannon leaves his Boston law firm to become director of the Neighborhood Law Office, where he guides three law students on a case inv...
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The Young Lawyers
1997
Afro Promo
0/0
A series of thirty-two trailers put together to illustrate the film industry's attitude to and packaging of African-American screen imagery.
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Afro Promo
1990
Sammy Davis, Jr. 60th Anniversary Celebration
9.3/3
Celebrating Sammy Davis Jr 's 60th anniversary in show business, including musical,comic and dancing performers.
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Sammy Davis, Jr. 60th Anniversary Celebration
1983
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever
8.2/6
Television special taped before a live studio audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California on March 25, 1983, and broadcast on NB...
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Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever
2013
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
7.1/55
Mike Epps, Richard Pryor Jr. and others recount the culture-defining influence of Richard Pryor - one of America's most brilliant, iconic comic minds.
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Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
The Richard Pryor Show Volume I
0/0
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The Richard Pryor Show Volume I
1973
Juke and Opal
0/0
“WINTER, 1973. Late afternoon: the entr'acte between dusk and darkness, when the people who conduct their business in the street -- numbers runners in...
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Juke and Opal
2014
And the Oscar Goes To...
7/48
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy...
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And the Oscar Goes To...
1991
The Three Muscatels
0/0
Donna Bon Viant (Belaine) is a college student, who has to complete an assignment on the 14th century for her African American literature class. She c...
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The Three Muscatels
1977
The Complete Richard Pryor Roast
0/0
Unaired roast of Richard Pryor by the cast of The Richard Pryor Show including Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society), Sandra Bernhard...
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The Complete Richard Pryor Roast
2020
The Last Days of Richard Pryor
10/1
A two-hour television special on the life of Richard Pryor featuring interviews by those close to him, focusing on his contributions to standup comedy...
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The Last Days of Richard Pryor
1973
Lily
0/0
TV special starring Lily Tomlin
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Lily
1996
Mad Dog Time
5.5/40
With his boss in the madhouse, a mobster is temporary boss of the criminal empire just as vicious rivals threaten the control of the empire.
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Mad Dog Time
1997
Blacks and Jews
6/1
This documentary attempts to go beyond the sensationalized media coverage and the stereotypes to examine several key conflicts from the point of view...
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Blacks and Jews
1976
Car Wash
5.9/99
This day-in-the-life cult comedy focuses on a group of friends working at Sully Boyar's Car Wash in the Los Angeles ghetto. The team meets dozens of e...
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Car Wash
2006
The N Word
6.6/5
The film explores the history of the word throughout its inception to present day. Woven into the narrative are poetry, music, and commentary from cel...
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The N Word
1975
The Lion Roars Again
0/0
A chronicle of the 1975 International Press Conclave hosted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer over two days in May 1975.
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The Lion Roars Again
1979
A Walking Tour of Sesame Street
0/0
Sesame Street celebrated its 10th anniversary in the spring of 1979 with a half-hour PBS special hosted by James Earl Jones titled A Walking Tour of S...
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A Walking Tour of Sesame Street
2019
I Am Richard Pryor
6.8/15
The life story of Richard Pryor (1940-2005), the legendary performer and iconic social satirist who transcended racial and social barriers with his ho...
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I Am Richard Pryor
2013
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
8.182/11
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise journeys through Brooks’ early years in the creative beginnings of live television — with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows —...
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Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
1970
The Phynx
3.5/8
A rock band is invented by the government as a cover to find hostages in a remote castle in Albania held by communist enemies of the USA.
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The Phynx
2022
The Hall: Honoring the Greats of Stand-Up
5.8/6
In this comedy special, Jon Stewart, John Mulaney, Chelsea Handler and Dave Chappelle honor George Carlin, Joan Rivers, Robin Williams and Richard Pry...
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The Hall: Honoring the Greats of Stand-Up
1986
TV's Funniest Comedians - 14 Stars Do Classic Routines
0/0
A compilation film of stand up performances and comedy routines featuring some of the biggest stars in the early years of television. This film was di...
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TV's Funniest Comedians - 14 Stars Do Classic Routines
2021
Live at Mister Kelly's
0/0
The iconic Mister Kelly’s bedazzled the country by launching superstars like Barbra Streisand, Richard Pryor, Bette Midler, and Steve Martin. It smash...
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Live at Mister Kelly's
2023
Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight
0/0
"Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight" covers renowned American artist Betye Saar’s large-scale work “Drifting Toward Twilight”— commissioned by The H...
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Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight
2024
Zeitgeist: Requiem
0/0
Fourth in the Zeitgeist Film Series, director Peter Joseph explorers the fundamental incompatibility of our economy & the culture it has created with...
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Zeitgeist: Requiem
2024
Remembering Gene Wilder
0/0
This loving tribute to Gene Wilder celebrates his life and legacy as the comic genius behind an extraordinary string of film roles, from his first col...
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Remembering Gene Wilder
1985
The Making of 'Superman III'
5/1
This documentary treats movie fans to a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Superman III, a more comical take on the superhero story in which the...
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