expelled from school for a petty offense and started working as janitor at a strip club, truck driver, billiard hall attendant and playing drums at a night club and 20 years later, he served 10 days in jail, for income tax evasion.
Maybe we can cut him a little slack, right? I mean after all, the man had a rough childhood growing up in Peoria, Illinois. Check these series of events out:
In 1946, at only six years old, Richard Pryor was molested by a neighbor and later by a Catholic priest during catechism.
He said that he witnessed watched his Mother performing sexual acts with the city’s mayor. Unfortunately, she abandoned him at the age of 10, and Richard was raised in his Grandmother’s brothel.
Pryor’s Mother passed away when he was 27 years old and his father died one year later. Richard ended up marrying seven times, to five different women…but hey, his comedy is legendary without a doubt and at one time, he was the biggest Movie box-office draw in America. That brings it back full circle, huh? He spent time in prison over a movie and then made millions of dollars making us laugh at his movies. This just goes to show that oftentimes it takes a great level of disparity to breed greatness, and great, Mr. Pryor was.
