The year was 1968 when Richard Pryor’s career had just started and that was the same year his career almost ended. He did the unthinkable to one of his co-stars and it had gotten him shunned in Hollywood for years. That was until his opportunity to appear in the 1973 film, The Mack came along.

The Mack is now a classic, but the ride to get it made was a long, rocky one according to what the star of the film, Max Julien, and the producer and director of The Mack said. The beloved Richard Pryor was at the center of the conflict and what he did prior to get him shunned in the industry was in true, wild Richard Pryor form, so we weren’t necessarily shocked when we heard about this, but it was still entertaining to hear nonetheless.

Here is why Richard almost didn’t even make it into the cast of The Mack and almost lost his career, until his good friend, Max, stepped in and pushed for him to be in The Mack, after which, Pryor’s career began to get back on track:

Word on the old school curb is that Richard Pryor URINATED on his Caucasian co-actress, Shelley Winters’ head, during filming of their 1968 film, Wild In The Streets. That was Pryor’s first movie, but as you can imagine, many in Hollywood refused to work with him after his peeing stunt.

According to Max Julien, The Mack producer, Harvey Bernhard, absolutely did not want to cast Pryor in the film because of Pryor’s untamed behavior and that infamous urinating incident.

Pryor had become somewhat of an…