Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Richard Pryor, 1940-1965
Way too young to exit the stage.
Per CNN, he died of a heart attack. The CNN article has several links to video clips, including a 3 minute bit from an interview with Larry King. Check it out, and drink a toast to Richard.
Not at all clear to me whether the heart attack had anything to do with his other illness, multiple sclerosis. I can’t make a connection, but the news agencies aren’t releasing many details. I know this much: late adult onset MS is a bitch, far worse (on average) than young adult onset MS.
Here’s the Wikipedia biography on Pryor. Woefully absent is any tangible glimpse of Pryor’s humor. I hope that in the coming days, some kind folks will step forward and edit the Wiki entry to correct that deficiency.
D.
A great Pryor bit was when he told Johnny Carson why he stopped doing drugs. “I was tired of waking up on the freeway doing 90.”
Stir Crazy remains one of my all time fave movies. Remember “I’m gettin’ bad!”
It is astonishing how much work he did after his apparent first death at the tender age of twenty-five!