December 1, — December 10, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Known for reaching a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most important stand-up comedians of all time.
He won the Writers Guild of America Award in He was listed at number one on Comedy Central 's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. Pryor's body of work includes numerous concert films and recordings. Is It Something I Said? Pryor served as a co-writer for the Mel Brooks satirical western comedy film Blazing Saddles As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies. Pryor was born on December 1, , in Peoria, Illinois. He grew up in a brothel run by his grandmother, Marie Carter, where his alcoholic mother, Gertrude L.
Pryor was one of four children raised in his grandmother's brothel. He was sexually abused at age seven, [ 7 ] and expelled from school at the age of Pryor served in the U. Army from to , but spent virtually the entire stint in an army prison.
According to a profile article about Pryor in The New Yorker , Pryor was incarcerated for an incident that occurred while he was stationed in West Germany.
Angered that a white soldier was overly amused at the racially charged scenes of Douglas Sirk 's film Imitation of Life , Pryor and several other black soldiers beat and stabbed him, although the soldier survived.
