Richard Pryor Net Worth 2024

What was Richard Pryor’s Net Worth and Salary?

Richard Pryor was an American comedian, actor, and author who had a net worth of $40 million on the time of his loss of life in 2005. That’s the identical as round $50 million in at this time’s {dollars}, after adjusting for inflation. Richard earned his fortune from album gross sales, tour ticket gross sales, and salaries from a extremely profitable movie and tv profession.

Pryor is maybe greatest remembered for, and most revered for, his work as a comedian on stage. His standup specials made him one of the vital admired comedians to ever carry out. His materials was each beloved and hated for its fearless nature, turning its hearth on race relations in America, rising up black, language, and Pryor himself. Nothing was off-limits for Richard, who had the distinctive means to show private tragedy into hilarious jokes and gags.

Pryor additionally earned a extra mainstream sort of fame in his Hollywood comedies – lots of them with frequent co-star Gene Wilder. His profession off the comedy stage started as a author for exhibits like “Sanford and Son” and ultimately parlayed his hit comedy information right into a 1977 sketch comedy sequence entitled “The Richard Pryor Show.” That present was deemed too controversial for mainstream audiences, however it’s thought-about an modern and forward of its time sequence at this time. Pryor launched greater than 20 comedy albums, similar to “…Is It Something I Said?” (1975) and “Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip” (1982), and his notable movies embody “Stir Crazy” (1980), “Bustin’ Loose” (1981), and the biographical movie “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling” (1986), which he additionally wrote, directed, and produced.

Film Salaries

Richard Pryor was the primary black actor to earn $1 million for a movie position, which he achieved due to 1980’s “Stir Crazy.” In 1983, he signed a five-year, $40 million contract to with Columbia Pictures. Simultaneously, he launched his personal manufacturing firm, Indigo Productions.

In 1983, Richard earned $4 million to star within the critically-panned “Superman III.” That’s the identical as incomes $10 million at this time and was sufficient to make him one of many highest-paid actors on this planet on the time.

Early Life

Richard Pryor was born Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor on December 1, 1940, in Peoria, Illinois. He was raised in his grandmother’s brothel, after his mom, Gertrude (a prostitute who labored on the brothel) deserted Richard when he was 10 years previous. His father, LeRoy, was a hustler and a former boxer. Pryor’s grandmother, Marie, had violent tendencies and would usually beat him. He was molested by a teenage neighbor at age 6, and he was later sexually abused by a preacher. Richard was expelled from faculty when he was 14, and he joined the U.S. Army in 1958. He stayed within the navy till 1960, however he spent most of his time in a military jail after he and some different troopers beat and stabbed a white soldier who “laughed too onerous concerning the painful black elements” within the movie “Imitation of Life.” Pryor had his first baby, daughter Renee, together with his girlfriend, Susan, in February 1957, when he was 16 years previous.

Career

Richard moved to New York City in 1963 and began performing in golf equipment, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than he started showing on tv exhibits like “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and “The Merv Griffin Show.” Pryor grew to become a hit in Las Vegas, and he launched his first comedy album, “Richard Pryor,” in 1968. The following 12 months, he relocated to Berkeley, California, and he wrote for “The Flip Wilson Show” and “Sanford and Son” and the 1973 specials “The Lily Tomlin Show” and “Lily.” Richard made his movie debut in 1967’s “The Busy Body,” then appeared in “Wild within the Streets” (1968), “Lady Sings the Blues” (1972), “The Mack” (1973), “Uptown Saturday Night” (1974), “The Wiz” (1978), and “The Muppet Movie” (1979). He signed a contract with Laff Records in 1970, then moved to a much bigger label, Stax Records, in 1973. Pryor co-wrote the 1974 comedy movie “Blazing Saddles,” and Brooks initially wished him to play the lead position, however the manufacturing studio refused to insure him.

In 1975, Richard grew to become the primary black particular person to host “Saturday Night Live.” He entered right into a five-year, $40 million cope with Columbia Pictures in 1983, and he fashioned the manufacturing firm Indigo Productions. Pryor appeared in 1983’s “Superman III,” adopted by “Brewster’s Millions” (1985), “Critical Condition” (1987), “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” (1989), and “Harlem Nights” (1989). He guest-starred on “Sesame Street” seven occasions between 1978 and 1988, and in 1984, he hosted the CBS youngsters’s present “Pryor’s Place.” Richard co-hosted the Academy Awards in 1977 and 1983, and he earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for guest-starring on a 1995 episode of “Chicago Hope.” In the Nineteen Nineties, Pryor appeared within the movies “Another You” (1991), “The Three Muscatels” (1991), “Mad Dog Time” (1996), and “Lost Highway” (1997) and guest-starred on “Martin” (1993), “Malcolm & Eddie” (1996), and “Norm” (1999). He revealed his memoir, “Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences,” in 1995.

Personal Life

Pryor was married seven occasions, and he wed two of his 5 wives twice. He was married to Patricia Price from 1961 to 1966, they usually had son Richard Jr. in July 1962. He then married Shelley R. Bonus in 1968, they usually had daughter Rain in July 1969. Richard and Shelley divorced that 12 months, and he wed Deborah McGuire in 1977. After they break up in 1978, he married Jennifer Lee in 1981; they divorced in 1982, then remarried in 2001, they usually remained collectively till Pryor’s loss of life. He was additionally married to Flynn Belaine from 1986 to 1987 and 1990 to 1991, they usually had two youngsters, Steven (born August 1984) and Kelsey (born October 1987). Richard had a daughter, Elizabeth Ann (born April 1967), with Maxine Anderson and a son, Franklin (born April 1987) with Geraldine Mason, and he dated “Greased Lightning” co-star Pam Grier within the late Nineteen Seventies and “Some Kind of Hero” co-star Margot Kidder within the early Nineteen Eighties. In 2018, Quincy Jones and Jennifer Lee Pryor claimed that Richard and Marlon Brando had a sexual relationship within the ’70s.

Pryor was arrested for arrested for drunk driving in 1978 and obtained a sentence of 5 months in jail. In June 1980, he poured rum on himself and lit himself on hearth, then ran down the road till law enforcement officials subdued him. After being transported to a hospital, Richard was handled for second- and third-degree burns on over 50% of his physique, and he spent six weeks at Sherman Oaks Hospital’s Grossman Burn Center. Though the L.A. police division initially acknowledged that Pryor’s burns have been the results of an explosion that occurred whereas he was freebasing cocaine, he later admitted that it was a suicide try. A heavy smoker and drinker, Richard had a light coronary heart assault in 1977, then had one other one in 1990, adopted by triple bypass surgical procedure in 1991. He was identified with a number of sclerosis in 1986 and ultimately needed to begin utilizing a power-operated mobility scooter.

Death and Estate

Pryor suffered his third coronary heart assault on December 10, 2005, and sadly, he handed away on the age of 65. He was cremated, and in 2019, his widow, Jennifer, unfold his ashes in Hana, Hawaii.

Richard Pryor left an property estimated to be price $40 million. His youngsters have spent years feuding together with his widow. Richard’s youngsters have been reportedly not conscious that Jennifer had married Richard a second time, they usually have been none too happy to search out out that their father had named Jennifer his main beneficiary and given her management of his mental property. Some of his youngsters filed a lawsuit towards Jennifer in 2006, with Elizabeth accusing her of “elder abuse, fraud, forgery, and making the most of Richard’s weakened psychological and bodily state.” When the probate court docket sided with Jennifer, Elizabeth turned to the California Court of Appeals, alleging that the wedding ought to be annulled as a result of it was fraudulent, however the court docket dominated in Jennifer’s favor. In 2014, Richard, Jr. despatched Jennifer a cease-and-desist letter by which he accused her of making the most of his father’s bodily and psychological decline to achieve the rights to his mental property, and he has feuded with Jennifer over which actor ought to play Pryor within the biopic she has been making an attempt to convey to the massive display screen.

Northridge Mansion

In 1974 Richard bought a 2.2-acre property positioned at 17267 Parthenia St, in Northridge, California. It was at this property in 1980 when Richard, after freebasing cocaine, doused his physique with rum and lit himself on hearth. While on hearth, he ran down the block till police have been known as and tackled him. More than 50% of his physique was coated in extreme burns. In 1994 the primary mansion on the property was destroyed by the Northridge Earthquake. In 2017, NFL participant Rashard Menenhall purchased the house for $2.5 million. He listed it on the market in March 2024 for $4.2 million.

Awards and Honors

Pryor was nominated for 4 Primetime Emmy Awards, profitable Best Writing in Comedy-Variety, Variety or Music for “Lily” in 1974. He posthumously obtained a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys in 2006, and he earned 10 Best Comedy Recording nominations, taking house the prize 5 occasions. Richard was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy on the 1993 American Comedy Awards, and he obtained Lifetime Achievement Awards on the 1997 New York Comedy Festival and the 1996 NAACP Image Awards; he additionally received an Image Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture for “Bustin’ Loose” in 1981.

Pryor received a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen for “Blazing Saddles” in 1975 and a CableACE Award for Entertainment/Cultural Documentary or Informational Special for “Mo’ Funny: Black Comedy in America” in 1994. He obtained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, and in 1998, he was the first-ever recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Richard was ranked #1 on Comedy Central’s 2004 record of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time, and in 2015, artist Preston Jackson created a bronze statue in his likeness close to the Peoria neighborhood the place Pryor grew up. In 1999, he obtained a Humanitarian Award for his work with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).