Richard Pryor

Age: 65

Summary: groundbreaking comedian whose blunt, confrontational, politically influenced style of comedy made him one of the country's most successful comedians and one of Hollywood's highest-paid stars with a series of hit comedies in the 1970's and 1980's, including Stir Crazy, Uptown Saturday Night, and Silver Streak, who blazed a trail for black performers, earning enough clout to negotiate his own deals in Hollywood and profoundly influencing such artists as Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Chris Rock, Damon Wayans, Robin Williams, Richard Belzer, David Letterman, and many others, who battled a cocaine dependency that almost claimed his life when he set himself on fire while freebasing some years earlier, who recorded more than 20 albums, appeared in more than 40 films, and won five Grammys, an Emmy, and the first-ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Cause of Death: Heart attack

Born: December 1, 1940

Died: December 10, 2005

Location: Encino, California