Comedian Richard Pryor dies

Groundbreaking American comedian and actor Richard Pryor has died of a heart attack at the age of 65.

Widely considered to have been one of the most influential comedians in the United States, Pryor broke many barriers for African Americans in the business during his heyday in the 1960s and 1970s.

He had been battling multiple sclerosis since 1986 and the debilitating disease forced him to quit performing in 1997. In 2004, it was revealed that he could no longer speak because of the illness.

Born in Peoria, Ill., in December 1940, Pryor had a grandmother who owned a string of brothels and his mother was a prostitute.

He was renowned as a gifted storyteller known for his blunt, often raunchy examinations of race and modern life.

He used vulgarities as well as racial epithets in his desire to reflect real life.

"You can do anything you want and you can say anything that comes to mind, just so long as it's funny," said Pryor.

Pryor, who battled cocaine addiction, often took the tragic events in his life and made them a part of his concert movies and recordings including 1971's Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin', Richard Pryor: Wanted: Live In Concert (1979) and Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982).

He has several Grammys for his comedy recordings.

He has admitted that a 1980 fire that nearly killed him while free-basing cocaine was actually a suicide attempt.

Pryor appeared in several popular films including Lady Sings the Blues, The Mack, Uptown Saturday Night, Silver Streak, Which Way Is Up?, Car Wash, The Toy, Superman III and Stir Crazy.

In four of his films, he co-starred with Gene Wilder. They where, along with Silver Streak and Stir Crazy, Here No Evil, See No Evil and Another You

In 1998, Pryor won the inaugural Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Among other kudos, in 2004, the television network Comedy Central voted him the top standup comedian of all time.

He is survived by his fifth wife, Jennifer Lee, and seven children.

Heaven has gained another great mind, I hope the heavens are ready for the echos of a little 'Raw' humour.

"There's a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at."-Richard Pryor

Later,
Kenaz

Newest Script Finished

It's been a long while, I probably had one of the worst cases of writers block on record, but I finally finished my latest script.

"Cult of Personality (2005)" isn't a light and fluffy feel good script, so be warned, but it is one that makes an important statement.

A brief treatment of this work is as followed. Jessie Riley is an ambitious eighteen year old, fresh from high school looking to start making her mark on the world. Her newlywed husband is Billy Mahern, described by the press at the "next big thing to come out of Oshawa, Ontario hockey system since Eric Lindros".

We start Jessie's journey on an early morning as she steps off the bus from Oshawa in the big city of Toronto. A unassuming trip to a nearby used clothing store becomes the catalist to a world that will change Jessie's and her new friend Briana for ever.

The nexus for this journey comes in the form of Derick Larson, the spiritual leader of the Landing, the place for people to discover their "winning formula". Through carisma and charm Derick has been able to hind a sinister past. A past that will swallow up each character in a storm of darkness, until when all said is done, each life will be effected forever by this "Cult of Personality".

Please feel free to download Cult of Personality from "rapidshare". I uploaded the file in HTML.

Later,
Kenaz