Despite the Devil on His Shoulder
Richard Pryor published his autobiography, Pryor Convictions: And Other Life Sentences, in 1995. He dedicated it to his “angels,” and after understanding the life he lived, it would only make sense that he was guided by them. The comedian, actor, writer, seemed to have had the devil perched on his shoulder, luring him over to the dark side since he was a young boy.
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Pryor went on a journey from a rough child (to put it lightly) to becoming a multimillionaire addict to meeting his demise way too early. But it’s the in-between stories that make all the difference. Pryor certainly lived a hard life, but he made millions of people laugh even harder. “My job, as I saw it, was to throw light where there had only been darkness,” he wrote.