Richard Pryor: DEAD!

LOS ANGELES Dec 10, 2005 — Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, has died. He was 65.

He died sometime late Friday or early Saturday of a heart attack at his home in the San Fernando Valley, according to his ex-wife Flyn Pryor.

Pryor, whose audacious style influenced an array of stand-up artists, had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.