Richard Pryor had a fraught early life that had a tangible effect on the comedy he would later produce. Indeed, Pryor was open about his upbringing in his routines, making light of the traumas he suffered.
Pryor was born in Peoria, Illinois, on December 1, 1940, to Gertrude, a sometime bookkeeper, and LeRoy Jr., a boxer who worked various jobs around the country and served for a time in the U.S. military. The two were also involved in LeRoy’s mother Marie’s brothel business, which at its peak extended to three houses and employed several sex workers, including Pryor’s mother. From a young age, Pryor was raised at Marie’s brothel, and though Marie, who was often his primary carer, attempted to shield the child from the reality of what was happening around him, he retained some disturbing memories from his early life.
In his autobiography, “Pryor Convictions, and Other Life Sentences,” Pryor recalled that he regularly saw his mother going to bed with men other than his father: clients at his grandmother’s brothel. He also states that he once made the gruesome discovery of a dead baby in a shoebox, which he supposed was the unwanted offspring of one of the women who worked for Marie.
