Richard Pryor was born 80 years ago today: Recalling his 1986 primetime interview with Barbara Walters

The Undefeated

"Pryor had recently turned 46 at the time of the sit-down. He’d already suffered a heart attack at 37 and tried to kill himself at 39," says Justin Tinsley. "By 1986, Pryor was no longer the undisputed king of comedy. That title rested with Eddie Murphy, a fearless young comedian whose style evolved from the School of Pryor. Pryor admitted to Walters that not being the king of the hill pissed him off, but it’s a reality his wife Flynn Belaine Pryor helped him to come to peace with. (Pryor and Murphy, of course, would star alongside Redd Foxx in the cult classic Harlem Nights three years later, bringing together three generations of Black comic royalty.) Over the course of four interviews in his career, Walters saw Pryor in different stages of his life. He had lied to her in 1980 when he claimed he hadn’t been trying to commit suicide while freebasing, an incident that resulted in burns over half his body. Now, six years later, he was trying to make amends. He said he was clean. He’d been saying that for years, even once telling the same thing to Johnny Carson, but that the urge to relapse was haunting. He was almost apologetic to Walters for the fabrications in their previous chat."