One of my idols has passed away. I remember being 12 years old and taking every chance I could find to sneak into my parents’ bedroom and grab their Richard Pryor records and listen to them. That’s right, at age 12 I was listening to tracks like “Be Home by Eleven,” “Exorcist,” and “Wino Deals with Dracula,” and I’m all the better for it!

I think there’s a reason why so many comedians and actors today credit Pryor as being a major influence on western comedy. It’s because he was the first to bring raunchy humor to every living room in America. What I personally liked about him is that throughout his entire career, he never changed. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when Eddie Murphy stopped doing raunch or when Chris Tucker stopped swearing. Not Pryor, he kept doing the hard core stuff for as long as he could. A CNN article about Pryor’s passing summed up his career nicely.

Pryor was arguably the biggest name in stand-up comedy during the 1970s, earning Grammy Awards for his comedy albums. In addition to appearances in almost 40 films, Pryor also was part of the team that created the script for the Mel Brooks comedy, “Blazing Saddles.” He also directed himself in a semi-autobiographical film, “Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling,” in the mid-1980s, a film he says refused to be written as a comedy.

But despite his achievements on the screen and on stage, Pryor is often remembered for seriously burning over half his body while freebasing cocaine — an incident he later dubbed a suicide attempt. Even that made its way into his comedy, which his wife said was a common theme in his life — being able to turn crisis into comedy — and one that scored big with audiences at his stand-up shows. As his disease became more and more debilitating, Pryor refused to abandon his career. He continued to do stand-up — sitting down. Many have called it remarkable that he was so determined to keep performing despite his illness.

Pryor had an undeniable and remarkable way of bringing serious issues to the table by making them funny with bits like “Flying Saucers“, and Southern Hospitality. His influence is clear, and I think it’s safe to say that no comedian will ever be missed or remembered more than Richard Pryor.