00:00Tonight, we begin with Richard Pryor, who died this afternoon of a heart attack at his home in California.
00:05Richard Pryor's shockingly honest, no-holds-barred routines revolutionized American comedy.
00:12He was crazy. He told the truth. And he had a sense of timing that was impeccable.
00:18He made jokes about drugs, heart attacks, police brutality, things that was real.
00:25Al Joseph made a million bucks looking like that.
00:26Pryor opened the big door that all the other black comedians to follow walked through.
00:33Off-screen, Pryor was a Hollywood wild man with a monstrous appetite for drink, drugs, and sex.
00:40Richard liked his drugs. That was part of who he was.
00:46But during the last part of his life, a debilitating illness left Pryor paralyzed and struggling to speak.
00:53He feels that this is some kind of karmic payback, that he's put his body through so much stress.
01:03And on December 10, 2005, Pryor dies from a cardiac arrest.
01:09Many believed Pryor's hard living had finally caught up with him.
01:13He didn't understand. You know, you have one body, and if you don't take care of it, I mean, everybody's going to die from something, right?
01:21But you don't have to hurry it along.
01:23Now, forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter is taking a fresh look at the death of Richard Pryor.
01:29It appears that Pryor did so many things in his life that could have led to his death.
01:34Uncovering precisely what led to his fatal cardiac arrest won't be easy.
01:41I will have to forensically analyze all of the medical evidence and firsthand testimonies to determine the root cause of this comedian's death.
01:52Uncovering precisely what led to the death of Richard Pryor.
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