Goodbye to Richard Pryor.

What a brilliant comedian! I remember him as the beautiful, charming young guy who was a very frequent guest on the Merv Griffin Show back in the 60s. Then later he became the startlingly angry stand-up comedian, who was, despite all that flashing anger, always funny. There was a time in the 1970s when he was the most popular movie star. Everyone loved him.

He died today.

"He did not suffer, he went quickly and at the end there was a smile on his face," his wife, Jennifer Pryor, said.

UPDATE: Dan at Riehl World View has a lot of links to clips of Richard Pryor being really, really funny.