Comedian Pryor and Brando were lovers, says widow

RICHARD Pryor’s widow has confirmed the late comedian slept with Marlon Brando, after record producer Quincy Jones let slip about their fling in an extraordinary interview.

Responding to reports of her late husband’s encounter with the Oscar-winning star of ‘The Godfather’, Jennifer Lee Pryor wrote on Twitter: “If you listen to Richard’s comedy – the early stuff – he was way ahead of his time on gay rights.” She added that in the Seventies “everyone was bi!”, and used the hashtag “#noshame”.

In an interview with New York magazine’s website ‘Vulture’, Jones also claimed Brando had slept with the singer Marvin Gaye and novelist James Baldwin.

“Brando used to go cha-cha dancing with us,” the 28-time Grammy-winner said. “He could dance his ass off. He was the most charming motherf ***** you ever met. He’d f*** anything. He’d f*** a mailbox.”

Brando, who died in 2004, had occasionally spoken about his same-sex encounters, but had never named Pryor as a partner. In a 1976 interview, the actor told a French journalist: “Homosexuality is so much in fashion, it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences and I am not ashamed.”

The ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ star continued: “I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing.”

Pryor was outspoken about his personal life. In 1977, he gave an extremely graphic account of a same-sex encounter onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, to an audience of 17,000 people.

Ms Pryor said the comedian left behind diaries detailing all his romantic liaisons, which she intends to publish later this year.

Jennifer Lee Pryor was the fourth of the comedian’s six wives, having married him in 1981 and divorced him the following year, but later remarried the star in 2001 and remained with him until his death in 2005.