Richard Pryor died in 2005.
Marlon Brando died in 2004.
Yet the former iconic comedian and legendary actor are in the news this week for one unexpected reason:
They apparently had sex… with each other!
This surprising connection was first mentioned by Quincy Jones in a wide-ranging interview with Vulture, during which the music producer said the following of Brando:
“He was the most charming motherf-cker you ever met. He’d f-ck anything. Anything!
“He’d f–k a mailbox. James Baldwin. Richard Pryor. Marvin Gaye.”
Naturally, such a statement got the Internet talking and wondering about the film star, who won two Academy Awards and is considered by some to be the best actor of all-time.
Just a few hours after this quote went viral, though, Pryor’s widow came out and put an end to the speculation.
She actually confirmed the sexual relationship!
Said Jennifer Lee to TMZ when asked about the rumored dalliance:
“It was the ’70s! Drugs were still good, especially quaaludes. If you did enough cocaine, you’d f-ck a radiator and send it flowers in the morning.”
Well… okay then!
Pryor’s widow added that Pryor would find it hilarious that Jones spilled these beans if he were alive today and that he had no shame about his bisexuality.
Pryor and Lee were married in the early 1980s and again in 2001; they were together up until the stand-up’s death in 2005.
Altogether, Pryor was married to five different woman and had seven children.
Brando, meanwhile, was married three times and fathered 11 children.
They may have carried on an affair with each other at one point, but they very much got around overall. That much is clear.
Back in 1976, speaking to a French journalist, Brando happily opened up about his sexuality.
“Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed,” he said at the time, adding:
“I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so.
“I find it amusing.”
So it sounds like he would also be amused by Jones telling the world about his banging of Pryor.
To put this in context, for those unfamiliar with Richard Pryor and Marlon Brando and the levels of fame each achieved back in the 1960s and 1970s:
This news would be akin to learning that Jerry Seinfeld had slept with Tom Hanks.
Hence the reaction across social media in response to Pryor’s widow’s admission.
The confirmation even reached actor Don Cheadle, for instance, who joked on Twitter when asked if he had slept with any male celebrities:
“nah. that’s not my thing. but if it was, yeah, brando back in the day could get it.”
In his chat with Vulture, meanwhile, Jones also said he knows who killed John F. Kennedy and said he once dated Ivanka Trump.
In other words: this Pryor/Brando bombshell may have been the least interesting part of his Q&A!