Dick Gregory Cause of Death, Biography Update, Life Story, Career Highlights, Family

Richard Claxton Gregory was a multi-talent American entertainer who was comedian, actor, author, activist, and critic of the US social climate and was born on October 12, 1932. from a young age faced with southern African-American communities and was known for his comedy routines that explicitly condemned racism. He was a popular figure by 1961 as he frequently performed in comedy clubs, was on television, and pushed out comedy albums.

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He was perhaps the most prominent social and political entertainer of the 1960s, as he involved himself with protests around the Vietnam War. In addition to his anti-war stance, he criticized and engaged against racial and social injustices of the time, and advocated for animal rights. He actively protested these injustices with multiple hunger strikes and was often arrested as a result. Later in his career, he became a successful speaker and a published author, most notably for his best selling autobiography which pushed over a million copies. He passed in August 2017 and died of heart failure in a Washington, D.C. hospital.

Profile Summary

Notable Works

Comedy Career

Biography & Early Life

Gregory’s parents were Presley Gregory and Lucille Gregory (a house cleaner). Gregory was raised in the city of St. Louis. Help from teachers like Warren St. James was likely the reason Gregory could win the state cross-country championship in 1950, and run track at Southern Illinois University (on scholarship, where he broke records for the half-mile and mile). The university even honored him with the title of most outstanding student athlete of the year in 1953.

Gregory became a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. In 1954, he was drafted into the United States Army for 2 years. The Army’s version of Gregory was reportedly a funny one. This was what prompted him to start doing talent show circuits in the Army and win. After being discharged from the Army in 1956, he went back to Southern Illinois University for a short amount of time, and then left again, stating the college “disliked me studying, they preferred me running.”

After this, Gregory traveled to Chicago to explore a career in Professional Comedy. Chicago was also home to other Black comedians, and Gregory was their addition to the group being the first to depart from minstrel stereotypes.

Personal life

Gregory met Lillian Smith at an African-American club, and they married in 1959. They had 11 children, including one son, Richard Jr., who died two months after birth. Their other children are Michele, Lynne, Pamela, Paula, Xenobia (Stephanie), Gregory, Christian, Miss, Ayanna, and Yohance. For many years, Gregory was not close to his family because his career and activism kept him away from his wife and children.

In a 2000 interview with The Boston Globe, Gregory was quoted as saying, “People ask me about being a father and not being there. I say, ‘Jack the Ripper had a father. Hitler had a father. Don’t talk to me about family.’”

Career Highlights

Comedy Pioneer: Gregory became one of the first Black comedians in the early 1960s to present stand-up comedy to all-white audiences at the Chicago Playboy Club.

He also had a clear vision of stand-up comedy, using bold social commentary focused on sharp, topical satire of social ills that expressed the struggles of the Black community as a result of racial inequality, the current climate affairs, and the civil rights movement.

His 1964 autobiography co-written with Robert Lipsyte, Nigger: An Autobiography, was a bestseller selling over 1,000,000 copies. Gregory was an active participant of the civil rights movement in collaboration with famous leaders of the time, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was a participant and activist in major protest marches and numerous hunger strikes.

In the 1980s Gregory became interested in health and preventative nutrition and within the Black community, started a healthy balanced dieting programs to prevent obesity.

Death

Gregory was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 1999. He said he treated the cancer with herbs, vitamins, and exercise, and believed these kept the cancer in remission.

Gregory died of heart failure at a hospital in Washington, D.C., on August 19, 2017, at age 84. A week before his death, he had been hospitalized with a bacterial infection.