In the 1972 film "Lady Sings the Blues", who was called 'Piano Man'?

In the 1972 film "Lady Sings the Blues", the person who was called 'Piano Man' was Richard Pryor. When Pryor plays the role of Piano Man, he is Diana Ross’s musical accompanist as she plays Billie Holiday. The role is said to have “propelled him into stardom”. It kept Pryor out in front of an audience as a movie actor.

In this film, a number of critics noted, "As a singer, Pryor doesn’t channel or focus his anxiety so much as he slowly masters it, appearing a little stiff at first but eventually knocking it out with a surprisingly good performance". Pryor appears to be a singer that well deserves a listen.

Richard Pryor (Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III) was born in December 1940 in Peoria, Illinois. He lived for 65 years and died in December 2005 in Los Angeles, California. He was an American comedian and actor, who was one of the leading comics of the 1970s and ’80s. His comedy routines drew on a variety of downtrodden urban characters. He often told the press that he performed them with brutal emotional honesty.

Besides appearing in "Lady Sings the Blues", he was in "Silver Streak" (1976). After these films, he became a big box-office attraction. He also had success with his own concert films, including "Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip" (1982). Additionally, Pryor produced highly successful comedy albums, for which he won 5 Grammy Awards.

During and after his life, Pryor's career success influenced many other comics, well known and unknown.