Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images
Leonard Detrick/New York Daily News
Larry Busacca/Getty Images
(AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
Bobby Bank/Getty Images
NBCUniversal/ABC
Todd Williamson/AP
Joel Ryan/AP
Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
AP Photo
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
VALERIE MACON/Getty Images
D Dipasupil/Getty Images
Elizabeth Flores/AP
Matt Sayles/AP
Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
Dante Federici/Getty Images
Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images
Jim Spellman/WireImage
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images
AP Photo/Kristian Dowling)
Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
David Bookstaver/AP
Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images
AP Photo
Dennis Caruso/New York Daily News
Buda Mendes/Getty Images
Dennis Caruso/New York Daily News
Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
Peter Brooker/REX/Shutterstock
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Richard Alan Hannon/Getty Images
Jim Spellman/Getty Images
Jim Spellman/WireImage
Karl Walter/Getty Images
KHUE BUI/AP
ABC Photo Archives via Getty Images
Jemal Countess/Getty Images
STAN HONDA/Getty Images
Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage
Mark Mainz/Getty Images for AFI
Michael Buckner/Getty Images
Michael Hurcomb/Getty Images
Marc Serota/Getty Images
Adger Cowans/Getty Images
Morena Brengola/Redferns/Getty Images
John Springer Collection/Getty Images
Michael Buckner/Getty Images
Richard Corkery/New York Daily News
Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
AP
AP Photo
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo
Matt Sayles/AP, Paramount Television courtesy Everett Collection
Galbraith/AP
Dominique Charriau/WireImage
Mike Lawrie/Getty Images
Glynn A. Hill/AP
Lou Dematteis/Reuters
Jim Bourdier/AP
Chris So/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Evan Vucci/AP
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
John W. Ferguson / Getty
Noam Galai/Getty Images
Lars Niki/Getty Images
Paul Morigi/WireImage
David Becker/Getty Images for SHOWTIME SPORTS
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Duffy-Marie Arnoult/WireImage
ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images
LOLITA JONES/AP
Harold Filan/AP
Edward Kitch/AP
Prince Williams/Wireimage
Mike Blake/Reuters
Richard Lautens/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Rick Diamond/Getty Images
AP
GREG GIBSON/AP
Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage
Amy Harris/AP
Skip Bolen/WireImage
MARK J. TERRILL/AP
John Shearer/Invision/AP
RON THOMAS/AP
Bobby Bank/WireImage
Moses Robinson/Getty Images
DAVID RUSSELL/CBS
Lou Dematteis/Reuters
Fred Prouser/Reuters
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
MediaPunch/REX/Shutterstock
Richard Corkery/New York Daily News
Travis Schneider via AP
AP Photo
Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Mark Mainz/Getty Images
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
JEFF HAYNES/Reuters
Scott Dudelson/WireImage
Michael Buckner/Getty Images for DC Entertainment, Marvel
Robin Marchant/Getty Images
Tommaso Boddi/WireImage
Laura Thompson/New York Daily news
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Jacopo Raule/WireImage
Chris Martinez/AP
Gerry Broome/AP
Lee Jin-man/AP
Ron Pownall/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Vivien Killilea/WireImage
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images
Anonymous/AP
Richard Shotwell/AP
AP Photo
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images
David Thorpe/REX/Shutterstock
Mark Mainz/Getty Images
Hubert Boesl/AP
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Stagecoach
Adrees Latif / Reuters
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Ian Gavan/Getty Images
Dick Gregory, the trailblazing comic and civil rights activist whose unique brand of comedy combined cutting wit and contemporary headlines, died Saturday.
He was 84.
Gregory died in Washington two days after his son revealed that he was hospitalized with a “serious but stable medical condition.”
“It is with enormous sadness that the Gregory family confirms that their father, comedic legend and civil rights activist Mr. Dick Gregory departed this earth tonight in Washington, DC.,” his son Christian Gregory wrote on Instagram.
Born in St. Louis, Gregory first started performing standup comedy in the Army in the 1950s.
His major break came in 1961 when he was spotted by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner performing at a Chicago nightclub.
The gig included what is now one of Gregory’s best-known jokes: “Last time I was down South, I walked into this restaurant. This white waitress came up and said, ‘We don’t serve colored people here.’ I said, ‘That’s all right. I don’t eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.'”
Gregory went on to perform before an audience of white businessmen at the Playboy Club in Chicago after the headliner canceled.
“It was the first time they had seen a black comic who was not bucking his eyes, wasn’t dancing and singing and telling mother-in-law jokes,” he told the Boston Globe in 2000. “Just talking about what I read in the newspaper.”
Gregory instantly shot to fame, landing gigs at the country’s top clubs and raking in as much as $25,000 a night.
At the same time, the civil rights movement was gathering momentum and Gregory bravely injected himself into the cause, trading stage performances for sit-ins and marches.
Some critics called him out for allowing his demonstrating to interfere with his comedy career.
“My career is interfering with my demonstrating,” Gregory shot back.
A close friend of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, he was shot in the leg during Los Angeles’ Watts Riots in 1965 and even ran for President as a write-in candidate in 1968.
No comedian of the era was as fearless in taking on the political establishment. “Dick Gregory was the greatest, and he was the first,” Richard Pryor once said. “Somebody had to break down that door.”
Gregory’s activism didn’t end with the civil rights movement. He crusaded for world peace, stood alongside Gloria Steinem and other feminists, and even held a hunger strike in Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis.
Gregory’s unconventional life also saw him create a multi-million dollar weight-loss powder. “He taught us how to laugh. He taught us how to fight. He taught us how to live,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson. “Dick Gregory was committed to justice. I miss him already. #RIP”
New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray called Gregory a “freedom fighter way ahead of his time.” And Larry King described him as an “American original” and a “giant of comedy, civil rights and astute political observations.”