Richard Pryor says a rumor that he had died nearly scared his housekeeper and accountant to death last year.
"I was home, and I have a housekeeper, and she came into room and I was asleep," a frail-looking Pryor said Tuesday on "Donahue." "But in her mind, maybe I was (dead)."So she started screaming from the door, `Richard!' I woke up and said, `What's the matter?' She said, `They said you're dead!' I said, `They were wrong.' "
The next call came from his accountant, the comic said in a voice left weak by multiple sclerosis.
"He said, `Richard, they said you were dead.' I said, `Tell 'em I'm back to check the books,' " the 52-year-old Pryor said.
Pryor had heart bypass surgery last year. He was severely burned in 1980 while freebasing cocaine.