Quincy Jones raised eyebrows this week when a brief aside in his wide-ranging and extremely entertaining interview with Vulture revealed that Richard Pryor and Marlon Brando were once lovers. The internet reacted accordingly, questioning the truth in the comment, but Richard Pryor’s widow Jennifer Lee confirmed to TMZ that her husband and Brando indeed hooked up in the ’70s.
The revelation isn’t that shocking when one looks at the history of the two men. Pryor made it clear in his autobiography that he had sex with various men for a period of time, and Marlon Brando was known as openly bisexual. That’s probably why Jones was so laissez-faire about discussing Brando’s sexual prolificness with Vulture.
He was the most charming motherfucker you ever met. He’d f*ck anything. Anything! He’d fuck a mailbox. James Baldwin. Richard Pryor. Marvin Gaye.
He slept with them? How do you know that?
[Frowns.] Come on, man. He did not give a f*ck! You like Brazilian music?
Lee was a little more forthcoming with how she recalled the affair and the free-swinging ’60s and ’70s: “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,” she said.
Brando had a long list of sexual conquests, with Cary Grant, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean allegedly among them. In the ’70s, he said: “Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. 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.”
And if Pryor were alive today to hear how people are reacting to the news, Lee said: “Richard would have no shame about Quincy’s comments.”
Anyway, you like Brazilian music?
