Paul Gladney, better known by his stage name Paul Mooney, was a dancer, comedian, writer, social critic, and actor. Gladney was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on August 4, 1941, to teenage parents George Gladney and LaVoya Ealy. Gladney moved to Oakland, California, with his brother Rudy, mother, and grandparents when he was seven years old.
His grandmother Aimay Ealy raised him and gave him the nickname “Mooney.” Gladney and his mother moved to Berkeley when he was fourteen, where he attended Berkeley High School alongside childhood friend and future Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton.
Gladney’s first public performance was at a local theater, where he won a “Hambone” routine, and when he was eighteen, he began regularly performing as a dancer on the television show Dance Party.
Gladney was drafted into the United States Army around 1960 and spent two years in Germany before being discharged. He returned to California and worked as a ringmaster in the traveling Gatti-Charles Circus for a short time, where he began writing and telling jokes in a blunt and controversial style that he maintained throughout his career.
Gladney met comedian Richard Pryor in 1968 and the two moved to Hollywood together, where they became members of the Second City comedy troupe. He made his stand-up comedy debut in 1970 at Joan Rivers’ Beverly Hills club, Ye Little Club, and his first film appearance was in Carter’s Army (1970).
Gladney rose to the position of head writer for the television shows Sanford and Son and Good Times. He also co-wrote the most controversial “Saturday Night Live” skit in 1975, as well as The Richard Pryor Show and Pryor’s Place, a short-lived children’s show, and several of Pryor’s albums.
He was responsible for giving Robin Williams, Sandra Bernhard, Tim Reid, John Witherspoon, and many other young comedians their first breaks. Gladney appeared in the films The Buddy Holly Story (1978), Bustin’ Loose (1981), and Hollywood Shuffle (1982) as singer Sam Cooke (1987). Gladney was the show’s head writer and inspired the character “Homey D. Clown,” played by Damon Wayans.
Gladney worked as a writer and performer, appearing as “Negrodamus” in early 2000s episodes of Chappelle’s Show and as Junebug in Spike Lee’s film Bamboozled (2000). Mooney resumed standup comedy after the death of Richard Pryor in 2005. His memoir, Black Is the New White, was published in 2007. Gladney continued to perform for a few years before his brother, Rudy, revealed in 2014 that Gladney had prostate cancer. He later developed dementia and stopped performing.
Gladney married Yvonne Carothers in 1973 and had one son, Shane. Mooney also had twin sons from a previous relationship, Dwayne and Daryl. Gladney had a daughter, Spring, after the couple divorced, and a fifth child, Symeon, who was tragically killed in a car accident in 2001. Paul “Mooney” Gladney died of a heart attack on May 19, 2021, at the age of 79, at his home in Oakland, California.