Sam Kinison

Samuel Burl Kinison (December 8, 1953 – April 10, 1992) was an American comedian and actor. Before his stand-up career, he worked as a Pentecostal preacher. His comedy style relied on explosive, sudden outbursts, often capped off with a signature scream. He started out performing for no pay, eventually becoming a mainstay at The Comedy Store, where he became friends with comics like Robin Williams and Jim Carrey. His material focused on observational humor, frequently targeting women and dating, which helped him rise quickly. This led to spots on *The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson*, *Late Night with David Letterman*, and *Saturday Night Live*. At the height of his fame in early 1992, he died in a car accident at age 38. Kinison earned a Grammy nomination in 1988 for his single "Wild Thing" from the album *Have You Seen Me Lately?*, and won a posthumous Grammy in 1994 for Best Spoken Comedy Album for *Live from Hell*.

Kinison was born in Yakima, Washington, to Marie Florence and Samuel Earl Kinison, a Pentecostal preacher. When he was three months old, his family moved to East Peoria, Illinois. At age three, he was struck by a truck, resulting in brain damage and epilepsy. His father led several churches with little pay. He had two older brothers, Richard and Bill, and a younger brother, Kevin. His parents split when he was 11; Bill went with their father, while Sam stayed with the rest of the family against his wishes. Bill saw this as a source of Sam’s anger. Kinison attended East Peoria Community High School. Following their father, he and his brothers became Pentecostal preachers. From 1968 to 1969, he attended Pinecrest Bible Training Center in Salisbury Center, New York. His mother remarried a preacher and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Kinison lived for a time. He preached from age 17 to 24; recordings show a "fire and brimstone" style with shouts similar to his comedy. Bill noted he "had no stage presence" and wasn’t successful at earning money preaching, focusing more on informative sermons than entertainment. After divorcing his first wife, he left preaching for comedy.

Kinison started in Houston, performing in small clubs. He joined the Texas Outlaw Comics at the Comedy Workshop, a group that included Bill Hicks, Ron Shock, Riley Barber, Steve Epstein, Andy Huggins, John Farneti, and Jimmy Pineapple. Hicks called Kinison a major influence, saying, "He was the first guy I ever saw to go on stage and not in any way ask the audience to like him." In 1980, he moved to Los Angeles for work at The Comedy Store, starting as a doorman. He developed addictions to cocaine and alcohol, soon freebasing cocaine, and struggled until his brother Bill moved to L.A. to manage his career. His big break came in August 1985 on HBO’s *Rodney Dangerfield’s Ninth Annual Young Comedians Special*. *New York Times* critic Stephen Holden called him "the savagely misogynistic Sam Kinison," describing his "grotesque animalist howl" as a "primal scream of the married man." On his debut *Late Night with David Letterman* in 1985, Letterman warned the audience, "Brace yourselves. I’m not kidding." Kinison used his preacher background for satirical, sacrilegious takes on the Bible, Christianity, and televangelist scandals. His daring comedy boosted his fame. Videos of his routines show his 1986 Corvette’s license plate reading "EX REV." He was tied to the L.A. rock scene and sometimes performed with a band. In 1986, he appeared in Rodney Dangerfield’s film *Back to School*. Howard Stern bought the film rights to Kinison’s biography, written by his brother, and reported in 2008 that HBO would produce *Brother Sam* with Dan Fogler as Kinison. Bill Kinison mentioned film deals in development at the time of Sam’s death, including projects with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rick Moranis.

In May 1988, Kinison’s youngest brother Kevin died by suicide at age 28, shooting himself after a nervous breakdown at their parents’ Tulsa home. The loss devastated Sam. Much of his material came from his first two marriages, to Patricia Adkins (1975–1980) and Terry Marze (1981–1989). He began a relationship with dancer Malika Souiri near the end of his marriage to Marze. In 1990, Souiri claimed she was raped by a bodyguard Kinison had hired while he slept; the bodyguard said the sex was consensual. The jury deadlocked, and charges were dropped. The incident pushed Kinison to get sober with Souiri and join Alcoholics Anonymous. By March 1990, he told audiences he had stopped using drugs. Kinison often attended rock shows and hung out with musicians. In May 1991, he got into a fight with guitarist Slash at a hotel.