Pryor Shows Flip Side of ‘Class’ Act

Rain Pryor doesn’t want to be a funny tomboy anymore.

“I did that for three years on ‘Head of the Class,’ ” says the actress, 22, who’s currently playing “a rebellious, very womanlike” Joan of Arc in Linda Chambers’ “Joan” at the Globe Playhouse in Hollywood. “I wanted people to see a softer side, a dramatic side. I’m not just a comedic actress. The industry has (made) me a comedic actress because of the last name--I’m supposed to be Funny Girl.”

Pryor is hoping audiences see another side of her talent tonight, when she joins host Eddie Murphy and a starry lineup honoring her father in “A Party for Richard Pryor” (CBS). “The tribute was taped in September,” she explains. “I sing a song I wrote with three friends, ‘Fly Away’--about flying away, growing up.”

The actress believes that she was asked to participate in the tribute largely because of her professional stature, and does not sugarcoat the relationship with her father, who split with her mother when she was six months old.

“There is this man, Richard Pryor, and I’m related by blood,” she says bluntly. “There is no relationship--or maybe a relationship in spurts. When Dad had his triple-bypass surgery, all the family and kids were there, and he was like ‘Maybe I’ll (die), so will you do this for me?’ Now he realizes he’s going to be here a little longer and he’s gone back to the old patterns. I don’t think that kind of (family) stuff is abnormal. I think it’s common--especially in this business.”