At the age of three years, Kinison was hit by a truck, which left him with brain damage. The family moved to East Peoria, Illinois, when Kinison was three months old. Samuel Burl Kinison was born in Yakima, Washington, on December 8, 1953, the son of Marie Florence ( née Morrow) and Samuel Earl Kinison, a Pentecostal preacher. Kinison received a Grammy nomination in 1988 for the single ' Wild Thing' from his Have You Seen Me Lately? album, and a posthumous win in 1994 for Best Spoken Comedy Album, Live from Hell.

At the peak of his career, Kinison was killed in a car crash. Kinison's comedy was crass observational humor, especially towards women and dating, and his popularity grew quickly, earning him appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live.

Initially performing for free, Kinison became a regular fixture at The Comedy Store where he met and eventually befriended such comics as Robin Williams and Jim Carrey. A former Pentecostal preacher, he performed stand-up routines that were characterized by intense sudden tirades, punctuated with his distinctive scream, similar to charismatic preachers.

Samuel Burl Kinison ( / ˈ k ɪ n ɪ s ən/ KIN-iss-ən Decem– April 10, 1992) was an American stand-up comedian and actor.