Freddie Prinze

• Born: June 22, 1954
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: January 29, 1977
• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

American comedian and actor

A brilliant but troubled stand-up comedian, Prinze became an overnight sensation as a teenager after appearing on late-night television talk shows. The star of a popular television series and a Las Vegas headliner, Prinze was overwhelmed by sudden success. He sank into depression and substance abuse before fatally shooting himself.

Early Life

Freddie Prinze (FREHD-ee prihnz) was born Frederick Karl Pruetzel. His father, Edward Karl Preutzel, a German-born tool and die maker, had fled to the United States in 1934 at the rise of Nazism. Pruetzel married and fathered a daughter, Alice, who accidentally drowned at age five, an incident that drove him to drink and led to the breakup of his marriage. He later married a Puerto Rican woman, Maria Graniela, a factory worker who gave birth to Freddie. As a child, Freddie grew up in multicultural, Latino-dominated Washington Heights on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Raised in both Catholic and Protestant faiths, he attended a private Lutheran grade school on weekdays and went to Catholic Mass on Sundays.

A pudgy asthmatic, Prinze wore glasses as a child and was an easy target for bullies. His mother signed him up for ballet classes in order to help control his weight. To deflect the cruelties of classmates, he used his natural humor and quick wit to develop a talent for mimicry. He regularly entertained former tormenters with impressions of teachers or students. After junior high, Prinze was accepted into Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts. He continued ballet classes and learned to play a variety of instruments, including piano, drums, and guitar. He also participated in dramatic productions in which he built his comedic repertoire, creating characters based on composites of people from his neighborhood. As a teen, Prinze began performing during amateur nights at New York City comedy clubs, where he perfected his persona of a strongly accented “Hungarican”(half Hungarian and half Puerto Rican) immigrant. He left high school during his senior year to work full time in stand-up comedy, specializing in Lenny Bruce-styled observational humor. He even briefly dated Bruce’s daughter and contemplated suicide when they broke up.

Life’s Work

Working in comedy clubs alongside such up-and-coming funny men as Robin Williams, Jay Leno, and David Brenner, Freddie used the stage name Prinze, reflecting his desire to become the prince of comedy (Alan King already had a patent on the title “the king of comedy”). Prinze began to get noticed. He first attracted national attention in 1973 with appearances on late-night television. Still in his teens, he performed on The Jack Paar Show and then on The Tonight Show. A television producer caught Prinze’s routine and earmarked the comedian as a possibility for the lead role in a new situation comedy. Negotiations soon followed and Prinze was signed to star in Chico and the Man, which debuted the following year and shot to the top of the ratings.

In the wake of his success, further opportunities quickly blossomed for the young comedian. Prinze substituted as host several times for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. He was paid $25,000 a week to perform at clubs in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Miami. He was a popular participant on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, firing off one-liners poking fun at honorees Sammy Davis, Jr., and Muhammad Ali. During the mid-1970’s, he was in demand as a guest on such shows as The Midnight Special, The Hollywood Squares, The Mike Douglas Show, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and Dinah! In 1975, he released his only comedy album, Looking Good, a line he frequently delivered on his television show, which was recorded during a live performance in Chicago. In 1976, he was cast in the lead role in the made-for-television heist film The Million-Dollar Rip-Off, playing a former convict and electronics wizard who conspires with four women to steal one million dollars. Early in 1977, he performed at a preinauguration event for newly elected President Jimmy Carter.

To the world at large, it seemed that Freddie Prinze had everything anyone could desire. Beneath the surface, however, the young star was in turmoil. In 1975, he married Katherine “Kathy” Cochran, and in 1976 they had a son, future actor Freddie Prinze, Jr. By then, he was showing signs of chronic depression, perhaps brought on by his rags-to-riches rise to fame and fortune; having accomplished so much, so soon, there appeared to be nothing left to live for. Prinze underwent regular psychological counseling. He began drinking to excess—he was arrested in Hollywood for driving while intoxicated —and abusing drugs, particularly cocaine and Quaaludes. He took to carrying handguns, threatened suicide on more than one occasion, and often behaved erratically. His wife left him, and they ultimately divorced.

By late January, 1977, Prinze was living alone in a luxurious Los Angeles hotel apartment. Chico and the Man was still going strong, ranked in the top ten among prime-time television programs. Prinze had just landed a lucrative deal to perform at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and new opportunities in film loomed on the horizon with Universal and Warner Brothers Studios. Prinze, however, wanted out.

On the night of January 28, 1977, he phoned relatives, his former wife, his psychiatrist, friends, and business associates to say he intended to kill himself. His business manager rushed over, arriving in time to witness Prinze fire a bullet into his own head. The comedian clung to life for a day before dying at age twenty-two. His death was initially ruled a suicide. However, several years later his case was reexamined as the result of a civil lawsuit and, based on the testimony of numerous people who had seen Prinze pretending suicide for comedic effect, a jury ruled his death accidental. The decision made his widow and son beneficiaries of substantial insurance payouts.

Significance

Freddie Prinze’s meteoric rise and sudden crash made him an instant member of a dubious club: celebrities who died tragically young. He joined a long list of stars—Jean Harlow, Hank Williams, James Dean, River Phoenix, Sid Vicious, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, and others—who will forever be linked in the public consciousness for having early success and early deaths.

In the year after his death, Prinze’s mother published his biography, The Freddie Prinze Story. In 1979, a made-for-television film, Can You Hear the Laughter? The Story of Freddie Prinze, with Ira Angustain in the title role, commemorated his life. In 2004, Prinze, the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to star in a television show, was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His son, Freddie Prinze, Jr., was present at the unveiling of his father’s star, and he has become a celebrity in his own right as an actor.

Bibliography

Beltrán, Mary C. Latino/a Stars in U.S. Eyes: The Making and Meanings of Film and TV Stardom. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. A study of the impact of Hispanic actors on American film and television history, through the examples of stars like Freddie Prinze.

Pruetzel, Maria, and John A. Barbour. The Freddie Prinze Story. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Master’s Press, 1978. A loving and reverent illustrated biography of Prinze, cowritten by his mother.

Snauffer, Douglas. The Show Must Go On: How the Deaths of Lead Actors Have Affected Television Series. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2008. An examination, through the recollections of associates, of television programs such as Chico and the Man that have been affected by the demise of their stars.