Gift of Smiles

The announcer’s voice resounds as his name is called,
“…. Proudly present Freddie Prinze!” Out walks a proud
young “hunga-rican”, as he called himself, ready to
bring laughter and smiles to all the faces in front of
him. It was his gift and his pleasure, but could it be
his pain also? A question that haunts many who knew
and loved him to this day.
A start in the Washington Heights neighborhood may
not have been an ideal place for Freddie to begin, but
it was where he would begin his dream. The
neighborhood was not as classy as it had seen in days
passed, but the Pruetzel family was ready to make the
best of it. Freddie’s parents were of very different
backgrounds, his mother coming from Puerto Rico and
his father from Germany. For this reason, Freddie had
a very American flavor to everything he did. From a
very early age, Freddie was a performer, acting out
his favorite TV show, Zorro. Being an only child, he
was showered with attention from all his family, but
especially his mother. Maria Pruetzel was both proud
and amazed by her son.
Growing up would be a challenge for Freddie when he
was told he had asthma. Many nights were spent trying
to get him to breathe well enough to sleep. Once an
herbal treatment began to work though, he was ready to
take on school. School itself was a bore to Freddie;
he was only interested in a few subjects such as
history and drama. The rest of the time he would try
to figure out ways to get to the boys’ bathroom.
There, Freddie would tell jokes and do imitations of
teachers to make the kids laugh. When classes started
disappearing, it was almost a sure bet that Freddie
was doing his act.During the summer, Freddie got into a youth theater
group and went all over performing West Side Story. By
this time he had worked on his talent for singing and
dancing. He enjoyed it a great deal, but mostly he was
girl crazy. He was very popular with the ladies and
enjoyed that to the fullest. Though he could be seen
talking to several girls in one day, he was always
very nice to his girlfriends, going out of his way to
make them smile or giggle with delight.
Without telling his parents though, Freddie auditioned
for the prestigious School of the Performing Arts. He
was accepted and decided he wanted to study music. He
also worked his way into a group called Mind, Soul,
and Body. A little known fact about Freddie is that he
tried his hand at songwriting and actually sold one.
He also played an array of instruments like the drums,
piano, and guitar. Many hours were spent listening to
music with his headphones while he taught himself to
play. Then his band would come over to practice and
have the whole floor rocking.
After a little while at his school, Freddie found out
that he would have to rely on his humor to get out of
sticky situations. He was bullied, but he could charm
his way out of trouble for the most part. It wasn’t
long until his comedy act became his calling card in
school. His friends were impressed and encouraged him.

By his eighteenth birthday, Freddie was trying his
hand at comedy on the club circuit. His first chances
were at a hotel, called the Tripple Inn. It was very
small and sometimes he would spend all night there
only to do his act for a small intoxicated group. When
he got a laugh, he felt great. When he got a bad
response he worked harder to get the laugh.  It wasn’t
easy at all, but he was determined and wouldn’t let
his dream go.
Slowly he made his way to the Improv and Catch A
Rising Star, both clubs were starting grounds for some
of the biggest comedy stars. He also started taping
his own performances to see how he could improve his
act. It turned out to be a great tool in getting the
laughs he loved to hear.
Though his comedy career seemed to be taking off,
Freddie’s school career was not ending as planned.
Schoolwork was not his interest and his grades
reflected his late nights waiting at the clubs. He
finally convinced his mother that school would have to
take a back seat to comedy; however, he promised that
if he didn’t do well in comedy, he would go back.
With school out of the way, he devoted himself to
polishing his routines. By this time, he had made
friends with several seasoned comics and he was eager
to get their opinions of his material. Though their
opinions meant a lot to him, Maria was still his
biggest critic. He felt that if Ma laughed, anyone
would. He also appreciated her honesty when she didn’t
like something.In typical Freddie fashion, everything was happening
fast as word got around about a new kid calling
himself a Puerto Rican Prince or Prinze. Before long,
he was asked to make TV appearances and different club
appearances. His TV debut was to be the Jack Paar
Show. It went howlingly well and soon after he managed
to make it to the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Contrary to popular belief, Freddie was the first
comic ever asked over to the couch after his first
performance on the Tonight Show. It was a very rare
treat to be asked and was a definite right of passage.
Things could only get bigger.
And they did! James Komack happened to get a tape of
Freddie’s performance and was blown away to the point
he quickly asked for Freddie to come audition for him.
The 19-year-old was moving up quickly and he went to
try out for a new show called Chico and the Man. After
a very nerve wrecking audition and screen test with
the star of the show, Jack Albertson, Freddie won out
the role of Chico Rodriguez. He was in New York when
he got the news and the first thing he did was run
home to tell Ma and Pa. His hard work was starting to
pay off and in his own words it was ”…out of the
ghetto! California, here I come!”
The move to California was both great and scary at the
same time. He’d never been so far from Ma for so long
and he was very lonely. Calling almost constantly
didn’t seem to help much, but he did try to make the
best of things. Up to this point, Freddie had
experimented only occasionally with drugs. It was not
something he would look for, but if it was around, he
didn’t always say no. As his loneliness increased, his
experimenting began to slowly increase. He was not
proud of it and hid it as best he could.
On the other hand, he was being heralded as an over
night success. He was very much in demand, doing
interviews with TV, magazine, and newspaper. He was
guest spotting and co-hosting TV shows all over and
still making club appearances. Hectic as his schedule
was, he still tried to make it to New York at least
once a month. Freddie needed the time with his parents
to try to keep his head on. He was very anxious to
move them out to California to be with him. In May of
1975, he did just that buying them the house he’d
always promised he would.
Along with the new house came news of a new lady
taking up his time. Touring all over the country,
Freddie managed to meet up with a young divorcee by
the name of Kathy Cochran. The relationship was both
great for Freddie and worrying to his friends and
family. Everyone tried to warn him to slow down and to
take his time getting to know her, but that was not
Freddie's style.  He did agree that he wanted to do
things right though, so she moved in with him before
they got married. He said it was to see if and how
well they could get along. Not long afterward, Freddie
got the news that he would be a father soon, so the
couple arranged a quick and hushed wedding in Las
Vegas. Thousands of hearts broke the next day when the
headlines read that Freddie had wed. It wasn’t until
later, when Freddie James Prinze Jr. was born, that
everyone found out why the wedding had been the way it
was.Now with a family to consider, Freddie felt like he
had it all. He was a very proud father and was as
amazed by his son as his mother had been with him.
With Chico doing well in the ratings and his club
dates selling out, everyone thought he was on top of
the world. At first, it seemed like he was the only
one to know differently.
By this time, several disturbing incidents had
happened. For one, the first manager Freddie hired was
suing him for breach of contract. It would be a long
and draining ordeal for him both emotionally and
financially. Another that had weighed heavily on him
was the ever-growing problem he had with drugs. His
experimenting was starting to get out of control, but
he still tried to hide as much of his problem as he
could. He also had been threatened and for this reason
he carried a gun. While many of his friends and family
were concerned about Freddie having a gun, he assured
them he could handle it. He did not want anyone to
worry about him, so he didn’t tell very many people of
his problems.
Still, one person who noticed a definite change was
his mother. On several occasions she would ask Freddie
to come stay with her, but he wouldn’t. Then one day,
he told her that it looked like he would be getting a
divorce soon. As would become his trademark, he hid
from Maria all the details of what was happening
because he didn’t want her to worry. It really took a
lot out of him to realize his dream of marriage was
not going as he had dreamed. The part that hurt him
the most was not being around his son. Kathy and he
separated and Freddie was served with divorce papers
along with a restraining order.
Not thinking clearly, he started using more and more
Quaaludes. As his use of these pills increased, more
people started to realize the change in him. Where
once he would be happy and joking, now he was lonely
and depressed. He would get angry easily and he would
take his frustrations out by punching walls. He did so
until he dislocated his wrist.
Still keeping a hectic schedule though, he performed
many dates all over the country and managed to still
do Chico. Thinking that work could get his mind off
his troubles, he would do as many dates as he could.
His addiction was getting the best of him though. When
he was sober, he was hopeful and thinking of ways to
make his future bright. When he wasn’t, he would cry
or he would play with his gun. A few times friends
took his pills and gun away from him, but when he
insisted, he always got them back. The downward spiral
was coming to a head and Freddie couldn’t seem to get
off.
On a cold, wet January night, Freddie took the gun and
ended his pain. He wrote a message saying he needed to
be free and even though one of his friends was with
him, Freddie could not go on. In the hospital, many
tried to go over their memories and see what could
have been done differently, but Freddie was gone.
Headlines read all over of his last ordeal and many
fans were brokenhearted over the news.
To this day, those who remember him, have so many
memories of how Freddie made them laugh. Sadly though,
his son doesn’t remember the father who loved him so
much. He was only ten months old at the time and still
has a hard time talking about his father, 26 years
after the fact.
Freddie Prinze was a legend in his own time. It’s very
hard to look back and think he was only 22 years old
when he met his end. He wanted to make the world laugh
and forget their problems, but he couldn’t seem to do
that himself. He wanted to be remembered for his
talent and his hard work to get where he was. He just
didn’t seem to realize that when he made people laugh,
he touched their hearts. He will be remember, as his
fans put it, as the sweet laughter man.