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Freddie Prinze is one of only
a handful of Puerto Rican Americans to earn national prominence as a popular entertainer--in his case, as a stand-up comedian.
Prinze was born in Washington Heights, New York, a working-poor, multi-ethnic
neighborhood on the Upper West Side. His father was a Hungarian immigrant who worked as a tool and die maker, his mother a
Puerto Rican immigrant who worked in a factory. Playing on the name "Neuorican," as many New York Puerto Ricans identify themselves,
Prinze called himself a "Hungarican."
Prinze came from a diverse religious as well as ethnic background. His father was
part Jewish, his mother Catholic, and they chose to send him to a Lutheran elementary school. On Sundays he attended Catholic
mass. "All was confusing," he told Rolling Stone in 1975, "until I found I could crack up the priest doing Martin Luther."
Prinze was also overweight when he was a young boy, which further heightened
his anxiety about his "mixed" identity. "I fitted in nowhere," he continued, "I wasn't true spic, true Jew, true anything.
I was a miserable fat schmuck kid with glasses and asthma." Like many comedians, Prinze used humor to cope with the traumas
of his childhood. "I started doing half-hour routines in the boys room, just winging it. Guy's cut class to catch the act.
It was, 'What time's Freddie playing the toilet today?'"
His comedic talents paid off, as he was selected to attend the prestigious Performing
Arts High School in New York. Prinze did not graduate from the Performing Arts High School, though after his later professional
successes school administrators awarded him a certificate. The young comedian skipped many of his morning classes, most commonly
economics, because he often worked as late as 3:00 A.M. in comedy clubs perfecting his routine and style. Of his time spent
in these clubs, Prinze would later say, "My heart doesn't start till 1:00 P.M."
One of his favorite spots was the Improvisation on West 44th Street, a place
where aspiring comics could try out their material on receptive audiences. Prinze's called himself an "observation comic,"
and his routines often included impressions of ethnic minorities and film stars such as Marlon Brando. One of his most famous
impressions was of his Puerto Rican apartment building superintendent who, when asked to fix a problem in the building, would
say with a thick accent: "Eez not mai yob." The line became a national catch phrase in the early 1970's.
His comedy also
had a political edge that was poignant and raw, perhaps best illustrated by his line about Christopher Columbus: "Queen Isabelle
gives him all the money, three boats, and he's wearing a red suit, a big hat, and a feather--that's a pimp."
Prinze's comic wit, based in the tradition of street humor pioneered by such comics
as Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, landed him a number of television appearances, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
in 1973. His performance there was a major success, and the start of his television career. Indeed, James Komack, a television
producer, liked what he saw in Prinze's routine, and cast him to play the part of Chico Rodriquez, a wise-cracking Chicano,
in a situation comedy called Chico and the Man. Komack told Time magazine that Prinze "was the best comic to come along in
20 years." Chico and the Man also starred veteran actor Jack Albertson as "the Man," a crusty old-timer, owner of a run-down
garage in a Chicano barrio of East Los Angeles. Among the supporting cast were Scatman Crothers, who played Louie the garbageman,
and Della Reese, who played Della the landlady.
In the style of other situation comedies such as All in the Family and Sanford
and Son, most of the plots involved ethnic conflicts between Chico, who worked in the garage, and the Man, the only Caucasian
living in the mostly Latino neighborhood. "Latin music sounds like Montovani getting mugged," the Man says to Chico in one
episode. Chico would often respond to the old-timer's bigoted statements with the line, "Looking good," which also became
a national catch phrase.
Premiering on NBC-TV in September of 1974, Chico and the Man quickly rose to
the top of the Nielsen ratings. Time reported that Prinze was "the hottest new property on prime-time TV," and the comedian
literally became an overnight star--the first and, to date, only Puerto Rican comedian to command a nation-wide audience.
He began working in Las Vegas for a reported $25,000 a night. He bought himself a new Corvette and his parents a home in the
Hollywood hills. He was only twenty years old.
Chico and the Man faced criticism and protests from the Los Angeles Chicano
community, who protested the use of Prinze, a New York Puerto Rican, to play a Los Angeles Chicano. Citing dialect and accent
differences--and the fact that network television rarely employed Chicano actors--Chicano groups picketed NBC's Burbank studios
and wrote protest letters. Prinze responded with his usual irreverent humor: "If I can't play a Chicano because I'm Puerto
Rican, then God's really gonna be mad when he finds out Charlton Heston played Moses." Nonetheless, the network and producers
of the show buckled under the pressure, changing the character to half-Puerto Rican and half-Chicano brought up in New York
City. The shift in the character's ethnic identity apparently did not bother television audiences, for Chico and the Man never
slipped below sixth place in the ratings when Prinze was its star.
Prinze, however, had a difficult time adjusting to the pressures of his overnight
success and stardom, and during this period, he experienced many personal problems. His wife of 15 months, Katherine Elaine
Cochran, filed for divorce and Prinze was now less able to see his adored 15 month old son. Early in the show's run, Prinze
was arrested for driving under the influence of prescription tranquilizers, fueling speculation of a drug problem.
Indeed, friends reported that Prinze turned to drugs to cope with the pressures
of fame and the break-up of his marriage. "Freddie was into a lot of drugs," comedian Jimmy Walker said to the New York Times,
"not heroin, as far as I know, but coke and a lot of Ludes. The drug thing was a big part of Freddie's life. It completely
messed him up."
On 28 January 1977, after a night of phone calls to his secretary, business
manager, psychiatrist, mother and estranged wife, Freddie Prinze shot himself in the head in front of his business manager.
He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was 22 years old. A note found in his apartment read: "I can't
take any more. It's all my fault. There is no one to blame but me."
According to the New York Times, Prinze had previously
threatened suicide in front of many of his friends and associates, often by holding a gun to his head and pulling the trigger
while the safety was on. It is not known whether the young comedian actually intended to kill himself that night or merely
suggest that he might, as he had done in the past, but it is clear that he was critically depressed.
The death of Freddie Prinze is an American success story turned tragedy. His
street-wise insight and raw wit is surely missed, perhaps most by the Puerto Rican American community who have yet to see
another politically-minded Puerto Rican comedian grab national attention. "I am ee-noyed there is no Puerto Rican astronaut,"
Prinze told Rolling Stone in an exaggerated Spanish accent, "thee bigots think we will blow thee horn all the way to thee
moon, play thee radio, stick our heads out thee window and whistle ... and then, on thee moon, the white astronaut says, 'bring
in the Rocks now,' and we re-ply, 'Eez not mai yob, man!' -Daniel Bernardi
FREDDIE PRINZE. Born in New York City,
U.S.A., 22 June 1954. Educated at the High School of Performing Arts, 1970. Married: Kathy Cochran, 1975. Performed in Manhattan
comedy nightclubs; appeared on Jack Paar's television show, 1972; appeared on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, 1973; starred
in television show Chico and the Man, 1974-77. Died in Los Angeles, California, 28 January 1977.
TELEVISION SERIES
1974-77 Chico and the Man
FURTHER READING
Alpern, David M. "Chico's Last Act." Newsweek (New York), 7 February
1977.
Burke, Tom. "The Undiluted South Bronx Truth About Freddie Prinze." Rolling Stone (New York), 30 January 1975. Edelman,
Rosemary. "'Pobrito,' It Ain't Easy Being a Star." TV Guide (Radnor, Pennsylvania), 15 February 1975. Kasindorf, Jeanie. "'If
I Was Bitter, I Wouldn't Have Chosen Comedy.'" The New York Times, 9 February 1975. Nordheimer, Jon. "Freddie Prinze, 22,
Dies After Shooting." The New York Times, 30 January 1977.
Pruetzel, Maria. The Freddie Prinze Story. Kalamazoo, Michigan:
Master's Press, 1978.
Seiler, Michael. "Freddie Prinze: He Didn't Believe in Himself: Friends Reflect on Comedian's Childhood,
Sudden Rise to Success and His Death." The New York Times, 1 March 1977.
Waters, Harry. "Hot Hungarican." Newsweek (New
York) 11 November 1974.
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