The Suicide Death of Freddie Prinze

At the age of 20, Freddie Prinze had a top-five rated television show, Chico and the Man. He was a star, and his face graced the covers of numerous magazines, such as People, US and Rolling Stone. Yet, despite his overwhelming success, he also felt the pressures from the Hispanic community, the network brass, and his adoring fans. Women were crawling all over him. So were the drug fiends, who often populate the entertainment fringes, like pilot fish feeding off the detritus left over from the sharks. Freddie Prinze became addicted to the ladies and the pills. To overcome the female problem, he decided to settle down. He met a beautiful cocktail waitress named Kathy Cochran and quickly got hitched. Kathy became pregnant and gave birth to their only child, Freddie Prinze, Jr.

Freddie Prinze however, could not shake his other addiction. Pills. Specifically, Quaaludes. Freddie Prinze's love for the little monsters led to the break-up with Kathy. She filed for divorce, yet Freddie forged on. Meanwhile, Chico and the Man was riding high. Freddie Prinze also secured several high-profile gigs in Vegas, and he performed at the inauguration ball for then-President Jimmy Carter.

On January 26, 1977 he was slapped with a restraining order from his wife. Naturally, this didn't set well, sending him into a downward spiral. Early the next morning, he started making a series of goodbye phone calls. One was to Marvin "Dusty" Snyder, Freddie's business manager. Dusty became concerned, and went to Freddie's hotel room.

When Dusty arrived, he tried to get Freddie to calm down, and told him that he had much to live for. Freddie continued to make the emotional phone calls with Dusty in the room. He phoned his mother and said, "Mom, I love you very much, but I can't go on. I need to find peace." Dusty is sitting there the whole time. At 3:30am, Freddie called his estranged wife, and supposedly said, "I love you, Kathy. I love the baby, but I need to find peace. I can't go on." He hung up the phone.

Freddie Prinze was standing with the phone in one hand and his .357 Magnum in the other. After making the phone calls, Freddie calmly sat down on the sofa in his extended stay hotel at 865-75 Comstock Avenue in Westwood, and raised the gun to his head. Dusty made a dive for the gun, but Freddie pulled away. Dusty hastily told Prinze to "think about your mother, and your son." Snyder heard a muffled noise but didn't realize what had happened until seconds later, when Prinze slumped sideways, with blood spilling from his head.

An ambulance was called, and Freddie was taken to the UCLA Medical Center where he underwent surgery for the gunshot wound to his head. His family kept a vigil at the hospital, and began to weep when one of the doctors came to them with the announcement, "It's all in God's hands." Freddie was given last rites.

He died at 1:00 in the afternoon on January 29, 1977, 33 hours after shooting himself. Freddie Prinze was 22 years old.

Police did find a note in Freddie's room. It said, "I must end it. There's no hope left. I'll be at peace. No one had anything to do with this. My decision totally - Freddie Prinze P.S. I'm sorry. Forgive me. Dusty's here. He's innocent. He cared."

Freddie's funeral was held at the Old North Church and he was laid to rest in the Court of Remembrance at Forest Lawn Cemetery, in Hollywood Hills. It was attended by Freddie's wife, Jack Albertson, Paul Williams (who was a pallbearer!?) , and Tony Orlando. Tony gave the eulogy.

Now, here's where it gets a little unbelievable. In 1982, Freddie Prinze's widow and son received nearly $1 million to settle assorted malpractice suits against Freddie's psychiatrist and internist for over prescribing Quaaludes. In January of 1983, a jury confirmed what his mother had pursued, that Freddie was acting under the influence of drugs, and that he was playing with the gun, and it accidentally went off. As a result of the verdict, the family received a life insurance pay out.

Freddie Prinze

Surprisingly, this was not Prinze's only flirtation with suicide. He first attempted to kill himself at the age of 17, after becoming despondent over the breakup with his then girlfriend. Also, shortly after his wife started the divorce proceedings, Prinze's manager successfully sued him for breaking a business contract. The downward spiral had begun, forcing the star to drink heavily and rely more and more on drugs (quaaludes) to cope with everyday life. In one particularly foretelling moment he told his friends, "Life isn't worth living" and proceeded to pull out his unloaded gun, place it to his head, and squeeze the trigger.