Freddie James Prinze, Jr. (born March 8, 1976) is an American actor and contributing member of World Wrestling Entertainment's creative team. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s, after starring in several Hollywood films aimed at teenage audiences, including I Know What You Did Last Summer and its sequel, as well as She's All That, and Scooby-Doo. Prinze, Jr. has also made appearances in television sitcoms, including Friends.
Early life
Prinze, Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Kathy Elaine Cochran (née Barber), a real estate agent, and Freddie Prinze, an actor and comedian1 who killed himself in 1977 after Kathy had left him and had filed a restraining order against him (Prinze, Jr. was 10 months old at the time). Prinze, Jr.'s father was of Puerto Rican2 and Hungarian Jewish34 descent. In a 1999 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Prinze, Jr. stated that his mother is of English, Irish and Native American ancestry (adding that "My grandma and grandpa, who raised me for the first few years, were straight-up English and Irish");5 in a 2007 interview, however, Prinze, Jr. described his mother as coming from an Italian American family.6 Prinze, Jr. was raised Roman Catholic7 and embraces his Puerto Rican heritage.86 He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico as well as spent summers in Puerto Rico,6 where he learned about Spanish and Puerto Rican culture from his Puerto Rican paternal grandmother.9 He speaks fluent Spanish and Italian.6 Prinze, Jr. showed an interest in acting from an early age and attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque. After graduating in 1994, Prinze, Jr. moved to Los Angeles to audition for television roles.10
Career
Prinze, Jr. was cast in a guest role on the ABC TV series Family Matters in 1995. He then appeared on a few special programs and made-for-TV movies, before making his motion picture debut in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday in 1996. In subsequent years, Prinze, Jr. experienced much success appearing in youth-oriented movies. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and its sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), made him well-known among teenage audiences and his first leading role, the romantic comedy She's All That (1999), was very successful at the box office, grossing $63 million11 in the United States.
Subsequently, he had leading roles in Wing Commander (1999), Down to You (2000), Boys and Girls (2000), Head Over Heels (2001) and Summer Catch (2001), most of which were generally disliked by critics12 and had moderate box office performances.13 In 2000, he was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World".
In 2002, he played Fred Jones in the live film version of the popular cartoon, Scooby-Doo, and repeated the role in the 2004 sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. He starred in both Scooby-Doo movies alongside his wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar. He guest starred on the popular NBC show, Friends, as a sensitive male nanny named Sandy. He also appeared as Donny Crane, a character believed to be Denny Crane's son in the ABC legal drama-comedy Boston Legal. Prinze, Jr. starred in his own television sitcom, titled Freddie. The sitcom is said to depict some actual events from his life. The show lasted one season (fall 2005 - spring 2006) before being canceled in May 2006. He guest starred on the George Lopez Show for a crossover with Freddie. In 2004, the actor accepted a special award from TV Land on behalf of his late father. The actor thanked his dad's former co-star, Della Reese, for her continued advice and support.
World Wrestling Entertainment
Prinze is also a known fan of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was shown on television in attendance at the March 2008 WrestleMania XXIV pay-per-view and its preceding Hall of Fame ceremony. He also made a cameo on an episode of The Dirt Sheet, an online program hosted by wrestlers John Morrison and The Miz, view and created an official profile on WWE's "Fan Nation" blog community where he regularly writes his thoughts on the current going-ons in the world of the WWE. His relationship with the company was furthered when he was hired as a member of the creative staff to contributing to weekly television and pay-per-view program14 for the SmackDown brand.15
Personal life
In the mid-1990s, Prinze, Jr. dated actress Kimberly McCullough for more than three years.16 He married actress Sarah Michelle Gellar on September 1, 2002, in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, located at the southwest of México. The couple met several years beforehand, while filming I Know What You Did Last Summer,17 but started dating in 2000 and were engaged in April 2001. She had a small role in She's All That, which starred Prinze Jr. Freddie also starred in Scooby Doo and the sequel with Sarah. In 2007, for their fifth year of marriage, Sarah legally changed her name to Sarah Michelle Prinze.1819
Prinze Jr. is trained in several forms of martial arts, and enjoys tap dancing and collecting comic books. He is an avid soccer fan and supports Arsenal F.C., and is a fan of East Asian cinema. Prinze received a katana from Gellar in 2004 that Sarah bought in Japan while filming The Grudge.
Filmography
See also
References
- ^ Freddie, Jr. Prinze Biography (1976-)
- ^ Freddie Prinze Jr . com
- ^ Nordheimer, Jon (1977-01-29). "Freddie Prinze", The New York Times. Retrieved on 10 April 2008.
- ^ Maeder, Jay (1999-06-09). "FREDDIE PRINZE EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD", New York Daily News. Retrieved on 10 April 2008.
- ^ Munoz, Lorenza (1999-01-28). "MOVIES; Growing Into His Own Man", The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 10 April 2008.
- ^ a b c d Jacobs, Jay S. (2007-05-12). "Freddie Prinze, Jr. & Mena Suvari", PopEntertainment.com. Retrieved on 12 October 2007.
- ^ http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2005/10/05/pf-1248526.html
- ^ Hispanic Magazine.com - September 2005 - Cover Story
- ^ Zap2it - TV news - 'Freddie' Prinze Savors Tough Demands
- ^ Freddie Prinze, Jr. is Freddie Moreno on Freddie
- ^ She's All That (1999) - Box office / business
- ^ rottentomatoes.com
- ^ Freddie Prinze, Jr. Movie Box Office Results
- ^ World Wrestling Entertainment (2008-07-30). "Prinze, Jr. Joins WWE Creative Team". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-08-02.
- ^ Ross, Jim (2008-07-31). "Give Adamle a Chance… McCain’s Former MMA Views Concern me… Smackdown’s Closing segment Friday night is a classic… SNME…". JR's Blog. JRsBArBQ.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-02. "Freddie Prinze, Jr. is going to be involved creatively in the Smackdown brand from what I gather."
- ^ Freddie Prinze Jr . com
- ^ Freddie Prinze Jr. -Articles
- ^ Kaplan, Don. FRESH PRINZE: 'BUFFY' TAKES HER HUBBY'S NAME. New York Post. November 16, 2007.
- ^ Gellar Takes Prinze's Name. SFGate.com. November 16, 2007.
External links
