Best Known As: Dark-eyed star of the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer
Freddie Prinze, Jr. made his big-screen debut opposite Claire Danes in the 1996 drama To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday. He already had a famous name: his father was the late comedian Freddie Prinze, star of the 1970s TV series Chico and the Man. Prinze, Jr. then starred in the 1997 horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer, and its success made him a star in his own right. He went on to appear as a hunk, dreamboat, and comic foil in a series of youth-oriented features, among them She's All That (1999, with Rachael Leigh Cook), Head Over Heels (2001), and Summer Catch (2002, with Jessica Biel). Prinze, Jr. married actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, his co-star in the 2002 and 2004 live-action films of the cartoon Scooby Doo. Since then he's done voice work for animation, had a short-lived show on TV (2005's Freddie) and appeared in TV's Boston Legal as Donny, the long-lost son of William Shatner's character, Denny Crane.
Prinze and Gellar had a daughter, Charlotte Grace Prinze, on 19 September 2009... Gellar took Prinze as her last name in 2007, becoming Sarah Michelle Prinze -- although she remained widely known as Sarah Michelle Gellar.
With his doe eyes and April-fresh skin, Freddie Prinze Jr. seemed a natural leader of the late-'90s Hollywood teen invasion. Noted as much for his looks as for his acting, Prinze has proven to have a natural appeal that has endured him to legions of fans.
The beginning of Prinze's life was a turbulent one, as his father, the actor Freddie Prinze (best known for his starring role on NBC's Chico and the Man) committed suicide when the younger Prinze was only ten months old. Born in Los Angeles on March 8, 1976, Prinze moved with his mother to Albuquerque, NM, shortly after his father's death. Growing up in New Mexico, Prinze was a poor student who decided to follow in his father's celluloid footsteps. After his high-school graduation in 1994, Prinze took off for Los Angeles with little money and few prospects. However, he soon found work in Hollywood, first appearing in various television shows, including an episode of Family Matters and a few afterschool specials.
The actor first broke into film as Claire Danes' boyfriend in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996). The part was a small one, but helped Prinze to secure his next and more sizeable role in The House of Yes (1997), a wicked little black comedy that starred Parker Posey as Prinze's deliciously unstable sister. The film's release was mainly limited to art houses, unlike Prinze's next film, I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). The film was a huge commercial, if not critical, success that propelled Prinze into, if not the limelight, then the hearts of many girls and more than a few boys everywhere. Following this triumph, Prinze went on to do a couple of forgettable films before the 1998 sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. The combined impact of that film and the success of Prinze's next major project, She's All That, gave the actor even greater fame and caused least one writer to dub him the next Leonardo Di Caprio. Unfortunately, Prinze's following endeavor, Wing Commander (1999), proved to be an unmitigated disappointment, serving to illustrate the extreme fluctuations of success in Hollywood. Prinze's growing popularity, however, seemed to survive relatively unscathed, judging by the slew of websites erected in his name.
If there was any question that the actor's popularity was waning in the wake of Wing Commander's lackluster performance, that doubt would soon be confirmed with hard numbers, as a triple threat of romantic comedies unceremoniously removed the teen-crowd superstar crown from Prinze's head. The cookie-cutter offerings Down to You and Boys and Girls (the latter of which reteamed him with She's All That director Robert Iscove) attempted to posit Prinze as a collegiate heartthrob, but both films' mix of moony romance with gross-out gags did little to attract moviegoers of any age. Anticipation for his next starring role, alongside Jessica Biel and Matthew Lillard in 2001's Summer Catch, was understandably low; the film was even saddled with a late-August release, traditionally reserved by studios as a "dumping ground" for unpromising product. As it turned out, Summer Catch's mixed reviews proved more forgiving than its paltry $19 million take.
Prinze's next project brought him out of the romantic comedy trend and into the doghouse, or at least the Mystery Machine. Re-teaming with his usual foil Lillard and starring -- yet again -- opposite his longtime love interest Sarah Michelle Gellar, Prinze took on the role of Fred in the live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo in 2002. Though almost universally panned by critics, the film reversed Prinze's dwindling status as a box-office draw by appealing to a demographic he'd yet to conquer: preteens. Not one to look a gift franchise in the mouth, Prinze signed on for another installment, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and took nearly two years off between the blockbusters as he tied the knot with Gellar. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
Prinze was born in Los Angeles, California and is the only child of Kathy Elaine Cochran (née Barber), a real estate agent, and Freddie Prinze, an actor and comedian[1] who died in 1977. Prinze's father was of Puerto Rican and German descent,[2] while his mother is of English, Irish, and Native American ancestry.[3] Prinze grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was raised Roman Catholic[4][5] also embracing his Puerto Rican heritage.[6][7] where he learned about Spanish and Puerto Rican culture from his paternal grandmother.[8] He speaks fluent Spanish and Italian.[7] He showed an interest in acting from an early age. After graduating in 1994, Prinze moved to Los Angeles to audition for television roles.[9]
Prinze 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 experienced success with appearances 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 million[10] 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 critics[11] and had moderate box office success.[12] 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 reprised 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 on the series 200th episode. He also appeared as Donny Crane, a character believed to be Denny Crane's son in the ABC legal drama-comedy Boston Legal. Prinze 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 before being canceled in May 2006. He guest starred on George Lopez for a crossover with Freddie. In 2004, Prinze accepted a special award from TV Land on behalf of his late father. He thanked his father's former co-star, Della Reese, for her continued advice and support. In 2006, he lent his voice to the character of Pi in the computer-animated film Shark Bait. Also, in 2007, he lent his voice to the character of Rick in Happily N'Ever After along with his wife Sarah Michelle Gellar, Wallace Shawn, Andy Dick, George Carlin, and Sigourney Weaver. In 2008, he originally auditioned for Jigsaw in Punisher: War Zone, but was not given the part at the decision of Lionsgate Studios. [13]
Prinze is 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 had created an official profile on WWE's "Universe" blog community where he would regularly write 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 program[14] for the SmackDown brand.[15] It was later reported on February 22, 2009 that Freddie Prinze Jr and WWE parted ways.
Post-WWE
In March 2009, it was announced that Prinze had signed on to star as Bradley, aka Ultimatum in the ABC show No Heroics, a US remake of the British show of the same name.[16][17][18] The show was not picked up but Prinze was instead cast as a series regular for the eighth season of the television show 24, where he played a new CTU operative.
Return to World Wrestling Entertainment (2010-present)
Prinze returned to World Wrestling Entertainment on October 1, 2010, in a role as producer and director.[20] On the November 1, 2010 episode of Monday Night RAW, Prinze made an on-screen appearance as Vince McMahon's doctor, a dream sequence scene that coincided with Linda McMahon's attempt to win a seat in the Senate for the state of Connecticut.[21][22]
Prinze married actress Sarah Michelle Gellar on September 1, 2002, in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, in the southwest of Mexico. The couple met several years before, while filming I Know What You Did Last Summer,[24] started dating in 2000 and were engaged in April 2001. In 2007, for their fifth year of marriage, Gellar legally changed her name to Sarah Michelle Prinze.[25][26] The couple's daughter, Charlotte Grace Prinze, was born on September 19, 2009.[27]
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