Freddie Prinze Jr. Quick Info | |
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Height | 6 ft |
Weight | 70 kg |
Date of Birth | March 8, 1976 |
Zodiac Sign | Pisces |
Spouse | Sarah Michelle Geller |
Freddie Prinze Jr. is primarily known for playing the good-guy lead roles in romantic comedies of the late 1990s and early 2000s. After 2005, he diversified to TV roles and voice acting to gain more time to be an accessible father to his kids and indulge in all his other passions which include his love for Star Wars, martial arts, cooking, video games, wrestling, and cartoons /animation. The actor has managed to find a legitimate income source from all his hobbies by providing voice-overs to video games and animated films, appearing in TV series, and publishing a recipe book. He had also joined the WWE for a few years as a member of their creative staff.
Born Name
Freddie James Prinze Junior
Nick Name
Freddy, Pie
Sun Sign
Pisces
Born Place
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Residence
- Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Also owns a property in NYC
Nationality
Education
He graduated from La Cueva High School based in North East Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1994 and moved to Los Angeles right after to establish himself as an actor.
Then, Freddie got enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Pasadena, California because, he has shared in an interview, food was always his number #1 passion. But, he dropped out because he landed his first role in a film in 1996.
Occupation
Actor, Voice Actor, Producer, Writer
Family
- Father – Frederick Prutzal (Born Name) or Freddie Prinze (Stage Name) (Actor, Comedian)
- Mother – Katherine Elaine Barber née Cochran aka Kathy (Real Estate Agent)
- Siblings – He is the only child.
- Others – Rosellen Geller née Greenfield (Mother-in-law) (Kindergarten Teacher)
Manager
Freddie is managed by –
- The Gersh Agency
- Brillstein Entertainment Partners
- Attorney Jared Levine from Morris Yorn Barnes Levine (Entertainment Law Firm)
Build
Slim
Height
6 ft or 183 cm
Weight
70 kg or 154 lbs
Girlfriend / Spouse
Freddie has dated –
- Kimberly McCullough (1996-1999) – In his late teens, Freddie was introduced to the daytime soap opera actress, Kimberly through a common friend. They were in a serious relationship for several years and lived together in a low profile suburb of Los Angeles. She possibly got pregnant with Freddie’s child only to suffer a miscarriage at 22 weeks. Later, their relationship ended on bad terms in 1999.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar (2000-Present) – Freddie met Sarah on the sets of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and they developed a platonic friendship for the next 2-3 years. It was not until the year 2000, when Freddie, Sarah, and a mutual friend were supposed to meet for dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Asanebo, that the two started dating after their friend canceled at the last minute and the two ended up having a one on one dinner date. As Freddie had dated quite a few actresses in the past, he knew that they barely ate any food on dinner dates and most actresses merely survived on a salad. So, Sarah took Freddie by surprise when she ate everything he had ordered without a blink of an eye. Her appetite and appreciation for good food won him over. When they started dating, Freddie started cooking for Sarah several nights a week, staying away from the party circuit of Hollywood. The couple got engaged in April 2001 and had a destination wedding in Puerto Vallarta, Western Mexico in September 2002. The ceremony was officiated by choreographer and director, Adam Shankman, while actress, Lindsay Sloane was one of the bridesmaids. Together, the couple has 2 children – a daughter named Charlotte Grace (b. September 2009) and a son named Rocky James (b. September 2012). Sarah legally changed her name to Sarah Michelle Prinze to honor their 5th marriage anniversary in 2007. Freddie has often stated that he shares similar parenting values with his wife that has helped them raise well-behaved and disciplined children. The secret to their marital success is that they make each other laugh and their companionship is way more valuable than being just a physical attraction.
Race / Ethnicity
Multiracial (White and Hispanic)
He has German, Hungarian, Puerto Rican, and Native American ancestry on his father’s side and Irish, English, along with distant Scottish, German, Austrian, Swiss-German, and possibly Italian ancestry on his mother’s side.
Hair Color
Salt and Pepper
His hair started greying in his mid-30s and people would often advise him to color his hair. However, Freddie is against the idea of changing his natural hair color and his wife, Sarah also approves of his salt and pepper look.
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
- Lean body
- Boyish features and energy that still show through his aging face
- Vaguely similar features to the famous child actor, Macaulay Culkin
Brand Endorsements
He created a series of messy recipes called Messipies to demonstrate and promote the use of Palmolive Ultra Strength Dish Liquid in 2017.
Religion
He was raised as a Roman Catholic.
Best Known For
- Playing the lead role of Fred Jones opposite his wife Sarah Michelle in the action adventure comedy and part animated films like Scooby Doo: The Movie (2002) and Scooby Doo: Monsters Unleashed (2004). Despite negative reviews, both movies received massive box-office success.
- He was a late 1990s heartthrob for starring in some commercial hits created for teenage and young adult audience like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), and She’s All That (1999).
First Film
In 1996, he made his theatrical film debut in the supporting role of Joey Bost in the romantic drama To Gillian on her 37th Birthday.
As a voice actor, Freddie made his theatrical debut in the animated movie Shark Bait in 2006.
First TV Show
Freddie made his first TV show appearance in 1995 on the show Family Matters.
As a voice actor, he made his TV show debut by voicing a character named Mike in 2002 on the sitcom Frasier.
Personal Trainer
- Freddie’s godfather, Robert aka Bob Wall (who was also Bruce Lee’s trainer when he first arrived in the United States), started teaching him martial arts since he was 3 years old.
- At the age of 12, he started learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and practices it now with his daughter because he thinks it is an essential fight form that all women should learn to feel empowered.
- He holds a black belt in Kenpō Karate and has also practiced Muay Thai boxing, wrestling, and taekwondo.
- Other than martial arts, Freddie enjoys swimming, surfing and running.
- He ran his first marathon in 2006.
- In 2014, the actor got spinal cord surgery and he later shared on social media that it was Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and running that helped him heal faster.
- Freddie, along with his wife Sarah, took personal training from celebrity trainer, Phong Tran, for many years to gain more strength and lean muscle.
- The actor is extremely passionate about food and has been cooking healthy meals from scratch for himself and his wife Sarah Michelle Gellar ever since he started dating her. He has sustained disciplined food prep as a part of his daily routine over the years to ensure healthy meals for his kids as well.
- Freddie believes that the primary reason he has been able to stay lean over the years is because he does not consume alcohol at all. Although he occasionally consumes some during a dinner date with his wife, it is the only exception to his no-alcohol lifestyle.
Freddie Prinze Jr. Favorite Things
- Recipe – His Green sauce recipe that he uses in steak, tacos, chicken, and guacamole
- Ingredient – New Mexico Green Hatch Chilli, Anaheim Peppers, Poblano Peppers
- Cuisine – Japanese
- Date Night Meal – Sushi and Sake
- Baseball Movie – Major League (1989)
- Actress (Besides His Wife) – Julia Roberts
- Movie – Godfather II (1974), They Live (1988)
- Role – Anthony Pascal in The House of Yes (1997)
Source – Facebook, People, ESPN, YouTube, IMDb
Freddie Prinze Jr. Facts
- His father killed himself by a gunshot when Freddie was 10 months old. The court eventually ruled it as an accidental death.
- Freddie was 11 years old when he found out about his father’s suicide and spent the rest of his teens in misdirected anger and grief trying to reconcile with that incident.
- Freddie’s father nicknamed him Pie because he was a cute baby.
- He became fluent in Spanish while spending his summers in Puerto Rico with his paternal grandparents and also started speaking Italian before learning to speak English. It was only around the age of 10 that he started learning the English language.
- The actor was not popular in high school and was even considered as strange by some of his schoolmates.
- He picked up his talent of cooking from his single mother who had the knack of guessing all the ingredients in a dish only by tasting it.
- He got Lasik surgery to get rid of his glasses.
- Freddie is left-handed.
- Before catching a break as an actor, Freddie made money by taking illegal sports bets in a restaurant. He earned about $900 a week which was way more than what his first few acting jobs paid him.
- The actor has a dragon tattoo on his left upper arm. He shared on Twitter that he got it done in the mid-1990s. The dragon represents his Chinese birth year in the shape of the number 8, the date of his birth.
- Actress Parker Posey was his first co-star and also the first co-worker he developed a massive crush on.
- He was not good at team sports as a child but became very good at baseball while learning it for the movie Summer Catch (2001). While training for that movie, Freddie often had to throw 90 pitches a day which would make his arm so sore at times that it required a cortisone shot. His arm continues to bother him till date and the actor remembers Summer Catch as one of the hardest movies he has ever been a part of.
- Freddie had to shave his head after filming Scooby-Doo because bleaching his dark hair to blonde, to play Fred, completely ruined his natural hair.
- He became the youngest executive producer in ABC network’s history when he co-created the semi-autobiographical sitcom Freddie (2005-2006) that lasted for a season.
- Freddie often points out that most of his financial stability is due to the fact that he has no interest in alcohol, drugs, and expensive cars and has low maintenance hobbies.
- Collecting rare comic books is one of his unconventional ways of investing money.
- In June 2016, Freddie published a cookbook called Back to the Kitchen which included 75 recipes preceded by an anecdote from his personal life.
- Although most of his friend circle is from outside the film and TV industry, he is a close friend of actors Chris Klein and Brian Austin Green.
- Freddie got into acting with the intention of writing a positive last chapter of his father’s legacy in Hollywood. He found closure with the production of Freddie (2005-2006) and ended every episode of the show with his father’s voice and logo.
- People are often surprised to find out that Freddie has never seen an episode of his wife’s iconic TV Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- As a voice-over artist and a video game fanatic, the actor proudly proclaims that he works merely 6 hours a week.
- Freddie was once considered to be the head writer of SmackDown but he had to quit WWE for performing the duties as a father more responsibly.
Featured Image by David Shankbone / shankbone.org / CC BY-SA 3.0