Prinze was the first and only son of Freddie Prinze, Sr., acclaimed Chicano stand-up comedian and actor. The star of the mid-seventies sitcom Chico and the Man, Prinze Sr. famously committed suicide when his son was still an infant. Prinze, Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps after high school, pursuing acting in his native city of Los Angeles. He found a few small roles on TV shows and TV movies before his natural charm and good looks attracted the attention of Columbia Pictures, who cast him in the horror movie I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Starring alongside other rising teen stars including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Jennifer Love Hewitt, who was already famous as the young lead of Party of Five, Prinze achieved name recognition on his very first film outing as the movie was incredibly successful at the box office. The slasher film features the teenage cast being stalked by a killer who knows their dark secret, and it spawned two direct sequels and any number of copycats. Prinze and Hewitt also starred in the sequel released the following year. The two movies together grossed almost $200 million and opened many doors for
Prinze would go on to make a series of teen comedies and dramas in the following years. In 1999, he starred alongside it-girl Rachael Leigh Cook in She’s All That, a modern adaptation of the classic musical My Fair Lady. In the film, Prinze picks the most ugly, unpopular girl in his high school to prove to his friends that his influence can make anybody hip, well-liked, and attractive. The film was a smash hit in the teen romantic comedy genre. The same year, Prinze lead the cast of the film adaptation Wing Commander, based on the successful video game series of the same name. Drawing from science fiction epics and space operas like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Ender’s Game, the film was about human star fighters warring against a cat-like humanoid species bent on our destruction. The film was heavily panned and lost millions of dollars. It marked the first major failure for Freddie Prinze Jr.
Prinze had little more success with the string of romantic comedies that followed: Down to You, Boys and Girls, Head Over Heels, and Summer Catch. Each of these four films holds a 10% critical approval rating or worse on review aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes and each film lost money at the box office. Prinze was quickly developing a bad reputation in Hollywood that he would need to repair or outgrow as his teen years came to an end.
The two live-action remakes of Scooby-Doo that came out in the early 2000’s brought a moderate amount of success back to Prinze, who starred as team leader Fred. The first big budget Warner Brothers Scooby-Doo film, which featured a computer animated Scooby, was a hit with kids and at the Teen Choice Awards, grossing almost $300 million at the box office. It featured the reuniting of the “gang” from the classic cartoons, who piled into the Mystery Machine to solve a crime at a horror resort called Spooky Island. The first Scooby-Doo film also reunited Prinze with former I Know What You Did Last Summer starlet Sarah Michelle Gellar, whose fame as Buffy the Vampire Slayer now eclipsed Prinze’s career struggles completely. The two were wed shortly after the film was released. Prinze, Gellar, and their costars returned for the similarly successful sequel.
Despite Prinze’s financial and romantic success with the Scooby-Doo films however, his performances were considered poor, and his career never saw another hit. Prinze appeared in a couple smaller films, like New York City Serenade and Jack and Jill vs. the World, and he leant his voice to several animated features. One of these animated features, Delgo, was a stunning critical and commercial flop. Widely considered a record holder for the worst opening for a film of its size, it had an estimated viewership average as low as two viewers per screening. Delgo is also generally considered the lowest-grossing computer-animated film of all time. More importantly, it marked the final nail in Prinze’s film career coffin.
These two are a gorgeous couple. Freddie looks like he is very happy with their life together – as he should be!!