Table of Contents
Kathy Prinze Bio
Kathy Prinze is a former cocktail waitress and a celebrity. She is the mother of Freddie Prinze Jr, a famous American actor. Kathy Prinze became famous as a result of her relationship with her late husband and father of Freddie Prinze Jr, Freddie Prinze. Some may know her as the mother of famous American actor, producer, and writer, Freddie Prinze Jr.
Kathy Prinze was born to James Edward Barber and Patty Elizabeth Cochran on 28 January 1950 in West Virginia. Her real name is Katherine Elaine Cochran. She changed her name after her marriage to Freddie Prinze.
Nowadays, she is identified either by association with her husband or as the mother of Freddie Prinze Jr, rather than her accomplishments.
Net Worth
According to NetWorth Post, Kathy Prinze is said to have a net worth of almost 18 million US dollars. Some of it came from her late husband, and some came from her work. Freddie Prinze had a net worth of 5 million US dollars when he died in 1977.
Freddie Prinze had made money from his stand-up career as well as from his role in NBC TV Series Chico and the Man.
Personal Life
She leads a very private life and hence, any information on her family and childhood is very limited. Kathy got married for the first time to Robert Ray Kirkpatrick. During the time of her first marriage, she was only sixteen years old. The Kathy-Robert wedding took place on 26 March 1966 and that was the longest relationship of Kathy’s life. After divorcing Robert, Kathy got married again and got divorced again.
Russell Gail Rasmus was her second husband. Russell was an American Businessman. They tied the knot on 7 November 1972. Russell and Kathy got divorced three years later, in 1975.
Shortly after her divorce from Russell Rasmus, she fell in love with Freddie James Prinze, a famous and successful actor, and comedian.
Kathy Prinze, then Katherine Elaine Cochran, and the famous Freddie Prinze got married in Las Vegas on 13 October 1975. He was twenty-one years old at the time, and Kathy was twenty-five.
Kathy rose to fame due to her marriage to Freddie Prinze. She had a child with him, a son named Freddie Prinze Jr. He was born on March 8, 1976. Kathy filed for divorce in 1976; Prinze died in 1977 due to a gunshot by his own hands.
How old is Kathy Prinze?
Currently, Kathy Prinze has 72 years. She was born on 28 January, 1950.
Freddie Prinze
In his late teens, Freddie started to do stand-ups. He later became an actor. Prinze was born in New York Frederick Karl Pruetzel. He dropped out of LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in his senior year to pursue stand-up comedy as a career.
He worked at various comedy clubs in New York such as Catch a Rising Star, The Improv, etc. He changed his last name for his stand-up career.
His first TV appearance was on Jack Paar Tonite but his big step to fame came with his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Carson. He was awarded a role in the NBS TV show Chico and the Man. He continued to act in it from 1974 until he died in 1977.
In 1975, he released a music album titled Looking Good (it was his catchphrase from the TV Series) and he made many appearances on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts.
It was in 1975 that he got married to his wife, then Kathy Elaine Cochran. They had a child together, Freddie Prinze Jr, born in 1976. Kathy filed for divorce in 1976.
Before his marriage to Katherine Cochran, Freddie Prinze was in a relationship with Pam Grier, an American actress, the cinema’s ‘first female action star’ according to Quentin Tarantino. They met during the promotion of her film Coffy in 1973.
Prinze was depressed in the last few years of his life. On 28 January 1977, he shot himself and died.
Kathy Prinze Children
She has one child with Freddie Prinze. Freddie Prinze Jr was born on 9 March 1976 in Los Angeles, California. His father killed himself when he was only ten months old. Freddie Prinze Jr is 45 years old now and is a famous writer, actor, and producer.
Freddie Prinze Jr got a painful spinal surgery in 2014. He is currently taking care of himself even if spinal surgery will never heal perfectly.
He has been in movies like Scooby-Doo, She’s All That, I Know What You Did Last Summer, etc. He made his debut with a role in the ABC TV series Family matters in 1995. His rise to stardom came with his role as Ray Bronson in the 1997 horror movie, I Know What You Did Last Summer.
After his father’s death, he was raised by his mother. Kathy Prinze has been and still is a single mother, and she raised a very successful son. He was raised in the deserts of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Is Freddie Prinze Jr rich?
Freddie Prinze got married to his co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar in 2002 and has completed almost two decades of marriage. Kathy Prinze is now the grandmother of two; Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar had their first child, a daughter, in 2009.
She is named Charlotte Grace Prinze. They welcomed their second child, a son, Rocky James Prinze in 2012. Now they are a happy family of four and the pictures of them radiate happiness.
Controversy Surrounding Freddie Prinze’s Death
Freddie Prinze killed himself in 1977. He was just twenty-three years old at the time of death. He was suffering from depression, his marriage was failing, his wife had filed for divorce and she got a restraining order against him as well. A suicide note was found on his couch that said “I must end it, there’s no hope left”.
Freddie had the habit of playing Russian Roulette to scare his friends. Russian roulette is a game of chance where you put one single bullet in the revolver, spin the cylinder and take the shot.
But on the night of his death, he called many of his friends and loved ones to let them know about it and said farewell. Pam Grier was one of the last people he ever spoke to.
After being discovered with a gunshot wound and unconscious, he was taken to the UCLA Medical Centre, in Los Angeles. He was put on life support. His family decided to let go and removed him from life support; he died at 1 pm on 29 January 1977.
What was the cause of death for Freddie Prinze?
His death was regarded as a suicide in 1977. But in 1983, his mother, wife, and son claimed that his death was medication-induced.
They filed a civil case against Crown Life Insurance Company. The jury found that Freddie Prinze’s death was, in fact, medication-induced, accidental, and not just suicide. This allowed the family to collect the life insurance of about 200,000 US Dollars.
This lawsuit was followed by a settlement involving Prinze’s psychiatrist and doctor to wrap up their malpractice suit for prescribing him overdoses of Quaaludes, a tranquilizer.
Where is Kathy Prinze now?
Kathy Prinze is leading a very off-the-grid kind of life. Not much information about her is available on social media. She is not currently married. After her husband Freddy Prinze’s death, she has not been in any serious relationships, even though she had only lived with him only for a year. She currently lives alone.
After her husband’s death, Kathy took her son away from the glam of Hollywood when he was four years old so that he can have a more normal and happy childhood. He grew up in New Mexico with his mother and grandmother and says that Kathy was a very protective mother.
But allegations are thrown at Kathy Prinze for not being a supportive partner while her husband was battling depression and drug addiction problems. She knew beforehand about his problems with addiction and yet decided to leave him after having a child.
Freddie’s mother, Maria, wrote a book in 1998 called The Freddie Prinze Story. In the book, she talked about how the people around him knew about his problems and his battles. They knew he was physically and mentally exhausted, on the verge of a complete breakdown; no one seemed to notice or care. Maria Pretzel passed away a few years ago.
We don’t know what made Kathy Prinze leave her estranged husband all alone to deal with his depression, or what made him pull the trigger to end it once and for all. Theories circulate about him being bipolar, about him being gay, and in the closet, but the truth remains unknown.
Freddie remains one of the ‘gone too early’ geniuses of Hollywood, right next to Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and all the other creative geniuses. And Kathy remains someone who gained fame with her marriage. The media doesn’t acknowledge what there is more to her than being the widow of the late Freddie Prinze.
One should however appreciate Kathy because she was a single mother at the age of 27; she was a widow and she had a ten-month-old son to raise and all of Hollywood’s glam around her. She raised her son by herself and gave him a normal childhood away from Hollywood. Her perseverance is something that doesn’t receive enough credit.
Is Kathy Prinze related to George Lopez?
No, Kathy Prinze is not related to George Lopez. Kathy Prinze is the wife of the late actor and comedian Freddie Prinze, known for his role on the television show “Chico and the Man.” Their son is actor Freddie Prinze Jr. On the other hand, George Lopez is a comedian and actor known for his self-titled sitcom “George Lopez.” They are not directly related to each other.
Who inherited Freddie Prinze money?
Freddie Prinze’s money would typically be inherited by his legal beneficiaries as determined by his will or, in the absence of a will, according to the laws of intestacy. It’s worth noting that this information may not be publicly available unless it has been disclosed by the individuals involved.
How did Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze meet?
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. met while filming the 1997 teen horror film “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” They both starred in the movie and during its production, they developed a romantic relationship. The couple began dating and eventually got engaged in April 2001. They got married on September 1, 2002, and have been together ever since. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. have two children together.
