Freddie Prinze, Jr Biography

Freddie Prinze, Jr. (born on March 8, 1976) is an American actor, perhaps best known for his leading roles in teen-oriented films.

Biography

Freddie Prinze, Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Katherine Elaine Cochran (a real-estate agent) and Freddie Prinze, an American actor and comedian who died from committing suicide when Freddie was very young, when Prinze, Jr. was ten months old. Prinze, Jr.'s paternal grandfather was German and his paternal grandmother was Puerto Rican; he was raised a Catholic and embraces his Puerto Rican heritage.

Freddie Prinze, Jr. grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Puerto Rico. He learned about Spanish and Puerto Rican culture from his paternal grandmother's Puerto Rican family. He showed an interest in acting from an early age and attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque. Having an interest in drama, he became a member of the Albuquerque Children's Theatre and the Duo Drama Company. After graduating high school in 1994, he moved to Los Angeles and began auditioning for television roles.

Prinze, Jr. was cast in a guest role on the ABC TV series Family Matters in 1995. He then appeared on a few after-school specials and made-for-TV movies, before making his motion picture debut in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday in 1996.

In the following years, Freddie Prinze, Jr. had a great deal of 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 million in the United States.

Subsequently, Prinze, Jr. 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 and had moderate box office performances. 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 movie version of the popular cartoon, Scooby-Doo, and repeated the role in the 2004 sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. He guest starred on the popular NBC show, Friends, as a sensitive male nanny named Sandy. He also appeared as "Donny Crane", Denny Crane's son on Boston Legal.

Freddie Prinze, Jr. currently stars in his own television sitcom, titled Freddie. The sitcom is said to represent some actual events from his life.

Prinze, Jr. married actress Sarah Michelle Gellar on September 1, 2002 in Jalisco, Mexico, south of Puerto Vallarta. The couple met several years beforehand, while filming I Know What You Did Last Summer and were engaged in April 2001.

Freddie Prinze, Jr. is trained in several forms of martial arts and considers tap dancing and collecting comic books his hobbies. He is also an avid soccer fan and supports the team Arsenal F.C.. There are numerous internet fan clubs and web sites devoted to him.