Freddie Prinze

Prinze was born Frederick Karl Pruetzel (German spelling: Prützel) in New York City, the son of Edward Karl Pruetzel and Maria Graniela Pruetzel. His mother was a Puerto Rican Catholic and his father was a German Lutheran immigrant who had arrived in the U.S. as a youth in 1934. Prinze was raised in a mixed neighborhood in Washington Heights, New York City. When Prinze was a small child, his mother enrolled him in ballet classes to deal with a weight problem. Without telling his parents, Prinze successfully auditioned for the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, where he was introduced to drama and continued ballet — and where he discovered his gift for comedy while entertaining crowds in the boys\' restroom. He dropped out of school in his senior year to become a stand-up comedian.\n', '

Prinze worked at several comedy clubs in New York City, including The Improv and Catch a Risin…