(2 of 2)
Some friends suggest that the breakup of his marriage in December was the source of his last bout of despondency. Though he did surfer over the divorce and worried about his ten-month-old son, those closest to Prinze minimize the domestic problem. Indeed, Prinze had been threatening suicide for more than a year. His morbid bent had led him often to watch a copy he had of the Zapruder film of President Kennedy's assassination. Noted Prinze's TV costar, Jack Albertson: "A combination of things had him down. On the set he would sometimes retreat into himself. But he would recover. He would joke, have fun, kibitz around. Then the next day he would be depressed again." Says Komack: "His real despondency, whether he could articulate it or not, concerned the questions: 'Where do I fit in? Where is my happiness?' I would tell him, 'God, Freddie, your happiness is right here. You're a star.' He'd say, 'No, that's not happiness for me any more.' "
Prinze liked to tell interviewers that the Chico character "is very close to me. He comes out an optimist, very ambitious and hardworking. He's made something of a life that could have made him bitter." But for one of the most singular escape stories in ghetto history, escape was not enough.