Bursky, although it was long rumored that Bursky gave him the gun. Prinze was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center and placed on life support following emergency surgery. His family removed him from life support, and he died at 1 p.m. on January 29. Prinze had a history of playing Russian roulette to frighten his friends for his amusement, though he made farewell phone calls to numerous family members and friends on the night of his death and left a note stating that he had decided to take his life. In 1977, the death was ruled a suicide. However, in a 1983 civil case brought by his mother, wife, and son against Crown Life Insurance Company, the jury found that his death was medication-induced and accidental, which enabled the family to collect $200,000 in life insurance. This followed a $1,000,000 out-of-court settlement with his psychiatrist and doctor to end their malpractice suit for allowing him access to a gun and overprescribing him Quaalude (as a tranquilizer). Prinze is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, near his father, Edward Karl Pruetzel. His son, Freddie Prinze Jr., who was less than one year old when his father died, did not speak publicly about his father's death until he discussed it in the documentary Misery Loves Comedy (2015), directed by Kevin Pollak. Legacy Prinze's mother wrote a book about her son, The Freddie Prinze Story (1978). Can You Hear the Laughter? The Story of Freddie Prinze (September 1979) is a TV biopic. Prinze's life and death were a focal point of one of the storylines in the movie Fame (1980), set in Prinze's alma mater, the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. Prinze received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 14, 2004, honoring his contribution to the television industry. Actor and comedian George Lopez has acknowledged that he paid for Prinze's star. References Further reading External links 1954 births 1977 deaths American people of Puerto Rican descent American stand-up comedians American male television actors Hispanic and Latino American male actors American people of German descent People from Washington Heights, Manhattan Male actors from New York City Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) 20th-century American male actors Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni 20th-century American comedians American male comedians Comedians from New York City Suicides by firearm in California