The first major Puerto Rican TV star was Freddie Prinze, who became famous for playing Chicano garage assistant Chico Rodriguez on Chico and the Man (1974-1978).
The son of a Puerto Rican mother and a Hungarian father, Prinze joked that he was “Hungarican.” While barely out of high school, he rocketed to fame as a stand-up comic and TV performer.
Unable to bear the pressure of his sudden success, Prinze killed himself in 1977 at age twenty-two.
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