Andrew Prine

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Andrew Prine
Prine in 2010
Born
Andrew Lewis Prine

(1936-02-14)February 14, 1936
Jennings, Florida, U.S.
DiedOctober 31, 2022(2022-10-31) (aged 86)
Suresnes, France
OccupationActor
Years active1957–2015
SpousesSharon Farrell Heather Lowe

Andrew Lewis Prine (February 14, 1936 – October 31, 2022) was an American film, stage, and television actor.

Early life[edit]

Prine was born in 1936, in Jennings, Florida. He was raised in a farming community.[1] After graduation from Miami Jackson High School in Miami, Prine attended the University of Miami and performed at the acclaimed Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.

Career[edit]

Early beginnings[edit]

In the mid-1950s, Prine was a "starving" stage actor in New York City.[1] Prine made his acting debut in an episode of United States Steel Hour, in 1957.[2] He was the lead in the Broadway production of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel.[3] Adapted by playwright Ketti Frings, the play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on November 28, 1957.[4] In 1958, Prine was brought in as a replacement for Anthony Perkins.[5] It ran for a total of 564 performances, and closed on April 4, 1959. The production was a critical success,[6] it won 1958 Best American Play and was nominated for several Tony Awards.[7]

Prine left Broadway in pursuit of acting, after he realised the greater pay difference.[6] From 1959, he was cast in a series of small roles for television.[8] In 1962, Prine was cast in the Academy Award-nominated film The Miracle Worker as Helen Keller's older brother James.[9] He had fond memories of his co-star Anne Bancroft, who was dating Mel Brooks at the time.[1]

Westerns and television: 1960s[edit]

Prine and Earl Holliman in a publicity shot for Wide Country

In 1962, Prine landed the lead role of Andy Guthrie with Earl Holliman in the 28-episode NBC series Wide Country, a drama about two brothers who are rodeo performers which aired between 1962 and 1963.[10] He learnt from rodeo performer and technical advisor Slim Pickens. Prine later credited Holliman for the quality of the series, in terms of rewriting the script and his dedication.[6] After the cancellation of Wide Country, Prine continued to work throughout the 1960s, in such western television series as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian, and Wagon Train.[10]

His other television appearances included the non-western series Dr. Kildare, Cannon, Combat!, and Twelve O'Clock High.[8] He notably played Dr. Richard Kimble's brother Ray in an important first-season episode of The Fugitive.[11]

In the late 1960s, Prine appeared in three prominent films made by director Andrew V. McLaglen: The Devil's Brigade (1968) with William Holden, Bandolero! (1968) with Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin and Raquel Welch, and Chisum (1970) with John Wayne. Prine was known for his youthful, egotistical attitude. Nobody else intimidated him, with the exception of Wayne.[6] Out of all the films in his career, Prine confessed that the Westerns were his personal favorite.[1]

Horror and television: 1970s–1980s[edit]

During the 1970s and 1980s, Prine steadily worked in film and television. These series included Baretta, Barnaby Jones, Hawaii Five-O, The Bionic Woman, W.E.B., Dallas, and as Steven in the science-fiction miniseries V and its sequel V: The Final Battle.

Prine appeared in a succession of cult horror films Simon, King of the Witches (1971), Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (1973), Terror Circus (1973), The Centerfold Girls (1974), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), Grizzly (1976), The Evil (1978), and Amityville II: The Possession (1982).[12]

Later years: 1990s–2010s[edit]

During the 1990s, Prine continued to work in film and television. His appearances included Weird Science and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Prine worked with director Quentin Tarantino on an Emmy-winning episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in Saving Grace with Holly Hunter, Boston Legal, and Six Feet Under, in addition to feature films with Johnny Knoxville. The Encore Western Channel has featured him on Conversations with Andrew Prine, interviewing Hollywood actors such as Eli Wallach, Harry Carey, Jr., and Patrick Wayne, and film makers such as Mark Rydell with behind-the-scenes anecdotes.[citation needed]

Stage[edit]

A life member of the Actors Studio,[13] Prine's stage work includes Long Day's Journey into Night with Charlton Heston and Deborah Kerr, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, directed by Henry Fonda, and A Distant Bell on Broadway.[citation needed]

Legacy[edit]

Prine received the Golden Boot Award for his body of work in Westerns (in 2001)[14] and two Dramalogue Critics Awards for Best Actor in a leading role.[15]

Personal life[edit]

Prine briefly married his first wife, actress Sharon Farrell in 1963. The couple divorced the same year, reportedly after only living together for one month and ten days.[16]

He married his second wife, actress Brenda Scott in 1965. The couple had multiple remarriages and divorces, before they remarried a third time with their relationship lasting from 1973 to 1978.[10]

In 1986, he married his third wife, actress-producer Heather Lowe. The couple were together until his death in 2022.[5]

Karyn Kupcinet investigation[edit]

Prine, Irv Kupcinet and Karyn Kupcinet

From 1962 to her death on November 28, 1963, Prine dated actress Karyn Kupcinet.

The relationship was problematic; Kupcinet was abusing diet pills along with other prescription drugs.[17]

The problems in Kupcinet's relationship with Prine were mainly due to Prine's objections to making the relationship exclusive. After Kupcinet underwent an illegal abortion in July 1963, the relationship cooled, and Prine began dating other women. In turn, Kupcinet began spying on Prine and his new girlfriend.[18]

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department later determined Kupcinet had delivered threatening and profane messages, consisting of words and letters she had cut out of magazines, to Prine and herself.

On November 30, 1963, Karyn Kupcinet was found dead in her apartment at the age of 22. Coroner Harold Kade concluded that due to a broken hyoid bone in her throat, Kupcinet had been strangled. Her death officially was ruled a homicide.[19]

During the course of its investigation, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department named Andrew Prine as one of its chief suspects. When questioned by law enforcement, Prine said he had talked with Kupcinet twice by phone on Wednesday, the day before her murder, claiming he was trying to resolve a lover's quarrel between them. Detectives considered it possible that, after Prine learned the anonymous threat letters both he and Kupcinet had received had been created by Kupcinet and their unresolved argument, he had a motive for murder. In addition, both Edward Rubin and Robert Hathaway, the two men who had possibly been the last to see her alive, were friends of Prine. They eventually were named as suspects.[20][21][18]

In 1988, Kupcinet's father Irv Kupcinet published a memoir in which he revealed that he and his wife Essee believed that Andrew Prine had nothing to do with their daughter's murder.[22] He was suspicious of a person, still alive when he wrote his memoir, who had no connection to Prine.[22] Irv Kupcinet named David Lange, a neighbor of his daughter, who had twice confessed to friends he was guilty. Later when questioned, Lange suggested he was kidding. However, when a girlfriend who was with Lange in his upper apartment told him about the police activity at his friend Karen's apartment, his reaction was adamant and he told her to close the drapes and keep quiet. She thought his demeanor was strange because Lange often had been in Karyn's apartment.[citation needed]

Death[edit]

Prine died of natural causes while on vacation in Suresnes, France on October 31, 2022, at the age of 86.[5]

Filmography[edit]

Television[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d WesternsOnTheWeb (January 21, 2022). "Andrew Prine special guest on Along The Trail - Cheryl Rogers Barnett's tv show full episode". YouTube. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  2. ^ "Little Charlie Don't Want a Saddle". IMDb. The United States Steel Hour. December 18, 1957. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  3. ^ Parkway Playhouse Archived June 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ New York Times, Nov. 29, 1957, "The Theatre: 'Look Homeward, Angel' --- Luminous Adaptation of Wolfe Novel Opens," by Brooks Atkinson, p. 33.
  5. ^ a b c Barnes, Mike. "Andrew Prine, Actor in Westerns Including 'Chisum' and 'Wide Country,' Dies at 86". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d A Word on Westerns (February 15, 2021). "R.I.P. Andrew Prine (Feb 14, 1936-Oct 31, 2022). Andy rides hard in CHISUM. Dean Martin! Slim! Earl!". YouTube. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  7. ^ "Look Homeward, Angel". Playbill. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Andrew Prine". IMDb. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  9. ^ Penn, Arthur (July 28, 1962), The Miracle Worker (Biography, Drama), Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory, Playfilm Productions, retrieved May 16, 2024
  10. ^ a b c Brode, Douglas (October 15, 2009). Shooting Stars of the Small Screen: Encyclopedia of TV Western Actors, 1946–Present. University of Texas Press. pp. 266–267. ISBN 978-0-292-71849-4.
  11. ^ Hopper, Jerry (January 7, 1964), Home Is the Hunted, The Fugitive, David Janssen, Andrew Prine, Jacqueline Scott, retrieved May 16, 2024
  12. ^ "The Classic Horror Film Board-ANDREW PRINE". The Classic Horror Film Board. May 23, 2020. Retrieved May 15, 2024.
  13. ^ Garfield, David (1980). "Appendix: Life Members of The Actors Studio as of January 1980". A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 279. ISBN 0-02-542650-8.
  14. ^ "Williamsburg Film Festival Golden Boot Awards". Williamsburg Film Festival. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  15. ^ "Andrew-Pine and Salome Jens Set for ON GOLDEN-POND at Glendale Centre Theatre". Broadway World: Los Angeles. June 19, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  16. ^ "Prine Divorces Wife". The Evening Independent. April 10, 1963. pp. 3A. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  17. ^ Austin, John (1992). The Tales of Hollywood the Bizarre. SP Books. p. 150. ISBN 1-56171-142-X.
  18. ^ a b [Felsenthal, Carol (June 2004). "The Lost World of Kup". Chicago Magazine.]
  19. ^ Felsenthal, Carol (June 2004). "The Lost World of Kup". Chicago Magazine. p. 7. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
  20. ^ Stephan Benzkofer (November 24, 2013). "Karyn Kupcinet 1963 death still unsolved". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  21. ^ Phil Potempa (November 29, 2013). "OFFBEAT: Chicago gossip columnist Kup never forgot beloved daughter". Northwest Indiana Times. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  22. ^ a b Kupcinet, Irving (1988). Kup: A Man, An Era, A City. Bonus Books. pp. 186–188. ISBN 0-933893-70-1.

External links[edit]

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