Andrew Prine | |
|---|---|
 Prine in 2010 | |
| Born | Andrew Lewis Prine February 14, 1936 Jennings, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | October 31, 2022 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1957–2015 |
| Spouses | Sharon Farrell Heather Lowe |
Andrew Lewis Prine (February 14, 1936 – October 31, 2022) was an American film, stage, and television actor.
Prine was born in Jennings, Florida. After graduation from Miami Jackson High School in Miami, Prine attended the University of Miami and performed at the acclaimed Jerry Herman Ring Theatre. Prine made his acting debut three years later in an episode of United States Steel Hour. His next role was in the 1959 Broadway production of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel.[1] In 1962, Prine was cast in Academy Award-nominated film The Miracle Worker as Helen Keller's older brother James.
In 1962, Prine landed a lead role with Earl Holliman in the 28-episode series Wide Country, a drama about two brothers who are rodeo performers. After the cancellation of Wide Country, Prine continued to work throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and in such television series as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian, Wagon Train, Dr. Kildare, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Baretta, Combat!, Hawaii Five-O, Twelve O'Clock High, and The Bionic Woman. He played Dr. Richard Kimble's brother Ray in an important first-season episode of The Fugitive.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Prine appeared in a number of films. Prominent among these were three films he made for 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.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Prine continued to work in film and television. Appearances included W.E.B., Dallas, Weird Science, and as Steven in the science-fiction miniseries V and its sequel V: The Final Battle.
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]
A life member of the Actors Studio,[2] 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]
Prine received the Golden Boot Award for his body of work in Westerns (in 2001)[3] and two Dramalogue Critics Awards for Best Actor in a leading role.[4]
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.[5]
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.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8][9][6]
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.[10] He was suspicious of a person, still alive when he wrote his memoir, who had no connection to Prine.[10] 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]
Prine died of natural causes while on vacation in Suresnes, France on October 31, 2022, at the age of 86.[11]
