Home on the Range

George Lopez is a man making peace with his past, looking to the future, and loving the present–a sometimes rowdy fusion of family, work, play & comedy

By Mia Ricci
PHOTOGRAPHER: Jessica Grenier

This is not just a rags-to-riches story, or just a celebrity golf story, and it is definitely not a moving-on-up story. It is the story of talented comedian, actor, author, father, husband and avid golfer George Lopez. Pebble Beach was packed with crowds of automobile enthusiasts for the 55th Concours D’Elegance, an annual international event showcasing dozens of historic luxury cars. This was one of those rare occasions where the attention was focused on something other than the scenic greens of the world-renowned golf complex.

Wearing a black-and-white cashmere argyle sweater, Lopez looks right at home on the course. He should be. A sizable, beautiful brick house right above the 15th tee has been his home for the past year and a half. Lopez lives there with his wife Ann and eight-year-old daughter Mayan. It is quite a change from the time the Chicano spent growing up in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley.

Lopez was born 42 years ago to a troubled mother and a father who left when he was two-months old. He was raised by his overbearing grandmother, resulting in a childhood that anyone would rather forget than cherish. He has publicly spoken about his dim past, and even wrote of it in his bestselling autobiography, Why You Crying?.

Lopez had always wanted to be a comedian and started early in his life. His first gig was the night of his high school graduation, performing at an open-mike night at a comedy club in Los Angeles. Stage fright got the best of him.

“For the longest time I struggled with myself, with my life, with being shy, with not being able to write,” he says. “I remember thinking, how can I want to do something so bad yet be so bad at it? But then I would think that everyone that got good had to be bad at some point.”

Lopez has credited many people for his success. His wife is one of them. “From the first time we met, she has always been so encouraging of my career. When we met I had nothing, but she liked what I had to say and even through the darkest times she was always so supportive of me, saying ‘you can do this’ all the way,” says Lopez. Gushing a little, “Let me tell you, man, without her I wouldn’t be talking to you right now. I wouldn’t know where I’d be. I don’t tell her enough, but I think she knows.” On his weekly television show, “The George Lopez Show,” the role of his wife, played by Constance Marie, is mostly based on Ann. “On the show we make the wife the finder of all causes and that’s exactly what my wife is. She completely must have saved everyone and everything. We’ve been through our ups and downs and it’s so great now to know that she was there when all I had was what I had to say, you know, and we’re still together with our beautiful, wonderful daughter.” Another person that Lopez has credited as responsible for his ambitions and his success is the late Freddie Prinze Sr., star of the 1970s television series “Chico and the Man”. Lopez saw the promo for the show in 1973--a minute and thirty-second promo that he says changed his life. “Until that day, I had never seen a Latino on TV that was that cool, with the denim and the droopy mustache,” Lopez recalls. “I immediately opened myself to this guy and I watched his show every Friday no matter where I was.”

Growing up without a father, he found the father figure he was missing in Prinze. He remembered a heartbreaking memory. “I wrote a letter to NBC, asking for tickets to see “Chico and the Man”. One day I got a response and I got tickets. I asked my grandmother if she would please take me to see the show and she said okay. On the day we were supposed to go she wouldn’t take me. I remember where I was in the kitchen and she says ‘I won’t take you. We’re not going.’ I was devastated. And not long after that he committed suicide.”

At age seventeen and still completely distraught, Lopez went to Prinze’s grave site. “There was a plaque there on his headstone. It was loose and I broke the screws and I literally took it with me. I put it in my pants under my shirt, and I ran away with it. At that time, I didn’t know that anyone knew Freddie and I wanted a part of him so bad that I would commit theft.” Years later, with Prinze’s headstone still at his house, Lopez and his wife moved to a house that was only four blocks away from where Kathy Prinze, Freddie’s widow, lives. They became friends and one day Ann decided to tell Kathy about the headstone. “I had to come clean,” Lopez says, “I told her that I stole his headstone and that I love him. She started to cry because no one had ever paid any type of respect to him because of the way he died. I told her that I love this dude then, today, and tomorrow.” Lopez felt such a connection with Prinze that since then, and until now he has a shrine devoted to Prinze in his dressing room. Lopez’s manager, Ron DeBlasio, was Freddie Prinze’s manager. “He’s my right-hand guy, we’ve been through everything together,” says Lopez about DeBlasio, “He’s like a father to me. He surprised me one day and introduced me to [Freddie Prinze] Junior, and I showed him everything I had of his father’s, and it was so emotional to me that I started crying. At the TV Land Awards I presented Junior with an award on behalf of his father; it meant a lot to me.”
Lopez sells out appearances at large venues around the country. His last movies, “Bread and Roses” and “Real Women Have Curves” are widely acclaimed around the world, and have won various independent film awards. The “George Lopez Show” is now going on its fourth season on ABC, with rising ratings and expectations. “You know what? I don’t feel the pressure because once you break through and get in the walls, you realize how difficult it is for anyone of any color to make it. In 2001, 17 shows premiered, and you know, one show has survived, and it’s my show. I have always believed in myself. I was a soldier all the way through. I’ve put everything I had on the table and because of that I don’t feel any pressure. I gave it my all; I believed in it. I was there day and night, always the first person there and the last person to leave. When the cast and crew worries, I’m there to encourage them. When they think, ‘What if?’ I tell them that there is no if. We will succeed.”

Lopez has worked hard all his life, but he also played hard. Golf above all. He played for the first time 20 years ago and is now completely hooked. “Golf taught me all the things I never learned at home. It teaches honesty, patience and humility. As a Latino, too, it’s a different thing. You know, I play with Ahmad [Rashad] and Sam[uel L. Jackson] and I know what it means to us, compared to what it means to Anglos that grew up playing it with their fathers. To us it’s a game that we learn, that teaches many things that we never learned in the house. When I was a kid we always had a club in the house. It was a 7-iron, but it was in case we heard a noise. Or the 3-wood that we used to keep the door closed so the dog wouldn’t get away.”

“People think that it’s boring,” Lopez continues, “but the game means so much. It’s a lot like life. The game beats you up and it makes you want to quit and give up but the minute you take a breath and calm down, relax, it gets better. That’s the reward of golf and in many ways that’s exactly how life is. It’s in the patience and the practice. Like Vijay Singh said once, the answer to life is in the dirt. It’s around us.” To Lopez, as to many of those who truly love the game, golf is more than just a game. It’s a life.

Lopez also talked about how all kinds of friendships are formed through golf, the kind that last. He reminisced about growing up admiring Lee Trevino and then meeting him. “I loved Trevino. I love Tiger and all, but you know all those guys that played before us, when things were different--Lee Elder, Calvin Peete, and Trevino--man I have so much respect for them,” The chaos at Pebble Beach was finally quieting down. All the tents were emptying out and the car chit-chats were finally done. But over on the other side of Pebble Beach, where there is nothing but luscious grass under the setting sun, people were still hittisugar ng balls. You wonder what life on the golf course is really about. It’s so simple. In the words of argyle wearing Lopez, the Chicano homeboy from San Fernando Valley who now finally has everything he worked so hard for, “It really is more than just a game. Golf is life. It connects you with who you are, with what you do, with relationships. It is everything.”