Tony Orlando recalls how faith helped him cope with personal tragedies: ‘I was ashamed of disappointing God’

The celebrated singer’s variety show “Tony Orlando and Dawn” was canceled in 1977 after four years. But even more tragically, he lost his best friend and sister all within that same year.

"Yes, I was upset," the 77-year-old recently told Closer Weekly. "But it also came at a time when something more important happened, the death of my friend Freddie Prinze. He was on the show "Chico and the Man," and we had become show business brothers. He died at 22 of a suicide. I loved him like a younger brother, and I had never seen anybody die before." "In one year, I lost my TV show - which was not important, really," the "Candida" star continued. "I lost Freddie, and I lost my sister, who was 20 years old. She was born with cerebral palsy, but she was my first audience. I went through a depression that was unbelievable. I committed myself to rehab in a hospital for a year."