‘American Pickers’: Frank Fritz Friend Reveals Star’s Last Days & Unfulfilled Dream

The American Pickers family and fans are still mourning the loss of Frank Fritz, who passed away on September 30 at age 60. His death came two years after suffering a debilitating stroke which left him wheelchair-bound with the right side of his body paralyzed. 

In a heartbreaking revelation, Fritz’s close friend Jerry Gendreau told the U.S. Sun that he would have returned to the show if it wasn’t for his health issues. He was an active cast member of the hit History Channel series from 2010 to 2020 when he left to have back surgery and never returned after he was let go in 2021. 

During their time together on the show, Fritz and co-host Mike Wolfe traveled the country in search of antiques and artifacts that they could buy and flip for sale. Others including Wofe’s brother Robbie and Danielle Colby have become familiar faces on Pickers in recent years.

There was somewhat of a falling out between Fritz and Wolfe for a bit until the two buried the hatchet last year during a Memorial Day reunion. 

Fritz’s pal Gendreau said, “I think Frank would’ve went back, but he had his health issues. And he did have some serious health issues. From 25 or 30 on he suffered from Crohn’s.” 

The health issues Fritz faced continued to get worse with four hospital trips in 2022 and 2023 for pneumonia and a seizure. Gendreau spoke about how bad it was for him, saying “You would go to see him in the nursing home and one-half of his body was completely gone. He would lift his arm up and it would just drop.” He went as far as to say, “I think Frank could’ve lived a lot longer if the will to live would’ve been there.”

 

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Tributes started to roll in after the news of Fritz’s passing was announced.  Wolfe posted a tribute on his Instagram, “I’ve known Frank for more than half my life and what you’ve seen on TV has always been what I have seen, a dreamer who was just as sensitive as he was funny. He continued in the October 1 post that he was, “The same off-camera as he was on, Frank had a way of reaching the hearts of so many by just being himself.”

History Channel dedicated a marathon of “best of” episodes to Fritz leading up to the premiere of Season 26 on October 9. They included “In Memoriam” title cards for him at the top of the select shows.