David Bruce Cassidy (April 12, 1950 – November 21, 2017) was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was best known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his real-life stepmother, actress Shirley Jones), in the 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family. This role catapulted Cassidy to teen idol status as a superstar pop singer of the 1970s.
Early life
Cassidy was born at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York
City, the son of singer and actor Jack Cassidy and actress Evelyn Ward. His
father was of half-Irish and half-German ancestry, and his mother was descended
mostly from Colonial Americans, along with having some Irish and Swiss roots.
His mother's ancestors were among the founders of Newark, New Jersey.
As his parents were frequently touring on the road, he spent
his early years being raised by his maternal grandparents in a middle-class
neighborhood in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1956, he found out from neighbors'
children that his parents had been divorced for over two years and had not told
him.
In 1956, Cassidy's father married singer and actress Shirley
Jones. They had three children, David's half-brothers Shaun (b. 1958), Patrick
(b. 1962), and Ryan (b. 1966). In 1968, after completing one final session of
summer school to obtain the credits necessary to get a high school diploma, David
moved into the rental home of Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones in Irvington, New
York, where his half-brothers also lived. David remained there, seeking fame
as an actor/musician, while simultaneously working half-days in the mailroom of
a textile firm. He moved out when his career began to flourish.
Cassidy's father, Jack, is credited with setting his son up
with his first manager. After David Cassidy signed with Universal Studios in
1969, Jack introduced him to former table tennis champion and close friend Ruth
Aarons, who later found her niche as a talent manager, given her theater
background. Aarons had represented Jack and Shirley Jones for several years and
later represented Cassidy's half-brother Shaun. Aarons became an authority
figure and close friend to Cassidy and was the driving force behind his
on-screen success. After Cassidy made small wages from Screen Gems for his work
on The Partridge Family during season one, Aarons discovered that he had been
underage when he signed his contract; she then renegotiated the contract with far
superior provisions and a rare four-year term.
Career
1960s
On January 2, 1969, Cassidy made his professional debut in
the Broadway musical The Fig Leaves Are Falling. It closed after four
performances, but a casting director saw the show and asked Cassidy to make a
screen test. In 1969, he moved to Los Angeles. After signing with Universal
Studios in 1969, Cassidy was featured in episodes of the television series
Ironside, Marcus Welby, M.D., Adam-12, Medical Center, and Bonanza.
1970s
In 1970, Cassidy took the role of Keith Partridge on the
musical television show The Partridge Family. After demonstrating his singing
talent, Cassidy was allowed to join the studio ensemble as the lead singer. (He
and Shirley Jones were the only TV cast members to appear on any Partridge
Family recordings.)
The show proved popular, but the fame took its toll on
Cassidy. In the midst of his rise to fame, Cassidy felt stifled by the show and
trapped by the mass hysteria surrounding his every move. In May 1972, to alter
his public image, he appeared nude on the cover of Rolling Stone in a cropped
Annie Leibovitz photo; among other things, the accompanying Rolling Stone
article mentioned that Cassidy was riding around New York in the back of a car "stoned and drunk."
Once "I Think I
Love You"—the first single released by The Partridge Family pop
group—became a hit, Cassidy began work on solo albums, including Cherish and
Rock Me Baby, both released in 1972. Within the first year, he had produced his
own single, a cover of The Association's "Cherish"
(from the album of the same title); the song reached number nine in the United
States, number two in the United Kingdom (a double A-side with "Could It Be Forever"), and
number one in Australia and New Zealand. He began tours that featured Partridge
tunes and his own hits.
Cassidy in 1972
Cassidy achieved far greater solo chart success in the UK
than in his native America, including a cover of The Young Rascals' "How Can I Be Sure" and the
double A-side single "Daydreamer"
/ "The Puppy Song" – a UK number one which failed to chart in the
States. In Britain, Cassidy the solo star remains best known for "Daydreamer", "How Can I Be
Sure" and "Could It Be
Forever" (UK number 2/US number 37), all released during his 1972–73
solo chart peak.
After launching his solo musical career, he was for a short
time the highest-paid entertainer in the world. At the peak of his career,
Cassidy's fan club was larger than that of any other pop star, including The
Beatles or Elvis Presley. A fictionalized version of him starred in the fan
magazine David Cassidy. Many of its issues were signed by Turkish comics
creator Su Gumen. In a 1993 interview, Cassidy said that he was frustrated by
his portrayal in the magazines, which sanitized his image. His fan club nicknamed a star after him in the International Star Registry in 1983. In his
autobiography, Cassidy said that he felt overwhelmed by his fanbase, and said
that "it became impossible for me to
go in a store or even walk down the street without being stopped by people."
Though he wanted to become a respected rock musician along
the lines of Mick Jagger, his channel to stardom launched him into the ranks of
teen idol, a brand he loathed until much later in life, when he managed to come
to terms with his pop idol beginnings. Ten albums by The Partridge Family and
five solo albums by Cassidy were produced during the series, with most selling
more than a million copies each.
Internationally, Cassidy's solo career eclipsed the already
phenomenal success of The Partridge Family. He became an instant drawing card,
with sellout concert successes in major arenas around the world. These concerts
produced mass hysteria, resulting in the media coining the term "Cassidymania". For example,
he played to two sellout crowds of 56,000 each at the Houston Astrodome in Texas
over one weekend in 1972. His concert in New York's Madison Square Garden sold
out in one day and resulted in riots after the show. His concert tours of the
United Kingdom included sellout concerts at Wembley Stadium in 1973. In
Australia in 1974, the mass hysteria was such that calls were made to have him
deported from the country, especially after the madness at his 33,000-person
audience concert at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
A turning point in Cassidy's live concerts (while still
filming The Partridge Family) was a gate stampede at the penultimate show on a
world tour, in London's White City Stadium on May 26, 1974, when nearly 800
people were injured in a crush at the front of the stage. Thirty were taken to
the hospital, and a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Whelan, died four days later
at London's Hammersmith Hospital without regaining consciousness.
A deeply affected Cassidy faced the press, trying to make
sense of what had happened. Out of respect for the family and to avoid turning
the girl's funeral into a media circus, Cassidy did not attend the service,
although he spoke to Whelan's parents and sent flowers. Cassidy stated at the
time that this would haunt him until the day he died.
I'm exploited by people who put me on the back of cereal
boxes. I asked my housekeeper to go and buy a certain kind of cereal and when
she came home, there was a huge picture of me on the back. I can't even eat
breakfast without seeing my face. —New Musical Express, October 1972.
By this point, Cassidy had decided to quit both touring and
acting in The Partridge Family, concentrating instead on recording and
songwriting. International success continued, mostly in Great Britain, Germany,
Japan, and South Africa, when he released three well-received solo albums and
several hit singles on RCA in 1975 and 1976. Cassidy became the first recording
artist to have a hit with "I Write
the Songs", peaking at No. 11 in the Top 30 in Great Britain before
the song became Barry Manilow's signature tune. Cassidy co-produced the
recording with the song's author-composer, Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys.
The two artists collaborated on two of David's mid-70s RCA Records albums The
Higher They Climb and Home Is Where the Heart Is.
In 1978, Cassidy starred in an episode of Police Story
titled "A Chance to Live",
for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award. NBC created a series based on it,
called David Cassidy: Man Undercover, but it was canceled after one season. A
decade later, the successful Fox series 21 Jump Street used the same plot, with
different youthful-looking police officers infiltrating a high school.
1980s
Cassidy later stated he was broke by the 1980s, despite
being successful and highly paid. In 1985, music success continued with the
Arista release of the single "The
Last Kiss" (number six in the United Kingdom), with backing vocals by
George Michael, which was included on the album Romance. These went gold in
Europe and Australia, and Cassidy supported them with a sellout tour of the
United Kingdom, which resulted in the Greatest Hits Live compilation of 1986.
Michael cited Cassidy as a major career influence and interviewed Cassidy for
David Litchfield's Ritz Newspaper.
Later career
Cassidy in 1995
Cassidy returned to the American top 40 with his 1990 single
"Lyin' to Myself", released
on Enigma Records, from his 1990 album David Cassidy, followed by the 1992
album Didn't You Used to Be... on Scotti Brothers Records. In 1998, he had an
adult contemporary music hit with "No
Bridge I Wouldn't Cross" from his album Old Trick New Dog on his own
Slamajama Records label.
Along with his single "Lyin'
to Myself", 1990 was also the year he starred in the motion picture
comedy, The Spirit of '76, where he was the main character as a man from the
future who arrived in the US in the year 1976 on a mission to find the US
Constitution. It was also the year he was a main character in the romantic
drama Instant Karma.
From November 1996 to December 1998, Cassidy starred in the
Las Vegas show EFX at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. In 2000, Cassidy wrote and
appeared in the Las Vegas show At the Copa with Sheena Easton, as both the
young and old versions of the lead character, Johnny Flamingo. His 2001 album
Then and Now went platinum internationally and returned Cassidy to the top five
of the UK album charts for the first time since 1974.
In 2005, Cassidy played the manager of Aaron Carter's character
in the film Popstar. He co-starred alongside his half-brother Patrick in a
short-lived 2009 ABC Family comedy series titled Ruby & The Rockits, a show
created by Shaun.
Cassidy was one of the contestants on Celebrity Apprentice
in 2011.
As the days of "Cassidymania"
subsided, Cassidy regularly addressed fans at his concerts in
question-and-answer sessions. In August 2016, Cassidy performed in The
Villages, Florida, and brought multiple attendees to the side of the stage,
asking and answering questions and engaging with members of the community who
had been fans for nearly half a century.
Personal life
Cassidy's first wife was actress Kay Lenz, whom he married
on April 3, 1977, and divorced on December 28, 1983.
Cassidy married his second wife, horse breeder Meryl Tanz,
in 1984. They met in 1974 at a horse sale in Lexington, Kentucky. This marriage
ended in divorce in 1988.
Cassidy's daughter, actress Katie Cassidy, was born in 1986
from an extramarital affair with fashion model Sherry Williams. After David and
Williams ended their relationship, Katie was raised by her mother and her
stepfather, Richard Benedon. David spoke of his absence from Katie's life; in
February 2017, he said, "I've never
had a relationship with her. I wasn't her father. I was her biological father
but I didn't raise her. She has a completely different life. I'm proud of her.
She's very talented. It's hard for me to even accept how old she is now."
Cassidy married Sue Shifrin on March 30, 1991. It was
Cassidy's third marriage and Shifrin's second marriage. They had one child,
Beau, in 1991. In August 2013, Cassidy's Los Angeles publicist confirmed that
the couple had separated, with Shifrin filing for divorce in February 2014.
Cassidy moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2002. He filed
for bankruptcy in 2015.
Activism
In 2011, Cassidy recorded a public service announcement for
Alzheimer's disease research and prevention – due to his mother, Evelyn Ward,
having the condition – and said that he would campaign for that cause whenever
possible. He planned to address Congress in 2012.
Cassidy was a long-time registered Democrat. During a 2012
guest appearance on The Colbert Report he expressed his views on the leading
Republican candidates for president, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Cassidy
stated, "I believe both of them are
the most embarrassing, sad, pathetic ...
I mean, really, this is the best we can do?"
Alcohol-related
driving incidents and criminal charges
Cassidy was arrested for driving under the influence (DUI)
in Florida on November 3, 2010.
Cassidy was arrested for DUI in Schodack, New York, in the
early hours of August 21, 2013. He was pulled over after failing to dim his
headlights as he passed a police car going in the opposite direction. After
performing poorly on a field sobriety test, Cassidy was subjected to an alcohol
breath test, returning a blood alcohol level of 0.10%, which was above the New
York legal limit of 0.08%. The arresting officer, one Tom Jones, reported that
Cassidy was polite and courteous; in reference to a 1965 hit song by singer Tom
Jones, Cassidy jokingly asked the officer, "What's
New, Pussycat?" Cassidy was charged, taken to jail, and released
several hours later on $2,500 bail. On May 12, 2015, Cassidy was sentenced to
community service, a fine, and a six-month license suspension.
Cassidy was arrested on suspicion of DUI in California on
January 10, 2014, after he made an illegal right turn against a red light. He
was held overnight in jail, ordered to undergo inpatient rehabilitation, and
placed on probation for five years.
On September 9, 2015, Cassidy was cited in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, on charges of leaving the scene of a car accident, improper lane
change, expired tags, and driving on a suspended license.
Illness and death
In 2008, Cassidy publicly admitted he had an alcohol
problem.
On February 20, 2017, following a performance in Agoura
Hills, California, in which Cassidy had difficulty remembering the lyrics of
songs he had been performing for nearly 50 years, and appeared to fall off the
stage, he announced that he was living with dementia and was retiring from all
further performing. He said that his mother and grandfather had also suffered
from dementia at the end of their lives, and that "I was in denial, but a part of me always knew this was
coming."
Later in 2017, Cassidy fell ill at a recording studio and
was hospitalized. In a later phone conversation with an A&E producer, he
stated that he had just met with his doctor, that he had liver disease, and that
his life had "changed
dramatically." Cassidy added that he had been unconscious and near
death for the first few days after the incident, but that his memory had
returned. Cassidy also acknowledged that there was "no sign of [dementia] at this stage of [his] life," adding
that "[it] was complete alcohol
poisoning—and the fact is, I lied about my drinking." Cassidy said, "You know, I did it to myself, man. I
did it to myself to cover up the sadness and the emptiness." Cassidy
had told his family and others that he had given up drinking.
On November 18, 2017, Cassidy was hospitalized with liver
and kidney failure and was critically ill in a medically induced coma. He came
out of the coma two days later, remaining in critical but stable condition.
Doctors hoped to keep Cassidy stable until a liver became available for
transplant, but he died of liver failure on November 21, 2017, at the age of
67. According to his daughter, Katie Cassidy, his final words were "So much wasted time."
Memoirs
In 1994, Cassidy, in collaboration with Chip Deffaa, wrote
his autobiography C'mon, Get Happy ... Fear and Loathing on the Partridge
Family Bus. In December 2019, C'mon, Get Happy was published as an E-book (by
Open Road Media, ISBN 0446395315) with a new afterword by Chip Deffaa, covering
the rest of Cassidy's life.
Cassidy also wrote a memoir, Could It Be Forever? My Story,
published in the United Kingdom in March 2007, gives further details
about his personal life.
Discography
Filmography
1968 Dragnet 1968 Tim Richmond Episode: "The Big
Departure"
1969 The
Survivors Mike Episode: "Chapter
Seven"
1969 Ironside Danny Goodson Episode: "Stolen on Demand"
1970 Adam-12 Tim Richmond Episode: "Log
24 A Rare Occasion"
1970 Bonanza Billy Burgess Episode: "The Law and Billy Burgess"
1970 Marcus
Welby, M.D. Michael Ambrose Episode: "Fun and Games and Michael Ambrose"
1970 Medical
Center Rick Lambert Episode: "His
Brother's Keeper"
1970 The Mod
Squad Brad Johnson Episode: "The Loser"
1970 The F.B.I. Larry Wentworth Episode: "Fatal Impostor"
1970–74 The
Partridge Family Keith Partridge 96 episodes
1978 Police Story Officer Dan Shay Episode: "A
Chance to Live"
1978–79 David
Cassidy: Man Undercover Officer
Dan Shay 10 episodes; also a composer of theme music
1980 The Love
Boat Ted Harmes 1 episode
1980 The Night
the City Screamed David Greeley TV movie
1980/83 Fantasy
Island Jeremy Todd / Danny Collier 2 episodes
1982 Matt Houston John Gordon Boyd Episode: "Joey's
Here"
1983 Parade of
Stars George M. Cohan TV movie
1983 Tales of the
Unexpected Donald / David Episode: "Heir
Presumptuous"
1988 Alfred
Hitchcock Presents Joey Mitchell Episode: "Career Move"
1990 Instant
Karma Reno
1990 The Spirit
of '76 Adam-11
1991 Blossom Himself Episode: "A
Rockumentary"
1991 The Flash Sam Scudder/Mirror Master Episode: "Done with Mirrors"
1992 The Ben
Stiller Show David Cassidy Episode: "With Flea"
1995 The John
Larroquette Show Jefferson Kelly Episode: "Wrestling
Matches"; also a composer of theme music
2003 Malcolm in
the Middle Boone Vincent Episode: "Vegas"
2003 The Agency Everett Price Episode: "War,
Inc."
2004 Kim Possible Roland Pond (voice) Episode: "Oh Boyz"
2005 Less than
Perfect Vince Episode: "Playhouse"
2005 Popstar Grant
2009 Ruby &
The Rockits David Gallagher 10 episodes
2011 Celebrity
Apprentice Himself/contestant 2 episodes
2013 CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation Peter Coe Episode: "Last Woman Standing"
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