Entertainment News: Teen Idol David Cassidy Dies at 67

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FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA – He was the heart throb-iest of the teen heart throbs when he came onto the scene in the early 1970s. David Cassidy was the driving force of the manufactured-for-TV pop act The Partridge Family, which provided a soundtrack for their era. Cassidy died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the age of 67, on November 21st, 2017.

David Cassidy fought the demons of his sudden fame for virtually the rest of his life after the Partridge Family era, admitting an alcohol problem after being arrested for a DUI in 2013. Earlier this year, he announced that he was living with non-Alzheimer’s dementia, which ran in his family. But during the burst of infamy he had in the early 1970s, there was no greater beloved pin-up teen than Cassidy, who ushered in a parade of dreamy 1970s boys like Donny Osmond, Vincent Van Patten, Leif Garrett and his half brother, Shaun Cassidy.

I Think He Loves Us: David Cassidy at the Height of His Fame
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

David Bruce Cassidy was born in New York City, the son of actors Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward. His born-in-a-trunk life led him to Los Angeles after completing high school, to pursue a career as an actor and musician. He scored both when he landed the role of Keith Partridge on the TV show “The Partridge Family” in 1970 (opposite his father’s second wife, Shirley Jones, as his mother). Like The Monkees, The Partridge Family was a made-for-TV band, but they immediately scored a string of huge hits – featuring Cassidy on lead vocals – with “I Think I Love You,” “Come on Get Happy” (the TV show’s theme), “I’ll Meet You Halfway” and “I Woke Up in Love This Morning,” among others. During the height of “CassidyMania,” he sold out out two 1972 shows at Houston’s Astrodome, which held 56,000 people.

His post-Partridge years cooled the fire of his initial notoriety, as Cassidy tried in vain to shake his teen idol image, including posing partially nude on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. But he soldiered on, creating hits (mostly in Great Britain, Germany and Japan) with two solo albums in the mid-1970s. He garnered an Emmy nomination in 1978 for a role in the TV series “Police Story,” which led to a one-season drama called “David Cassidy: Man Undercover.”

From the 1980s to recently, he forged a combination nostalgia act and recording career, and had several gold and platinum albums with that formula. He was on Broadway in the musicals “Little Johnny Jones” (1981), “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat” (1982) and co-starred with Shaun Cassidy in “Blood Brothers” (1993). He appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2011 (he was the first fired on that run), and continued to tour up to 2016, despite filing for bankruptcy and his illnesses.

David Cassidy was married three times, and had two children, who survive him. He passed away due to organ failure after a short illness in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he moved to in 2002.

He once spoke about his post-Partridge days… “I found myself very lost after ‘The Partridge Family,’ I lost my dad and I lost my manager, and I lived in a bubble, and it took me 15 years to get through that… and a lot of psychotherapy. I’m laughing about it now.” But in retrospect, he also said, “My life has flourished in so many ways, both personally and professionally, that I can’t ask for a better life.”

By PATRICK McDONALD Writer, Editorial Coordinator HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com