One irony of this blog is that the background
is essentially a copy of the pattern of the school bus turned family/band tour
bus of the fictitious musical family known as "The Partridge Family".
And yet, in spite of the design similarity, I had just a single post (see it at
https://hgm.sstrumello.com/2012/06/cast-reunions-partridge-family.html for
details) about that iconic TV show, and it was mostly about my design choice, with
little about the show itself or the characters on the show (although I
subsequently added a "P.S." to that post). This post is about the
second member of his family's passing a number of years ago. I never published this blog post,
but felt the time might be right to do so now.
Actor and singer David Cassidy passed away
from multiple organ failure (specifically, liver and kidney; see his obituary HERE) on November 21,
2017. At the time of his death, he was age 67. However, David's passing seemed
ominously more like history repeating itself rather than a complete surprise of
a former teen idol's passing. David's own father Jack Cassidy, himself a famous
Tony-winning stage and TV actor, had died almost exactly 41 years earlier in a
house fire which was caused when his lit cigarette ignited the sofa he had
passed out on due to intoxication. David Cassidy's own life, and his eventual
death, looked eerily similar to his own father's.
"The Partridge Family" was an
American musical sitcom which ran ABC based very loosely on the real-life
musical family known as The Cowsills. An Amazon Prime movie about The Cowsills
called "Family Band: The Cowsills Story" is worth seeing if you're
interested in the topic. At the very least, some of their famous songs might be
familiar.
David Cassidy's claim to fame was as a
teenaged star of "The Partridge Family", which co-starred his
step-mother, Academy-Award winner Shirley Jones, who rose to fame starring in
film versions of several Broadway musicals including "Oklahoma!",
"Carousel", and "The Music Man". On the show, David Cassidy
played her fictitious son Keith Patridge (several other actors/actresses also
co-starred in the show as siblings, including actress Susan Dey as sister
Laurie, Danny Bonaduce who played brother Danny, while Suzanne Crough played
sister Tracy and Brian Forster played brother Chris and actor Dave Madden
starred as the band's manager Reuben Kincaid). At the time, there was really no
such thing as "omnimedia", and Academy Award-winning performers like
Shirley Jones generally did not cross-over to the humble medium of broadcast
television until they had reached the end of their careers. However, Shirley
Jones broke with that tradition, saying she thought that was ridiculous. She had already won the Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actress for playing a vengeful prostitute in "Elmer
Gantry" in 1960. But by the early 1970's, she viewed television as a
useful, respectable way to earn a living acting while raising a family.
In an interview with the Vancouver Sun, Jones said: "The problem with Partridge—though
it was great for me and gave me an opportunity to stay home and raise my
kids—when my agents came to me and presented it to me, they said if you do a
series and it becomes a hit show, you will be that character for the rest of
your life and your film career will go into the toilet, which is what happened.
But I have no regrets."
As a result of the show, her step-son David
Cassidy became a teen idol by playing the role of Keith Partridge, the son of
character Shirley Partridge (played by Shirley Jones), in the hit TV show
"The Partridge Family" which ran on ABC from 1970 to 1974, although
reruns of the show continued running in syndication for years after the show's
original run.
Famous Father, With Family a History of
Alcohol Abuse
|
Actor Jack Cassidy |
David Cassidy was the son of the late actor and singer
Jack Cassidy, who was himself a musical performer on Broadway, winning a Tony
Award in 1964 for Best Performance by a Featured Actor for his role as Steven
Kodaly in the play "She Loves Me". On television, during the 1950's and 1960's,
Jack Cassidy became
a very frequent guest star on TV, appearing in a wide variety of TV shows, including on "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", in
"Gunsmoke", "Bewitched", "Get Smart", "That
Girl", "Hawaii Five-O", "Cannon", "McCloud"
and also as a guest star on various TV game shows of the day, including the "Match
Game".
David Cassidy was a son from Jack Cassidy's
first marriage to actress Evelyn Ward. However, Jack Cassidy was known to have
problems with alcoholism (in addition to suffering from bipolar disorder),
which contributed to the failure of his multiple marriages, and ultimately, his
untimely death. Jack Cassidy married Shirley Jones on August 5, 1956. Together,
they had three sons, Shaun, Patrick, and Ryan. As noted, David Cassidy was
actually Jack's son from his first marriage to actress Evelyn Ward, hence
Shirley Jones became his stepmother. Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones split-up in
1974 following Jack Cassidy's 1973 diagnosis as manic depressive and bipolar
disorder. David Cassidy's birth mother Evelyn Ward died in 2012.
Jack Cassidy died rather tragically at just
age 49 in an apartment fire in 1976. The forensics showed that the fire was caused
by a cigarette which he was smoking at the time which ignited a naugahyde (synthetic leather) sofa
he'd passed out on due to his intoxication. He was already divorced from his
second wife Shirley Jones at the time, but it's believed that he came home drunk
after going out to a gay bar in West Hollywood, where he was seen by many
witnesses the evening before.
Before his own death, son David Cassidy also
went on the record acknowledging his own father as bisexual, citing personal
accounts and reports, both anecdotal and published, of his father's known
same-sex affairs, something that neither he nor his siblings knew about until
after the father's death. But in her 2013 memoir, Shirley Jones also wrote that
Jack Cassidy had several same-sex affairs during her marriage to him, including
a notable one with famous composer and songwriter Cole Porter.
However, Shirley Jones went on record in her
biography about how her ex-husband Jack Cassidy tried to push the limits of her
sexuality and she said that, combined with his alcohol abuse, depression and
bipolar disorder ultimately led to her filing for divorce.
(see https://www.huffpost.com/entry/shirley-jones_0_n_3647862 for more)
Anyway, David Cassidy then was able to take
the fame he'd gained from his TV career (he starred in nearly 100 episodes of
"The Partridge Family") and turn it into fame as a pop singer in the
seventies. But as time passes, aging teen idols aren't guaranteed ongoing
success once the spotlight is no longer following them. David Cassidy later
said that he found his sitcom role to be very stifling, and that he had issues
with the tabloid fame that "surrounded" his every move.
In May 1972, perhaps in an effort to alter his
public persona which was so connected to the TV character Keith Partridge,
David Cassidy appeared completely nude on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in a cropped Annie Leibovitz photo; among
other things, although the accompanying Rolling
Stone article also mentioned that Cassidy was riding around New York in the
back of a car "stoned and drunk".
His gamble paid off initially; as he did get
invited on the TV talk show circuit, and even landed a few guest roles on TV.
There was also brief renewed interest in his vocal talent. But his underlying
drinking problem never really disappeared, even with a risky gamble to shed his
puritanical public persona by posing nude in a national magazine. For the
record, the image and the article from that can be viewed online at:
https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/rs-28432-22563_lg.jpg
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/david-cassidy-naked-lunch-box-178864/
Failed Marriages and Alcoholism Reminiscent of
His Father's
David's own first two marriages — first to
actress Kay Lenz and subsequently to horse trainer Meryl Tanz — ended in
divorce after only a few years each. David Cassidy had a daughter, Katie, back
in 1986 with fashion model Sherry Williams, but he acknowledged "I've
never had a relationship with her. I was her biological father but I didn't
raise her." David Cassidy also had a son named Beau, in 1991. However, his wife
divorced him shortly before his death and took sole custody of Beau, due in no small
part to his alcohol abuse.
Jack Cassidy: More Gay than Bisexual, But Was Forced Into Failed Marriages to Women During the Era of "The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name"
David's failed marriages were also eerily
reminiscent of his own father Jack Cassidy's own failed marriages. However, it
was important to note that David did not confront a necessity to try and behave
as a heterosexual as his father did when he was coming of age and working as an
actor. His son David simply inherited his problems with alcohol abuse.
In the years preceding his death, David
Cassidy was relying very heavily on things like performing in low-paying dinner
theaters and concert tours around the country for income. That's a tough way to
earn a living, and it didn't pay very well. But more concerning was that like
his father, David was definitely showing signs he was suffering from
alcoholism, while his public denials proved he was not truly addressing the
problem.
For example, like many alcoholics, David Cassidy repeatedly assured family members that he was attending AA and going to rehab,
and that he was no longer drinking. But there were clear clues he was lying.
For example, in one notable concert performance, David Cassidy could not even
remember the lyrics of a song he'd been performing for nearly 50 years, and he
also fell off the stage. Not long after, he was also arrested in Florida for
DUI. Those are clear signs of a drinking problem.
Then, David Cassidy publicly announced that he
was living with dementia and was retiring from all further performing (his
desire to stop performing could have been to avoid another humiliating incident
where he forgot lyrics during a performance, then falling off stage). 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."
But that was also completely false. He was
definitely not suffering from dementia, rather he was suffering from chronic
alcoholism and denial, plus his memory lapses while performing were due to his
drinking, not due to dementia.
Eventually, it finally looked as if he was
finally facing his demons. In a surprisingly candid interview with an A&E
producer (see the interview at
https://www.aetv.com/specials/david-cassidy-the-last-session for details),
David Cassidy stated that he'd just met with his doctor, and he confirmed that
he had liver disease, meaning his life had "changed dramatically."
Cassidy added that he had been unconscious and near death for the first few
days after the incident, he said since then, he claimed 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."
Sadly, the A&E interview would be his
last. David Cassidy passed away at the age of 67, on November 21, 2017. At the
time, he was awaiting a liver transplant; as his own liver was so damaged from
cirrhosis, but his doctors were unable to find a suitable, eligible liver from
a deceased donor before he died.
Impressively, as I write this, David's step-mother Shirley
Jones is 88 years old as of 2022, and she shows no apparent sign of illness beyond
simply her age. Since 2015, however, she has been a widow. For 38 years, she was
married to Marty Ingels, himself the star of dozens of TV sitcoms in the
1960's, and he was also known as a bit of a comedian, until Marty died of a heart
attack. Her three other sons with David Cassidy are still alive. Their marriage seemed to work, even though they drove one another crazy from time to time.
In 2020, Shirley Jones finally opened up to
the celebrity magazine Closer (see
https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/shirley-jones-is-grateful-to-have-known-stepson-david-cassidy/
for detail) about David Cassidy and his passing:
"The idea that the little boy I came to
know and love as my stepson would've turned 70 [in 2020] is astonishing to
me," Shirley Jones told Closer.
"And I am grateful for all the wonderful times we shared together."
While he was alive, David was equally fond of Shirley (who married his father, actor Jack Cassidy, and played his mother on "The Partridge Family"). He was quoted as saying that Shirley "taught me so much about how to deal with fame and success," he said. "She's one of the best human beings I've ever known." He also became very close with her sons with Jack (who were David's half-brothers): Shaun, Patrick and Ryan.