David Cassidy, who shot to fame in The Partridge Family, before going on to become a teen pop idol in the 1970s, has died aged 67.
David Bruce Cassidy (April 12, 1950 – November 21, 2017) was an actor, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He first became famous playing Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge, in the 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family. This role led to him becoming one of the biggest teen idols and pop singers of the 1970s. He later had a career in both acting and music.
David Cassidy was born in New York City in 1950, to singer and actor Jack Cassidy and actress Evelyn Ward. His father was half Irish and half German, and his mother was of Irish and Swiss origin. Some of his mother’s ancestors were among the founders of Newark, New Jersey.
David spent a large part of his early years being raised by his mother’s parents in a middle-class neighbourhood in West Orange, New Jersey, as his parents were touring on the road a lot of the time. In 1956, he found out from neighbours’ children that his parents had been divorced for more than two years and had not told him (how strange is that?!?!). Apparently, they had decided not to tell him because it would be better for his “emotional stability” to not discuss it as he was still so young. They figured that as they were not around anyway and home life remained the same, he was better off not to know.
Also in 1956, his father married the singer and actress Shirley Jones, who would later play his mum in The Partridge Family. In 1968, after completing one final session of summer school to obtain credits necessary to get a high-school diploma, David moved into the rental home of Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones in Irvington, New York, and stayed there seeking fame as an actor/musician while also working half-days in the mailroom of a textile firm. He finally moved out when his career began to do well.
On January 2, 1969, Cassidy made his professional debut in the Broadway musical “The Fig Leaves Are Falling”. Although it closed after only four performances, a casting director saw the show and asked David to do a screen test. He then moved to Los Angeles and after signing with Universal Studios in 1969, was featured in episodes of television series such as Ironside, Marcus Welby M.D., and Bonanza.
After David signed with Universal Studios in 1969, his Dad, Jack, introduced him to former table tennis champion and very close friend Ruth Aarons, who became David’s first manager. She had already represented Jack and Shirley Jones for several years, and later also represented Cassidy’s half-brother Shaun.
Aarons became an authority figure in David’s life and also a close friend, and was the driving force behind his on-screen success. After initially making small wages from Screen Gems for his work on The Partridge Family during season one, Aarons spotted a loophole in his contract and renegotiated it with much better terms, and a four-year duration, which was a rare stipulation at the time.
Cassidy’s married his first wife, the lovely actress Kay Lenz, on April 3, 1977, and divorced her in 1983. He soon married his second wife, horse breeder Meryl Tanz (he must have liked ladies with surnames ending in Z) who he had first met in 1974 at a Kentucky, horse sale. This marriage unfortunately also ended in divorce in 1985.
He married again on March 30, 1991 this time to Sue Shifrin, it was his third marriage and her second. In August 2013, Cassidy’s publicist confirmed that the couple had separated, with Shifrin eventually filing for divorce in February 2014.
On February 20, 2017, David Cassidy announced that he was living with dementia (see below*), the condition that his mother had suffered with at the end of her life. He soon retired from performing when the condition became noticeable during a performance when he forgot lyrics and struggled throughout.
In November 2017 Cassidy was hospitalized suffering from liver and kidney failure. He was critically ill in a medically-induced coma and several websites actually said he had died!
He was out of the coma two days later, but remained in critical condition, with doctors hoping to keep him stable until a liver became available for transplant, which it never did.
David Cassidy died of liver failure in Faut Laudadale, Florida on November 21, 2017, aged 67
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*Dementia is not a disease itself but rather a collection of symptoms that result from damage to the brain caused by different diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.
For more information on Dementia check out the following websites:-
In the USA:- https://alzfdn.org
In the UK:- https://www.dementiauk.org/
In Australia:- https://www.dementia.org.au/
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