David Cassidy

Early-'70s teen idol and actor David Cassidy is the son of actor Jack Cassidy and actress Evelyn Ward. He moved to Hollywood in 1957 with his mother when his parents divorced. (His father then married actress Shirley Jones, who played Cassidy's mother in the television series The Partridge Family.) During his teens, he played guitar and drums, wrote songs, and acted; his credits include Allan Sherman'sBroadway production Fig Leaves Are Fallingand guest shots on television's Bonanza and Marcus Welbt, M.D.

In fall 1970 he began a four-year run as Keith Partridge on The Partridge Family (inspired by the Cowsills). The Partridge Family's premiere single, "I Think I Love You" (released before the TV series debuted), sold nearly 6 million copies. Several hits followed. Cassidy received royalties from the sales of Partridge Family coloring books, lunch boxes, dolls, comic books, postcards, clothes, books, records, and the show itself [see entry].

His solo recording career began in 1971 with a Top 10 remake of the Association's "Cherish." His several world tours inspired mass hysteria; Cassidy began to disclaim the teen-idol role after a 14-year-old fan named Bernadette Wheeler suffered a fatal heart attack at a London show in May 1974. That year he quit the TV series and in 1975 signed a long-term contract with RCA.

Cassidy's subsequent efforts did little to establish credibility with more mature listeners in the United States. Across the Atlantic, in the U.K., it was quite a different story, with Cassidy claiming 10 Top 20 singles there between 1972 and 1985, including two chart-toppers ("How Can I Be Sure" and "Daydreamer" b/w "The Puppy Song"). In 1976 he and Mick Ronson cut a single entitled "Gettin' It On in the Streets" and were supposed to record an album and form a band; none of it ever came to pass.

During 1978-79 he returned to television in a police drama, David Cassidy -- Man Undercover, but he never abandoned music. He starred in 1983 in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Broadway, and in 1987 he took over Cliff Richard's role in Dave Clark's London musical Time. In 1990 he launched a comeback effort that resulted in his first U.S. Top 30 appearance since 1972, "Lyin' to Myself" (#27, 1990). Seemingly resigned to The Partridge Family legacy (the show found new audiences in syndication and on Nickelodeon), he titled a recent effort Didn't You Used to Be and had another ex-Partridge, comedian/disc jockey Danny Bonaduce, open some of his shows. In 1993 he opened in the New York production of Blood Brothers, a dramatic musical costarring Petula Clark and his half-brother Shaun Cassidy. His autobiography, Come On, Get Happy, was published in 1994. Cassidy remains active in both music and the theater and has headlined in Las Vegas. In early 2000 NBC aired the made-for-television movie The David Cassidy Story.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)