Jack Cassidy
Jack Cassidy,c. 1967
Born	John Joseph Edward Cassidy (1927-03-05)March 5, 1927 New York City, U.S.
Died	December 12, 1976(1976-12-12) (aged 49) West Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupations	Actor singer theatre director
Years active	1943–1976
Spouses	Evelyn Ward ​ ​ (m. 1948; div. 1956)​ Shirley Jones ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1975)​
Children	4; includingDavid,Shaun andPatrick Cassidy
Relatives	Katie Cassidy (granddaughter)

John Joseph Edward Cassidy (March 5, 1927 – December 12, 1976) was an American actor, singer and theatre director. He received multipleTony Award nominations and a win, as well as aGrammy Award, for his work on the Broadway production of the musicalShe Loves Me. He also received twoPrimetime Emmy Award nominations. He was the father ofteen idolsDavid Cassidy andShaun Cassidy.

Cassidy was born in New York City, the son of Charlotte (née Koehler) and William Cassidy. He was the youngest of five children. His father, an engineer at theLong Island Rail Road, was of Irish descent and his mother was of German ancestry.^[1]

Cassidy achieved success as a musical performer onBroadway.^[2] He appeared inAlive and Kicking,Wish You Were Here,Shangri-La,Maggie Flynn,Fade Out – Fade In,It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, andShe Loves Me, for which he won aTony Award. He also receivedEmmy Award nominations for his television performances in the 1967-68CBS Television Network seriesHe & She andThe Andersonville Trial.^[3]

On television, he became a frequent guest star, appearing in such programs asThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour,Gunsmoke,Bewitched,Get Smart,That Girl,Hawaii Five-O,Cannon,Match Game,McCloud, andBarnaby Jones for an episode titled "Murder in the Doll's House" (1973).^[3] Cassidy also appeared three times as a murderer onColumbo in the episodes "Murder By the Book" (1971, directed by the not-yet-famousSteven Spielberg, with teleplay by a youngSteven Bochco), "Publish or Perish" (1974), and "Now You See Him..." (1976).^[3]

He co-starred withRonnie Schell in a television revival ofHellzapoppin'. Cassidy also co-starred as an informer in the movieThe Eiger Sanction withClint Eastwood and provided the voice of Bob Cratchit for the pioneering animated television specialMister Magoo's Christmas Carol.^[3]

His frequent professional persona was an urbane, witty, confident egotist with a dramatic flair, much in the manner ofBroadway actorFrank Fay. Cassidy perfected this character to the extent that he was cast asJohn Barrymore in the feature filmW.C. Fields and Me.^{[citation needed]}

The role of the vain, shallow, buffoon-like newsmanTed Baxter on TV'sThe Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) was reportedly written with Cassidy in mind.^[4] Cassidy had played a similar buffoonish character in the 1967–1968 sitcomHe & She, but he turned down the role, feeling that it was not right for him; the part went toTed Knight. Cassidy later appeared as a guest star in a 1971 episode^[5] as Ted's highly competitive and equally egotistical brother Hal.^[3]

Cassidy was married twice. His first marriage in 1948 was to actressEvelyn Ward. Together they had a son,David, who later became ateen idol. They divorced in 1956 and in the same year Cassidy married singer and actressShirley Jones. Cassidy and Jones had three sons,Shaun,Patrick, and Ryan. Cassidy's eldest son, David, later starred with Jones in the musical sitcomThe Partridge Family. Son Shaun also became a teen idol in the late 1970s, starring inThe Hardy Boys series, and producing four top-40 records. Jones and Cassidy divorced in 1975.^[6]

Cassidy has 12 grandchildren:Katie Cassidy and Beau by his first son David.; Caitlin, Jake, Juliet, Caleb, Roan, Lila, and Mairin Cassidy by son Shaun; Cole and Jack by son Patrick; and, Meghan Mae by son Ryan. His grandson, Jack Cassidy, was a contestant on the singing competition television showThe Voice in 2017.

In his 1994 autobiography,C'Mon, Get Happy, Cassidy's eldest son David wrote that he became increasingly concerned about his father in the last years of his life. The elder Cassidy, who suffered frombipolar disorder and alcoholism, was displaying increasingly erratic behavior. In 1974, his neighbors were shocked to see him fully naked, watering his front lawn in the middle of the afternoon.^[7] Cassidy's second wife, Shirley Jones, described a similar incident when she found him sitting naked in a corner of their house, reading a book. Jones said to him that they had to get ready to do a show, and he calmly looked up and said, "I know now that I'm Christ".^[8] In December 1974, Cassidy was hospitalized in apsychiatric facility for 48 hours.^[9] At that time, Jones found out that he had been previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder.^[10]

David Cassidy said his father wasbisexual, citing personal accounts and reports, both anecdotal and published, of his father's same-sex affairs, something neither he nor his siblings knew until after their father's death.^[11] In her 2013 memoir, Shirley Jones wrote that Cassidy had many same-sex affairs, including one withCole Porter.^[12]

On December 11, 1976, Cassidy invited his ex-wife, Shirley Jones, to his home, an apartment inWest Hollywood, California, for drinks, but she declined.^[13]

Early the next morning, Cassidy lit a cigarette and fell asleep on hisNaugahyde couch.^[14] Asleep, he dropped the cigarette, igniting the couch. The flames spread throughout the apartment and building.^[6] At 6:15 a.m., the blaze was discovered by Deputy Sheriff John DiMatteo, who evacuated the building, and entered Cassidy's apartment. A charred body was found near the front door of the apartment among the ashes, and was identified as Cassidy's^[15] by dental records^[16] and asignet ring that he wore, bearing the Cassidy family crest.^[1][17] His remains were cremated and scattered in the Pacific Ocean.^[18]

Source: Playbill Vault^[2]

Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy albums

• Speaking of Love (1957)Columbia Records
• Brigadoon (1957) Columbia Records
• With Love from Hollywood (1958) Columbia
• Marriage Type Love (1959)RCA Records^[21]
• Maggie Flynn (1968) RCA Records
• Showtunes (1995)Sony Music Entertainment
• Essential Masters (2011) Master Classics Records
• Marriage Type Love (2014)Columbia Masterworks Records^[21]

Guest appearances

• Free to Be... You and Me (1972)Bell Records (song: "Girl Land" withShirley Jones)

• Jack Cassidy at theInternet Broadway Database
• Jack Cassidy at theInternet Off-Broadway Database
• Jack Cassidy atIMDb

• 1927 births
• 1976 deaths
• 20th-century American LGBTQ people
• 20th-century American male actors
• 20th-century American male singers
• Accidental deaths in California
• American bisexual male actors
• American bisexual musicians
• American male film actors
• American male musical theatre actors
• American male stage actors
• American male television actors
• American people of German descent
• American people of Irish descent
• Bisexual male singers
• Columbia Records artists
• Deaths from fire in the United States
• LGBTQ people from New York (state)
• Male actors from Queens, New York
• People from Richmond Hill, Queens
• People with bipolar disorder
• RCA Records artists
• Tony Award winners

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