Jack 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 the Long Island Rail Road, was of Irish descent and his mother was of German ancestry.{{cite news|title=Actor Jack Cassidy Dies In Blaze|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19761211&id=9O4uAAAAIBAJ&pg=1876,2744767|newspaper=Beaver County Times|date=December 13, 1976|pages=B-16}}

Cassidy achieved success as a musical performer on Broadway.{{cite web |title=Jack Cassidy Broadway Credits |url=http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/59911/Jack-Cassidy |work=Playbill |access-date=July 15, 2015}} He appeared in Alive 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, and She Loves Me, for which he won a Tony Award. He also received Emmy Award nominations for his television performances in the 1967-68 CBS Television Network series He & She and The Andersonville Trial.{{cite web|url=https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/jack-cassidy/credits/154863/|title=Jack Cassidy|work=TV Guide|access-date=January 24, 2020}}

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

He co-starred with Ronnie Schell in a television revival of Hellzapoppin'. Cassidy also co-starred as an informer in the movie The Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood and provided the voice of Bob Cratchit for the pioneering animated television special Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol.

His frequent professional persona was an urbane, witty, confident egotist with a dramatic flair, much in the manner of Broadway actor Frank Fay. Cassidy perfected this character to the extent that he was cast as John Barrymore in the feature film W.C. Fields and Me.{{cn|date=March 2022}}

The role of the vain, shallow, buffoon-like newsman Ted Baxter on TV's The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) was reportedly written with Cassidy in mind.{{cite book |last1=Cassidy |first1=David |author-link1=David Cassidy|last2=Deffaa |first2=Chip|author-link2=Chip Deffaa|title=C'mon, Get Happy ... Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus |year=1994|publisher=Warner Books |location=New York |isbn=0-446-39531-5 |page=50}} Cassidy had played a similar buffoonish character in the 1967–1968 sitcom He & She, but he turned down the role, feeling that it was not right for him; the part went to Ted Knight. Cassidy later appeared as a guest star in a 1971 episode{{cite web|title=Cover Boy| publisher=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0642809/?ref_=ttep_ep6}} as Ted's highly competitive and equally egotistical brother Hal.

File:GreenWhiteHouse.jpg in 1957]]

Cassidy was married twice. His first marriage in 1948 was to actress Evelyn Ward. Together they had a son, David, who later became a teen idol. They divorced in 1956 and in the same year Cassidy married singer and actress Shirley Jones. Cassidy and Jones had three sons, Shaun, Patrick, and Ryan. Cassidy's eldest son, David, later starred with Jones in the musical sitcom The Partridge Family. Son Shaun also became a teen idol in the late 1970s, starring in The Hardy Boys series, and producing four top-40 records. Jones and Cassidy divorced in 1975.{{cite book|last=Donnelley|first=Paul|title=Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries|year=2003|publisher=Music Sales Group|isbn=0-711-99512-5|page=144}}

Cassidy had 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 show The 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 from bipolar 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.{{cite book|last=Cassidy|first=David|title=C'Mon, Get Happy...|year=1994|publisher=Warner Books|isbn=0-446-39531-5|page=214|author2=Deffaa, Chip}} 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".{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Shirley |author-link1=Shirley Jones |last2=Ingels |first2=Marty |author-link2=Marty Ingels |last3=Herskowitz |first3=Mickey |title=Shirley & Marty: An Unlikely Love Story |year=1990 |publisher=William Morrow & Company |location=New York |isbn=0-688-08457-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/shirleymartyunli0000jone/page/49 49] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/shirleymartyunli0000jone/page/49 }} In December 1974, Cassidy was hospitalized in a psychiatric facility for 48 hours.Cassidy 1994 pp. 204-205 At that time, Jones found out that he had been previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder.Jones 1990 p. 52

David Cassidy said his father was bisexual, 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.{{cite news | first=Jackie | last=McGlone | title=Still a daydreamer | url=http://living.scotsman.com/features/Still-a-daydreamer.3356877.jp | date=March 24, 2007| work=The Scotsman | access-date=July 6, 2008}} In her 2013 memoir, Shirley Jones wrote that Cassidy had many same-sex affairs, including one with Cole Porter.{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Shirley|title=Shirley Jones: A Memoir|url=https://archive.org/details/shirleyjonesmemo0000jone|url-access=registration|date=2013|publisher=Gallery Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4767-2595-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/shirleyjonesmemo0000jone/page/96 96]}}

On December 11, 1976, Cassidy invited his ex-wife, Shirley Jones, to his home, an apartment in West Hollywood, California, for drinks, but she declined.{{Cite book|last=Jones|first=Shirley|url=http://archive.org/details/shirleyjonesmemo0000jone|title=Shirley Jones : a memoir|date=2013|publisher=New York, NY : Gallery Books|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-1-4767-2595-6}}

Early the next morning, Cassidy lit a cigarette and fell asleep on his Naugahyde couch.{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Shirley|title=Shirley Jones: A Memoir|year=2013|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-476-72595-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/shirleyjonesmemo0000jone/page/229 229–230]|url=https://archive.org/details/shirleyjonesmemo0000jone/page/229}} Asleep, he dropped the cigarette, igniting the couch. The flames spread throughout the apartment and building. 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{{cite book|last=Karanikas Harvey|first=Diana|title=Dead Before Their Time|url=https://archive.org/details/deadbeforetheirt0000harv|url-access=registration|year=1996|publisher=MetroBooks|isbn=1-567-99284-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/deadbeforetheirt0000harv/page/104 104]|author2=Harvey, Jackson}} by dental records{{cite news| title=Jack Cassidy, Actor, Dies at 49 In Fire at Los Angeles Apartment| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/12/13/archives/jack-cassidy-actor-dies-at-49-in-fire-at-los-angeles-apartment.html| newspaper=The New York Times| date=December 13, 1976| access-date=May 31, 2009}} and a signet ring that he wore, bearing the Cassidy family crest.Jones 2013 p.229 His remains were cremated and scattered in the Pacific Ocean.{{cite book|last=Petrucelli|first=Alan W.|title=Morbid Curiosity: The Disturbing Demises of the Famous and Infamous|year=2009|publisher=Perigee Trade|isbn=978-0-399-53527-7|pages=38–39}}

Source: Playbill Vault

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{{cite web|work=BroadwayWorld.com|url=http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-CD-Reviews-Shirley-Jones-and-Jack-Cassidys-MARRIAGE-TYPE-LOVE-is-Sweet-Nostalgia-20140512|title=BWW CD Reviews: Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy's MARRIAGE TYPE LOVE is Sweet Nostalgia|date=May 12, 2014|first=David|last=Clarke}}
• Maggie Flynn (1968) RCA Records
• Showtunes (1995) Sony Music Entertainment
• Essential Masters (2011) Master Classics Records
• Marriage Type Love (2014) Columbia Masterworks Records

;Guest appearances

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

{{reflist}}

• {{IBDB name}}
• {{iobdb name|35460}}
• {{IMDb name|144197}}

{{TonyAward MusicalFeaturedActor}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassidy, Jack}}

Category:1927 births

Category:1976 deaths

Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:20th-century American male singers

Category:Accidental deaths in California

Category:American bisexual male actors

Category:American bisexual musicians

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male musical theatre actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:American people of German descent

Category:American people of Irish descent

Category:Bisexual male singers

Category:Columbia Records artists

Category:Deaths from fire in the United States

Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state)

Category:Male actors from Queens, New York

Category:People from Richmond Hill, Queens

Category:People with bipolar disorder

Category:RCA Records artists

Category:Tony Award winners