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Vale: David Cassidy

1970s superstar, best known for The Partridge Family, has died.

1970s superstar David Cassidy, best known for The Partridge Family, has died aged 67.

Cassidy died on Tuesday, in a Florida hospital after suffering from multiple organ failure.

“On behalf of the entire Cassidy family, it is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, our uncle, and our dear brother, David Cassidy,” his representative, JoAnn Geffen, said in a statement. “David died surrounded by those he loved, with joy in his heart and free from the pain that had gripped him for so long. Thank you for the abundance and support you have shown him these many years.”

During the 1970s Cassidy was a global pop phenomenon in both the television and music industries, thanks to the success of The Partridge Family from 1970 – 1974.

He played eldest son Keith Partridge, the captivating frontman of the family band headed by Shirley Partridge, played by his real-life step-mother Shirley Jones. Alongside Danny (Danny Bonaduce) and hapless manager Reuben Kincaid (Dave Madden), most of the plots revolved around the teen sons, pranks, girls and music.

With his dashing looks and pure pop sound, the exposure catapulted him to global stardom, topping the charts with songs such as I Think I Love You, Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted and I’ll Meet You Halfway.

He soon released his own songs including Cherish and Rock Me Baby, touring the US, UK and Australia, selling out venues such as Madison Square Garden and Wembley Stadium. His concert at the MCG in Melbourne typical of the scale and mass hysteria that surrounded him, at one stage proving more popular than The Beatles and Elvis.

In the 1980s he found a home in music theatre performing in productions such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Blood Brothers and Time.

In the 1990s and 2000s he gave concert performances in cities such as Las Vegas, including hiring Danny Bonaduce as his warm-up act and released new material. This continued in the last decade, where his shows featured a Q&A with fans about the height of his popularity.

But there were also troubled times including bankruptcy, divorces, alcoholism, drink driving convictions, and in February he retired from performing when he revealed he was living with non-Alzheimer’s dementia – the condition that his mother suffered from at the end of her life.

The son of singer Jack Cassidy, and half-brother to performers Shaun and Patrick Cassidy, his other TV credits included Ironside, The FBI, Marcus Welby MD, Adam-12, Bonanza, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Ben Stiller Show, Malcolm in the Middle and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He featured in Celebrity Apprentice in 2011.

“I played in concerts all over the world, in stadiums and in coliseums and huge outdoor arenas,” he said in 2010. “When I went all over the world, they called it World War Three. There were hundreds of thousands of people. What happened was that parents would bring their kids. The parents would be outside waiting for them. Actually, there were more people outside, cars and parents waiting for their kids to find them. There was such chaos and madness in those days.”

To millions of fans across the world, he will always symbolise pop music in the 1970s.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

5 Responses

  1. Another piece of my childhood gone. I grew up in the 1970s & watched “The Partridge Family”.
    I adored David. So gorgeous & talented. Rest In Peace David. Thanks for sharing your talents.

    Thanks David Knox for the above video. My favourite of their songs!

  2. Darn dementia…slow, insidious killer…causes awful and prolonged grief and pain for all involved…
    You are at peace now, David Cassidy…..Thank you.

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