Partridge Family teen idol David Cassidy dies aged 67

Partridge Family teen idol David Cassidy dies aged 67



David Cassidy, the teen and pre-teen idol who starred in the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family and sold millions of records as the musical group’s lead singer, died Tuesday at age 67.



Cassidy, who announced earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with dementia, died surrounded by his family, a family statement released by publicist JoAnn Geffen said.



No further details were immediately available, but Geffen said on Saturday that Cassidy was in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hospital suffering from organ failure - a symptom of dementia.



'David died surrounded by those he loved, with joy in his heart and free from the pain that had gripped him for so long,' the statement said.



'Thank you for the abundance and support you have shown him these many years.'



Cassidy had been on life support since Monday, according to TMZ.



Doctors told the family that his only hope for survival was to undergo a liver transplant, but this was quickly ruled out since he would not have been able to withstand the surgery.



At around noon on Tuesday, the family decided to remove Cassidy from life support.



Cassidy's family was on hand to bid him farewell - including his brothers Shaun, Patrick and Ryan; his children Beau and Katie; and nephews and his ex-wife Sue Cassidy. 



The Partridge Family aired from 1970-74 and was a fictional variation of the ’60s performers the Cowsills, intended at first as a vehicle for Shirley Jones, the Oscar winning actress and Cassidy’s stepmother.



Jones played Shirley Partridge, a widow with five children with whom she forms a popular act that travels on a psychedelic bus.



The cast also featured Cassidy as eldest son and family heartthrob Keith Partridge; Susan Dey, later of LA Law fame, as sibling Laurie Partridge and Danny Bonaduce as sibling Danny Partridge.



It was an era for singing families - the Osmonds, the Jacksons.



The Partridge Family never cracked the top 10 in TV ratings, but the recordings under their name, mostly featuring Cassidy, Jones and session players, produced real-life musical hits and made Cassidy a real-life musical superstar.



The Partridges’ best known song, I Think I Love You, spent three weeks on top of the Billboard chart at a time when other hit singles included James Taylor’s Fire and Rain and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ The Tears of a Clown.



The group also reached the top 10 with I’ll Meet You Halfway and Doesn’t Somebody Want to be Wanted and Cassidy had a solo hit with Cherish.



'In two years, David Cassidy has swept hurricane-like into the pre-pubescent lives of millions of American girls,' Rolling Stone magazine noted in 1972.



'Leaving: six and a half million long-playing albums and singles; 44 television programs; David Cassidy lunch boxes; David Cassidy bubble gum; David Cassidy coloring books and David Cassidy pens; not to mention several millions of teen magazines, wall stickers, love beads, posters and photo albums.'



Cassidy’s appeal faded after the show went off the air, although he continued to tour, record and act over the next 40 years, his albums including Romance and the awkwardly titled Didn’t You Used To Be?



He had a hit with I Write the Songs before Barry Manilow’s chart-topping version and success overseas with The Last Kiss, featuring backing vocals from Cassidy admirer George Michael.



He made occasional stage and television appearances, including an Emmy-nominated performance on Police Story.



Meanwhile, The Partridge Family remained popular in re-runs and Cassidy, who kept his dark bangs and boyish appearance well into middle age, frequently turned up for reunions and spoke often about his early success.



'So many people come up to me and talk to me about the impact it (the show) had,' he told Arsenio Hall in 1990.



Even while The Partridge Family was still in primetime, Cassidy worried that he was mistaken for the wholesome character he played.



He posed naked for Rolling Stone in 1972, when he confided that he had dropped acid as a teenager and smoked pot in front of the magazine’s reporter as he watched an episode of The Partridge Family and mocked his own acting.



Cassidy maintained an exhausting schedule during the show’s run, filming during the week and performing live shows over the weekend, but had plenty of time to indulge himself.



In the memoir Could It Be Forever, he wrote of his prolific sex life and of rejecting Dey’s advances because she lacked the 'slutty aspect of a female that I always found so attractive.'



Cassidy would endure personal and financial troubles. He was married and divorced three times, battled alcoholism, was arrested for drunk driving and in 2015 filed for bankruptcy.