David Cassidy, squeaky-clean pop idol who dreamed of being a rebel
SOME pop stars bask in the attention of fans – the hysterical screaming, the hastily flung knickers and the endless attempts to get close to their idol.
Others, such as David Cassidy – who has died aged 67 after being hospitalised in Florida with organ failure – did not.
For years, the teen and pre-teen heart throb was hunted and hounded by millions of devotees. They hid in the air conditioning unit of his home, hurled themselves at his limousine, and even popped up in his bed.
In London in the early Seventies at the height of ‘Cassidymania’, the Dorchester Hotel where he was staying was besieged by thousands of young girls.
On his next visit he hired a yacht on the Thames with 24hour security. But fans jumped in the river and had to be rescued.
Born in Manhattan in 1950 to actors Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward, who split when he was three, David found fame in 1970 playing teenager Keith Partridge in The Partridge Family, a Later life: Cassidy pictured in Hollywood last December saccharine American TV series about five siblings in a band. Stepmother Shirley Jones was his on-screen mum.
At his peak, between 1970 and 1974, he was the highest paid solo artist in the world with hits including I Think I Love You, Cherish and Could It Be Forever?
His fan club was bigger than those of the Beatles and Elvis combined, there were David Cassidy lunch boxes, bubble gum, colouring books and pens, while bedroom walls from Los Angeles to Sydney, Dublin to Delhi, were plastered with posters of him.
Today, nearly half a century later, hearts – a little older, a little harder – are breaking all around the world.
There was always something about those kind green eyes, the long shiny hair, the dungarees and the yearning love songs that sent women, of all ages, berserk.
‘I’m beginning to go crazy myself,’ he said at the time. ‘I sometimes feel so confined that I’m in a fish bowl.’
While his fans dreamed of marrying him, he dreamed of a hideaway in Hawaii, of rocking like Jimi Hendrix, using drugs and sleeping around like The Rolling Stones – and being taken seriously as an actor. It was a struggle that dogged him his entire life.
He also felt he was being forced to live a lie as squeaky clean Keith Partridge so he posed naked for Rolling Stone magazine, smoked pot and got drunk in front of the reporter prompting an international outcry and abject apologies.
It was in 1974 in London that everything came to a head. At a concert at the White City stadium a terrifying crush left 30 fans injured. A 14-year-old, Bernadette Whelan, died four days later. Later that year, aged 24, Cassidy retired from TV and touring. In four years he had earned $8million but lost most of it to agents and managers.
And there began his long, slow decline. By 1976 he was in therapy, battling bankruptcy and the fallout from two failed marriages.
He never quite gave up, recording and touring again. Then, in 2014, his third marriage ended. Earlier this year he claimed to be estranged from his two children. There were also alcohol problems and in February he revealed he was suffering from dementia. Last week it was announced he was in hospital awaiting a liver transplant. Yesterday, surrounded by family and friends, he passed away.
Sadly, it couldn’t be forever.
‘I sometimes feel… I’m in a fish bowl’