‘The Partridge Family’ made him a teen idol

David Cassidy, the actor and teen heartthrob best known for his role as the musician with the green eyes and the feathered haircut on the 1970s television sitcom “The Partridge Family,” died Tuesday. He was 67.

His death was confirmed by his publicist, Jo-Ann Geffen, who said he had been suffering organ failure.

Mr.Cassidy rose to fame on “The Partridge Family” playing Keith Partridge, the eldest of five children in a family that forms a band and goes on tour. His character, a high school student, was periodically swooned over by young women as he learned to navigatehis newfound fame.

The series ran from 1970 to 1974 and turned Mr. Cassidy intoa star with hordes of adoring fans. But the young actor and musician struggled with the paradoxical isolation of a lifelived in the spotlight.

“Oh, they’re cute. They get flustered and I get flustered, and it’s all kind of fun,” Mr. Cassidy said of his devotees in 1972, when he was 21. “But it’s no fun when they rip your clothes and take rooms next door in hotels and keep pounding on the door and slipping notes under it.”

In an attempt to spice up his squeaky-clean image, Mr. Cassidy posed provocatively in a photo shoot for Rolling Stone in 1972. In the cover story, he said he was already dreaming about the end of his acting career.

“I’ll feel really good when it’s over,” he said. “I have an image of myself in five years. I’m living on an island. The sky is blue, the sun is shining. And I’m smiling, I’m healthy, I’m a family man.”

Mr. Cassidy was also a musician, performing in concert as a guitarist as recently as this year. His solo songs never matched the chart-topping popularity of his earlier work as a part of “The Partridge Family,” including the 1970 hit single “I Think I Love You.”

In later years, Mr. Cassidy wrote books about the toll stardom had taken on him, and about his own struggles with substance abuse.

Mr. Cassidy was married and divorced three times. He is survived by his son Beau, a musician; his daughter Katie, an actress; his Partridge Family co-star and real-life stepmother, Shirley Jones; and three half brothers: Patrick, Ryan and Sean.