Former teen idol David Cassidy dies at age 67

David Cassidy, an actor and singer who became a teeny-bopper heartthrob in the early 1970s, starring as shaggy-haired guitarist Keith Partridge on the musical sitcom “The Partridge Family,” died Nov. 21 at a hospital near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 67.

His publicist, Jo-Ann Geffen, told the Associated Press on Saturday he was hospitalized with liver and kidney failure. Cassidy announced earlier this year he was suffering from dementia and would stop touring.

At the height of his popularity, Cassidy commanded a rabid fan base that drew comparisons to those of Elvis Presley and the Beatles, with the New York Times reporting that after a 21-year-old Cassidy’s gallbladder was removed in 1971, fans called for the singer’s gallstones to be covered in bronze and sold alongside clippings of his hair.

Loosely inspired by a six-sibling pop band called the Cowsills, the group was a spiritual successor to the Monkees, the “prefab four,” who became a hit act in the 1960s after starring in a television show of the same name.

Cassidy was the group’s lead singer and guitarist. A skinny 20-year-old who still looked like a teenager, he said he had little in common with the staid, occasionally doltish youngster he played on television. The son of divorced show business parents — his father was Tony-winning actor Jack Cassidy — he nurtured a love of rock music and artistic pretensions, hoping to parlay his television work into more serious acting.

Cutting a deal with the show’s producers, he embarked on a solo career beginning with the 1971 record “Cherish” and began performing to sold-out dance halls and stadiums.

David Bruce Cassidy was born in Manhattan on April 12, 1950. After his parents divorced, he moved to California with his mother, actress Evelyn Ward.

He acknowledged a struggle with alcohol in recent years and found himself in the news for his tumultuous personal life, including drunken-driving charges and a hit-and-run charge.

His driver’s license was suspended, and he was sentenced to take alcohol-education courses.

His marriages to actress Kay Lenz, Meryl Tanz and Sue Shifrin ended in divorce. Cassidy had a daughter, actress Katie Cassidy, from a relationship and had a son, Beau Cassidy, from his third marriage.

A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

Associated Press file photo David Cassidy of “The Partridge Family” fame, shown in 1972, has died at age 67, his publicist said.