Jack Cassidy
Actor and singer Jack Cassidy was a major performer on television in the 1960s and 1970s. The father of actor/singers David Cassidy and Shaun Cassidy, Jack first made his name on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for his role in the play She Loves Me, which was the basis for the Jimmy Stewart film, The Shop Around the Corner; the musical In the Good Old Summertime; and the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film You’ve Got Mail. Cassidy made but a handful of motion pictures for theatrical release, but appeared in several dozen television productions as a guest star.
He specialized in playing suave characters, often as the villain, and did occasional voice over work. His two marriages, the first to Evelyn Ward (mother of David Cassidy) and Shirley Jones (mother of Shaun) both ended in divorce. Years later David Cassidy reported in his autobiography that his father was bisexual, Shirley Jones later confirmed her stepson’s statements, writing in her own memoirs that Jack had numerous affairs with people of both sexes, and listing Cole Porter as one his male lovers.
Cassidy was bipolar, and reports of his behavior have described him being discovered by his neighbors standing on his front lawn naked, watering the grass from a garden hose. In December of that same year, 1974, he was briefly admitted to a psychiatric facility; it was then that he revealed to his recently divorced wife, Shirley Jones, that he had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She later wrote that he once claimed to be Jesus Christ.
He was also a noted drinker of great proportion, and although evidently disciplined when working, was prone to drunken binges when he was not. Throughout the early 1970s, he was on television as a guest star in sitcoms and dramas, mysteries and westerns. He later claimed that the role of Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was originally written for him and he turned it down, though he did appear on the show as the inept newsman’s brother.
On the night of December 11, 1976, Cassidy drank at several bars in Hollywood before arriving home alone. By all accounts, Cassidy was drunk when he got home. He passed out on his couch while smoking a cigarette, causing a fire beginning in the couch upon which he sat. The blaze wasn’t discovered until just after six in the morning, at which time Cassidy’s body was found in the doorway to the apartment, charred beyond recognition. He was 49 years old at the time of the fatal accident.