American singer and actor from a theatrical family, the son of Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward who divorced when he was three; his step-mother was Shirley Jones. He was a teen-bopper heartthrob as a star in the TV series “The Partridge Family” 1970-1974. He sang his way into fame as a recording artist, selling 20 million records before he was 25 – and over the hill. It was the druggy ’60s, and David played the same game as his peers. He was kicked out of three high schools for his wild antics, later looking back at what he called “stupid, adolescent things.”
Three years later, Cassidy returned briefly to TV in a series, “Police Story.”
In 1976, his dad was killed in a fire. In April 1977, he married actress Kay Lenz for a year. When his series phased out, Cassidy left performing for 15 years of depression and introspection. He made a second failed marriage to horsewoman Meryl Tanz and a third marriage to songwriter Sue Shifrin; their son was born in 1991.
In the early ’80s, he began working in regional theater, purposely taking small steps and starting from the beginning to build a foundation. He went back to acting class.
In 1993, he starred with half-brother Shaun Cassidy in the Broadway musical “Blood Brothers.”
Cassidy published his memoir in early 1994, “C’Mon, Get Happy: Fear and Loathing in the Partridge Family Business.”
Cassidy rode as a kid and in 1973, bought his first horse. Since then, he had bought, sold, bred, schemed, daydreamed and talked about thoroughbreds and racing, not as a gambler but as one who loves his horses.
On 20 February 2017, Cassidy announced that he was living with non-Alzheimer’s dementia, the condition that his mother suffered from at the end of her life. He retired from performing in early 2017 when the condition became noticeable during a performance in which he forgot lyrics and otherwise struggled.
On 18 November 2017, it was announced that Cassidy had been hospitalized suffering from liver and kidney failure, and was critically ill in a medically induced coma. He was out of the coma two days later, but remained in critical but stable condition, with doctors hoping to keep him stable until a liver became available for transplant. Cassidy died on 21 November 2017, aged 67.
Link to Wikipedia biography