Jack Cassidy

He was born in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York, the son of Charlotte (née Koehler) and William Cassidy. His father, an engineer at the Long Island Rail Road, was of Irish descent and his mother was of German ancestry.[2]

Cassidy achieved success as a musical performer on Broadway.[3] He appeared in Alive and Kicking, Wish You Were Here, Shangri-La, Maggie Flynn, Fade Out – Fade In, It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, and She Loves Me, for which he won a Tony Award. He also received Emmy Award nominations for his television performances in He & She and The Andersonville Trial.[4]

On television, he became a frequent guest star, appearing in such programs as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Gunsmoke, Bewitched, Get Smart, That Girl, Hawaii Five-O, Cannon, Match Game and McCloud and three times as a murderer on Columbo, in the episodes "Murder By the Book" (directed by not yet famous Steven Spielberg, with teleplay by a young Steven Bochco), "Publish or Perish" (1974) and "Now You See Him..." (1976). Jack Cassidy also appeared on Barnaby Jones; episode titled "Murder in the Doll's House (03/25/1973).[4]

He co-starred with Ronnie Schell in a television revival of Hellzapoppin'. Cassidy also co-starred as an informer in the movie The Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood and provided the voice of Bob Cratchit for the pioneering animated television special Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol.[4]

His frequent professional persona was an urbane, witty, confident egotist with a dramatic flair, much in the manner of Broadway actor Frank Fay. Cassidy perfected this character to the extent that he was cast as John Barrymore in the feature film W.C. Fields and Me.

The role of the vain, shallow, buffoon-like newsman Ted Baxter on TV's The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) was reportedly written with Cassidy in mind.[5] Cassidy had played a similar buffoonish character in the 1967–1968 sitcom He & She, but he turned down the role, feeling that it was not right for him; the part went to Ted Knight. Cassidy later appeared as a guest star in a 1971 episode[6] as Ted's highly competitive and equally egotistical brother Hal.[4]

By 1976, Cassidy was living alone in a penthouse apartment in West Hollywood.

According to ex-wife Shirley Jones, Cassidy asked her over for drinks on December 11, 1976, but she declined. He then invited actress and singer Donna Theodore out for a date, who also declined. According to Theodore in a 1999 interview, which was featured in the Mysteries and Scandals episode on Cassidy, she began noticing strange mood swings in Cassidy, notably one incident in which he maniacally ran around the nightclub they were visiting. Feeling uncomfortable, she ended the date and asked him to take her back home, which he did. After eating dinner alone at a restaurant, Cassidy returned to his apartment alone and drunk, having consumed alcohol at various bars across West Hollywood earlier that evening. He had reportedly been seen drinking at one point with actress Nanette Fabray.

In the early morning hours of December 12, 1976, Cassidy lit a cigarette and fell asleep on his Naugahyde couch.[14] Asleep, he dropped the cigarette, igniting the couch. The flames spread throughout the apartment and building.[7] At 6:15 a.m., the blaze was discovered by Deputy Sheriff John DiMatteo, who evacuated the building, and entered Cassidy's apartment. A smoking, charred corpse was found in the doorway of the apartment. As Cassidy's car was missing,[2] his family hoped that he had traveled to Palm Springs, as he had intended to do the following day. But the corpse was soon identified[15] by his dental records and signet ring that he wore, bearing the Cassidy family crest.[2][16] His car had been borrowed by a friend, who returned it afterwards. Cassidy's remains were further cremated and scattered into the Pacific Ocean.[17]

Source: Playbill Vault [3]

Cassidy was approved for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005, and fundraising efforts are currently underway to fund the dedication ceremony. As of July 2018, he is not listed in their on-line database.

Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy albums

• Speaking of Love (1957) Columbia Records
• Brigadoon (1957) Columbia Records
• With Love from Hollywood (1958) Columbia
• Marriage Type Love (1959) RCA Records[20]
• Maggie Flynn (1968) RCA Records
• Showtunes (1995) Sony Music Entertainment
• Essential Masters (2011) Master Classics Records
• Marriage Type Love (2014) Columbia Masterworks Records[20]

Guest appearances

• Free to Be... You and Me (1972) Bell Records (song: "Girl Land" with Shirley Jones)

• Jack Cassidy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jack Cassidy at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Jack Cassidy at IMDb