Biography
Born on 5 March 1927 in Richmond Hill, New York, and passing away on 12 March 1976 in Los Angeles, California, Jack Cassidy built a career as a versatile actor and singer whose youthful appearance persisted well into later decades. He first stepped onto a Broadway stage at seventeen, joining the chorus of the 1943 Cole Porter-Ethel Merman success Something For The Boys. Additional ensemble assignments came in Sadie Thompson, The Firebrand Of Florence, Around The World, Music In My Heart, and Inside USA. In 1948 he moved into a featured part in the stylish revue Small Wonder, sharing the spotlight with emerging talents that included Tom Ewell and Alice Pearce. A brief run in Alive And Kicking followed in 1950, after which, two years later, he assumed the role of Seabee Richard West in South Pacific. That same season he secured his first leading assignment, portraying the debonair Chick Miller in Wish You Were Here, a production widely noted for its onstage swimming pool. Cassidy introduced the show’s title number and also performed the lesser-known “Where Did The Night Go?” Subsequent work placed him opposite Betty Oakes in the unconventional Sandhog (1954) and, alongside Carol Lawrence, in Shangri-La, the musical treatment of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. He continued appearing in regional and European musical productions before returning to Broadway in 1963 with She Loves Me. While Barbara Cook and Daniel Massey navigated their on-stage relationship, Cassidy portrayed the self-satisfied resident ladies’ man Steven Kodaly, wooing Barbara Baxley with “Ilona” and “Grand Knowing You.” The performance earned him the 1964 Tony Award for Supporting/Featured Actor in a Musical.
Further smooth characterizations defined the rest of the decade: the Hollywood leading man Byron Prong in Fade Out-Fade In (1964), the vain columnist Max Mencken in the comic-strip satire It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman (1966), and the Irishman Phineas Flynn in the Civil War-era Maggie Flynn (1968). Shirley Jones, previously featured in Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Music Man, played the title character in the latter show and was Cassidy’s second wife. He also appeared on screen, notably as John Barrymore in W.C. Fields And Me and as Damon Runyon in The Private Files Of J. Edgar Hoover. When his Broadway opportunities diminished, he concentrated on regional theatre, both dramatic and musical, along with television and nightclub engagements. Cassidy died at forty-nine in an apartment fire in Los Angeles. Three sons—Patrick Cassidy and Shaun Cassidy from his marriage to Shirley Jones, and David Cassidy from his earlier marriage to Evelyn Ward—have all pursued careers in entertainment.
Further smooth characterizations defined the rest of the decade: the Hollywood leading man Byron Prong in Fade Out-Fade In (1964), the vain columnist Max Mencken in the comic-strip satire It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman (1966), and the Irishman Phineas Flynn in the Civil War-era Maggie Flynn (1968). Shirley Jones, previously featured in Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Music Man, played the title character in the latter show and was Cassidy’s second wife. He also appeared on screen, notably as John Barrymore in W.C. Fields And Me and as Damon Runyon in The Private Files Of J. Edgar Hoover. When his Broadway opportunities diminished, he concentrated on regional theatre, both dramatic and musical, along with television and nightclub engagements. Cassidy died at forty-nine in an apartment fire in Los Angeles. Three sons—Patrick Cassidy and Shaun Cassidy from his marriage to Shirley Jones, and David Cassidy from his earlier marriage to Evelyn Ward—have all pursued careers in entertainment.
Albums
Singles
