https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1m7TYVZQ40 In November, David Cassidy passed away at the age of 67. In the months before he died, he worked on an album with a band, and let a camera crew into his life. This Monday, David Cassidy: The Last Session is going to air and his ex-wife has some things to say about it.
Sue Shifrin, whose divorce to him was finalized 2 years ago, wrote, “I have been inundated with comments re upcoming A&E special about @davidcassidyfan. I rarely comment personally on such matters, however I cannot tell you how sad & disappointed we are that A&E chose to air this special that noone in the Cassidy Family sanctioned or wanted aired. This program is exploitive & sensational. Everyone who participated were interested in only one thing….in their 15 secs of fame. Shame on A&E and all involved.”
Danny Bonaduce, who was his costar on The Partridge Family, responded to her Tweet with, “Dear Sue, Sorry to hear my 15 min are just about up. I kind of knew. There was a Cassidy involved, his name was David. He asked me to participate & I was happy to do it for him. I don’t see any shame in speaking fondly about David. My best to you & Beau.”
Yesterday, I watched the special and I did not find it disrespectful to him as a whole. That clip that they sent out to the press was and it only airs in the final minutes of the show. The biography started filming him in September and he is getting tested to find out if he has Dementia because he says he was having memory problems. They do find there is something going on, but they will need to do more tests.
Then the special talks about his life, or lack thereof one with his father, Jack Cassidy. The album is full of songs that were special to him and his dad. In between recording the tunes, he told stories about his father.
We do not only hear about his dad, they also talk about him becoming an overnight sensation. They also show how his life changed dramatically when he became Keith Partridge. He had to lead a squeaky-clean life and yet he did not have one because he could not go anywhere in public without being attacked by fans. You see the great lengths they went to, to keep his admirers away from him.
Besides showing flashbacks, you see him recording with the band. This is where Shifrin might have a point. It is not easy to watch him because you can tell he is pain and it is hard for him to walk at times. Throughout all of the pain, he kept working because of the work ethic his dad instilled in him. After a few days, the pain is so bad he cannot record anymore. The band tries to get him to go to the hospital and he refuses. When he cannot fly back to Florida because of the pain, that is when he decides to go to the hospital. Shortly after they drop him off, is when they get the phone call that we all heard yesterday.
At no point in the special do you see him drinking. In fact, he even says he is clean when he goes to the doctor. The first time you hear that he was drinking was at the end of the special. I think that it shows what his last few weeks were like and how hard they were on him emotionally and physically. I do not think they exploited him as much as other specials have done to other celebrities or how much the telemovie based on his life did. However, I only saw him in a Broadway play once and spent a few hours interviewing him for a sitcom he was doing with his brothers, Shaun and Patrick, who are not in the special at all. I have a special place in my heart for him, but nowhere near as special as they do. Thus, what they might not want it to air.
When it comes to Bonaduce, he was very respectful of his old friend and he is shown that way. The radio DJ talks about how Cassidy took him out on tour with him in the early ’80s to get Bonaduce off of the dangerous path he was going down. Bonaduce also says that he cannot understand how Dementia can cause your organs to fail. Even he did not know about the drinking. I do not think anyone did until yesterday.
I get why Shifrin and his family do not want it to air. I can also see why the fans of his would want to see it. It is an intimate look at the last few weeks of his life. Personally, I think some of the E! True Hollywood Specials and VH1 Behind the Musics were more exploitative to celebrities than this show is to him. It is up to you whether or not you want to watch.
UPDATE: Sue Shifrin said tweeted that she was not referring to Bonaduce in her tweets.
Last February, David Cassidy told the world that he had Dementia, something members of his family also suffered from, and that is why he could not remember the lyrics to his songs at a concert. That diagnosis, he said was the reason why he was retiring from performing. Just 9 months after that revelation, he passed away.
In between that time he filmed a documentary, that will air on A&E Monday at 11p, and he makes a startling confession to the producer of David Cassidy: The Last Session. He told a producer that he was diagnosed with a liver disease. Not only that, the doctors believed that he did not have Dementia but instead that he was suffering from memory loss due to his alcoholism. After a hospitalization that left him near death because of alcohol poising, he was able to get his short term memory back.
The months before he died, he worked on an album that included music that was special to him and his father, Jack Cassidy. In between recording the songs, he told stories about his dad. At one point he breaks down wishing his dad was there with him. That album was released earlier this year.
The documentary is about the making of that album and the last months of his life. A tragic life, but one that touched so many people.
UPDATE: I just watched the special and there is so much more to the story of that clip that airs at the end of the show. Cassidy was afraid that he thought he had Dementia and went to get tested at the beginning of the special. They did find out he was suffering from memory loss, but they were going to have to do more tests to discover what was causing it. That was in September 2017.
He then went to Chicago to record the album and he could not go on because he was in too much pain. He says from a fall. He did not want to go to the hospital to get checked out. But when he was too sick to fly home, he went. That is when they found he out he had a liver disease and was not suffering from Dementia. Not too long after that, he passed away.
I will tell you the documentary is a must watch. This an intimate look at his life, the relationship he had with his father, his fame and his work ethic. I will admit, it is hard to watch at times because you can see what the alcohol did to his body, but he never let it stop him from doing what he loved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4UHnReGilA
David Cassidy passed away today from organ failure at the age of just 67 according to KABC.
In 1970, the world feel in love with David Cassidy in The Partridge Family. He became a teen idol so quickly at 20, he did not know how to handle his newfound stardom even though he was the son of two living legends Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward and stepson to Shirley Jones. The latter was not only his stepmom in real life, she was also his TV mom on the sitcom that made him household name.
In order to deal with his fame, he took on drinking and drugs like his father and it took its toll on him. Even still, he kept on performing. He kept releasing music, starring on TV shows and even transitioning to Broadway in shows like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Blood Brothers with his real life half-brother Shaun Cassidy. I was fortunate enough to see him in that musical. After the show ended, my mom and I waited outside the stage door so she could meet Petula Clark, who played the mom. As we were waiting, David came out and did not want to sign autographs, so he ran away. As he was running away, like 50 women, who were not so young, were chasing him down Broadway even though he wanted to be left alone. I will never forget how obsessed they were him after all of those years, and are still in love with him now.
He was special. I know that because I interviewed him years later for ABC Family’s Ruby and the Rockits. I was enamored with the man, who sang I Think I Love You. He was a gentle soul even though he had been through hell and back.
Now he is at peace and out of pain. A pain that would have been worse for him as the Dementia started to take over like it did his mom. He was forced to retire earlier this year because of it and I would assume part of him died that day. He loved performing and without it, he was most likely not the same.
Today let’s honor him by singing his songs and watching the show that made us all happy. Come On Get Happy through the tears.
Here is a story about David as told by his brother Shaun from the Ruby and the Rockits’ interview. According to Shaun when Katie Cassidy was 15 years old, David brought her along to dinner one night with his brothers, who never met her nor know about her, and he told them, “Oh, and by the way, this is my daughter, I’ll have the chopped chicken liver and the…” That was how he introduced them to their niece. It was that moment that lead to Shaun pitching that show.
Before David Cassidy was squeaky clean on The Partridge Family, he was a bad teen on Ironside. It is easy to see why he was a heartthrob because look at cute he was when he was 19 in that 1959 episode.
Earlier this year, David Cassidy retired from performing because he is suffering from dementia, and today the ’70s heartthrob from The Partridge Family is in the hospital with liver and kidney failure. According to People the 67-year-old is in desperate need of a liver transplant.
Even though TMZ reported he was in an induced coma, his rep says he is now conscious and surrounded by his family including his son Beau, his ex-wife and Beau’s mom Sue Shifrin and brother Patrick. Shifrin pleaded on Twitter, “PRAYERS, please….” While his younger brother Shaun Cassidy wrote, “Thank you for all your love and good wishes for David. It means the world to all of us.”
As we pray for him to get better, we should also sing his song I Think I Love You. This way he will know that we really do love him.
