David Cassidy Movies
A performer whose career soared and peaked in the early '70s, multifaceted entertainer David Cassidy dramatically redefined the term "teen idol," as others including Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka had before him. In his heyday, Cassidy culled an untoward number of admirers, including legions of starstruck teenage girls. The son of actors Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward (and the stepson of Shirley Jones), David landed his first major break on the blockbuster '70s musical sitcom The Partridge Family (1970-1974), opposite Jones, Susan Dey, and Danny Bonaduce. Based very loosely on the experiences of the real-life family vocal band the Cowsills, the now-iconic series told of a widowed mother and her brood of rowdy kids, who became national pop stars overnight, and eked out a life touring in a colorful schoolbus and performing all over the country. Cassidy -- 20 years old when the series premiered -- played the eldest Partridge boy, 16-year-old David. Series producers took advantage of the program's success by marketing the Partridges as a real-life recording group, fronted by David (who was not a professional musician); this worked, and brought Cassidy Grammy Awards and the largest celebrity fan club in the history of recorded music. The triumphs were somewhat short-lived, however, and by 1975 (a year after Family folded) Cassidy's popularity with the younger market had declined, as new and fresher talent took his place. He responded by branching out into acting roles, in films such as A Chance to Live (1978), The Narc (1978), and The Night the City Screamed (1980), and in time established an agreeable presence as a musical theater star, on Broadway and in London's famed West End.Cassidy's overall popularity rebounded in the mid- to late '90s. Thanks in no small part to a nostalgia craze and to presence on VH1, he landed an assignment opening the 75-million-dollar show EFX at the MGM Grand, which in turn gave him the clout to mount and produce his own revue in Vegas, a tribute to Sinatra and co. christened The Rat Pack Is Back (1999). In the following decade, Cassidy began touring once again, signed a new record deal, and issued a series of albums including Then and Now (2001) and Touch of Blue (2003). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2004
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David Cassidy, the former lead singer of the Partridge Family, performs a selection of his biggest hits on this concert film. Included on the set list are "I Think I Love You," "Daydreamer," and his cover of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Cassidy
- 2003
Filmmakers David Cassidy and Kristin Davy pay testament to a most unlikely chapter in the story of the space race by revealing the dramatic, true life story of Ham and Enos, the two United States Air Force chimponauts whose groundbreaking missions into the stars helped NASA scientists gather crucial information about the effects of space travel on humans. Archival photos and footage, as well as interviews with space historians and testimony from chimp trainers, offer viewers a candid look at the invaluable contributions that Ham, Enos, and their primate predecessors made to the NASA space program from the early rocket tests to the first missions out of our atmosphere. Later, the filmmakers shed additional light on the ways in which the chimp colony was rewarded for their service to NASA, the Air Force, and the United States. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A teen idol who became a respected star of the musical stage, David Cassidy performs a program of hit songs both old and new for a crowd of enthusiastic fans in this concert video recorded during a 2002 live appearance in Glasgow, Scotland. David Cassidy: Live in Concert features the singer performing "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat," "I Think I Love You," "Lyin' to Myself," "Daydreamer," "Rock Me Baby," "How Can I Be Sure," "I Write the Songs," "Cry," and a dozen more with the help of his band. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2000
Another of the VH1 cable network's "rock biographies," The David Cassidy Story detailed the life and career of the titular teen idol of the 1960s and 1970s. Much of the film is devoted to the prickly relationship between singer-actor David Cassidy (Andrew Kavovit) and his father, handsome matinee idol Jack Cassidy (Malcolm McDowell). Although Jack opened several professional doors for David, according to the film he quickly became envious of his son's success. The relationship between David and his stepmom and Partridge Family co-star Shirley Jones (Dey Young) is less fractious (at least it is here), while others within David's orbit, notably his TV "sister" Susan Dey (Katie Wright) come off as somewhat two-dimensional. Also in the cast is Sibel Ergener as David's wife, actress Kay Lenz. The real Cassidy served as executive producer of The David Cassidy Story and supplied the vocals in the musical sequences. The film made its cable-TV bow on January 9, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- R
Craig Sheffer stars as Zane, a TV producer looking for romance. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Sheffer, Chelsea Noble, (more)
Making great fun of the '70s, this lively sci-fi comedy centers on a trio of time travellers who go into the past in hopes of retrieving the Constitution to celebrate America's 300th birthday. Unfortunately, the travelers end up in 1976 not 1776. The trouble is, they don't realize it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Cassidy, Olivia D'Abo, (more)
- 1980
A big-city blackout galvanizes the plot of the made-for-TV The Night the City Screamed. Recreating recent events in New York City, the film details a crime spree that runs unchecked throughout the darkened metropolis. Mayor Raymond Burr tries to stem the tide of robberies and rapes, even as he labors to becalm the panicky citizens. An all-TV-star cast, including Robert Culp, David Cassidy, Georg Stanford Brown and Don Meredith show up in brief, interlocking vignettes of "fear, panic, greed, hostility, rage and...love" (or so says the film's press kit). The Night the City Screamed was originally telecast December 14, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond Burr, Robert Culp, (more)
- 1978
In this episode of the Police Story series a young looking rookie goes undercover as a high-school student to get into a drug ring. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1973
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The fourth and final season of The Partridge Family finds the familiar players still in their familiar roles: Shirley Jones as Shirley Partridge, widowed mom and lead singer of the musical Partridge aggregation; David Cassidy (by now a full-fledged teen idol) as oldest son Keith Partridge; Susan Dey as oldest daughter Laurie Partridge; Danny Bonaduce as middle son Danny; Brian Foster as youngest son Chris; Suzanne Crough as youngest daughter Tracy; and Dave Madden as the Partridges' long-suffering agent, Reuben Kinkaid, who with each passing year has more and more trouble sustaining his self-proclaimed "I hate kids" policy. Season four heralds the arrival of three new semi-regulars. In the opening episode, Ricky Segall is introduced as four-year-old Ricky Stevens, a neighbor kid who occasionally performs with the Partridges. Later in the season, Reuben's neurotic nephew Alan Kinkaid (Alan Bursky) moves in with his uncle, almost immediately losing his shyness and self-loathing when, at the Partridges' urging, he launches a career as a standup comic. And finally, Jackie Coogan takes over from Ray Bolger in the role of Shirley Partridge's fun-loving dad. The season's best episodes include the one in which Reuben becomes convinced that he doesn't have long to live, the one where Laurie enjoys a shipboard romance with a self-proclaimed aristocrat during a working cruise to Acapulco, the episode in which Danny drops out of school, and the one where he contemplates converting to Judaism. Among the guest stars appearing during The Partridge Family's final season are Cheryl Ladd (then billed as Cheryl Jean Stopelmoor) as one of Keith's several objects of affection, Richard Mulligan (Soap) as an international diplomat and notorious ladies' man who develops a yen for Shirley, and, in the series' very last episode, Academy Award winner George Chakiris as Shirley's old flame "Cuddles" (aka Captain Charles Corwin). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, (more)
- 1972
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That popular singing aggregation the Partridge Family -- mom Shirley (Shirley Jones), sons Keith (David Cassidy), Danny (Danny Bonaduce), and Chris (Brian Foster), and daughters Laurie (Susan Dey) and Tracy (Suzanne Crough) -- is back for more music and mirth in season three of The Partridge Family. Also on hand is the family's avaricious agent, Reuben Kinkaid (Dave Madden), who stills insists that he hates children, but isn't fooling anyone. This season opens with a typical "1970s" episode, in which gender roles are reversed, with the Partridge boys learning housekeeping and knitting skills and the girls taking up industrial arts and self-defense. Other classic episodes find Keith Partridge being set up for a fall when he is tapped to star in a movie, Danny Partridge winning a broken-down race horse in a raffle, and Laurie Partridge clearing herself of theft charges levied by her math teacher. Guest stars in season three include Edgar Buchanan as a crooked small-town judge who arrests Shirley after she runs through a speed trap; future Rockford Files regular Stuart Margolin as a lovelorn motorcycle hippie named Snake (a role played in the previous season by Rob Reiner); Bert Convy as a congressional candidate and potential suitor for the widowed Shirley; Arte Johnson as an impish escaped convict who holds the family hostage -- with a harmonica; Anthony Geary, several years removed from his tenure as Luke on General Hospital, as a minister for whom Laurie harbors a crush; Jodie Foster as an obsessed fan who won't leave Danny alone; and John Astin as a Hughes-like reclusive millionaire who adopts several disguises to attend a Partridge Family concert. Possibly the season's most talked-about episode is the one filmed on location at the King's Island amusement park in Cincinnati -- in which former Cincinnati Reds player Johnny Bench pops up unexpectedly in the role of a waiter! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, (more)
- 1971
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Season two of The Partridge Family is significant for two reasons: number one, the role of Chris Patridge, played during season one by Jeremy Gelbwaks, is taken over by Brian Foster, who would remain with the series until its cancellation two years later; number two, the series' theme song, "When We're Singin'," is given new lyrics and a new title, the now-familiar "Come On, Get Happy." This season's crop of episodes (which includes the classic installment in which Danny Partridge [Danny Bonaduce] worries about losing his singing voice due to tonsillitis) is graced by a number of prominent guest stars. Rob Reiner is seen as a motorcycle hippie named Snake, who falls in love with Laurie Partridge (Susan Dey). Howard Cosell shows up as himself (as if there was any other part he could play) in an episode filmed at Marineland of the Pacific. Dean Jagger appears as a grizzled old prospector who becomes a proxy Santa when the Partridges are stranded in a Nevada ghost town during Christmas, while in another episode with a desert setting, Harry Morgan plays a garage mechanic who gently persuades the family to perform a free concert for a local Native American tribe. Meredith Baxter-Birney is cast as a free-spirited millionairess who may or may not be able to provide the Partridges with lifetime financial security. Arte Johnson goes into his foreign-accent mode as a Russian émigré who offers his services as a jack of all trades to a "typical middle-class American family" (guess who?). And in the season finale, former Hogan's Heroes co-star John Banner, who died in 1972, delivers his final TV performance, as a retired vaudeville mind reader. And, of course, we must not forget the Partridges themselves, led by Shirley Patridge (Shirley Jones), with teen heartthrob Keith Partridge (David Cassidy) writing the songs, younger kids Laurie, Danny, Chris, and Tracy (Suzanne Crough) doubling as vocalists and instrumentalists, and grouchy, kid-hating agent Reuben Kinkaid (Dave Madden) ever seeking out newer and greater methods of enriching himself and his clients. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, (more)
- 1970
Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) heads to North Dakota in search of escaped murderer Vic Kiley (Gerald O'Loughlin). Having hijacked the car owned by widow Anne Williams (Mary Fickett), Kiley is forcing her to help him get by the many FBI roadblocks. Also targetted for terror is Anne's rebellious teenage son, played by a pre-superstardom David Cassidy. Throughout the episode, neither the kidnap victims nor the viewer is ever quite certain if the mercurial Kiley will kill his hostages, or keep his promise to release them once he has gotten away. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Loosely inspired by the career of the real-life family singing group the Cowsills, the ABC sitcom The Partridge Family starred Shirley Jones as Shirley Partridge, widowed mother of five musically inclined children. Almost by accident, Shirley began singing with her kids during an impromptu garage jam session, and thus was born the Partridge Family, a popular singing aggregation who traveled from one engagement to another in the family's battered, psychedelically decorated bus -- all the while trying to lead a "normal" life. The group's agent was Reuben Kinkaid (Dave Madden), who professed to hate kids but who admitted to loving money. As for the kids themselves, they included oldest son Keith Partridge, played by Shirley Jones' stepson David Cassidy, who attained teen-idol status by virtue of this series; oldest daughter Laurie, played by Susan Dey, who grew up to star on such drama series as L.A. Law and Love & War; middle son Danny Partridge, the group's self-appointed business manager, played by future radio talk host Danny Bonaduce; youngest son Chris, played by Jeremy Gelbwaks during season one and thereafter by Brian Foster; and youngest daughter Tracy, portrayed by Suzanne Crough. During the series' fourth and final season, Ricky Segall was seen as Ricky Stevens, a four-year-old neighbor kid who occasionally performed with the Partridges. Also added to the cast that season was Alan Bursky as Reuben Kinkaid's nephew Alan Kinkaid, a shy, neurotic youngster who at the Partridges' urging emerged from his shell to pursue a career as a comedian. The series' theme song went under the title "When We're Singin'" during season one; the following year, the lyrics were rewritten and the song was retitled "Come On, Get Happy." Originally networkcast from September 25, 1970, to August 31, 1974, The Partridge Family also yielded a Saturday-morning cartoon spin-off, 1974's Partridge Family, 2200 AD, and that same year, several of the series' kid actors supplied the voices of their Partridge characters for another animated series, Goober and the Ghost Chasers. Additionally, in 1999, the world was honored with a TV-movie "biography" of the series, Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, (more)
- 1970
Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and his date Ruth (Carla Borelli) hope to enjoy some quality "down time" at a backyard barbecue held by Pete's partner Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and his wife Jean (Mikki Jamison). But the evening is ruined when the party is crashed by a neighborhood youngster who is obviously high on drugs. Malloy and Reed must forget the barbecue and assume their duties as police officer to track down the boy's supplier. This episode features a pre-Patridge Family appearance by David Cassidy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Making her second Bonanza appearance, Mercedes McCambridge is cast as wealthy widow Matilda Curtis, who helps Ben Cartwright establish a free school for the children of Ponderosa's employees and tenant farmers. When the schoolmaster is murdered, troublesome student Billy Burgess (a pre-Partridge Family David Cassidy) angrily confesses to the crime. To save Billy from being hanged, Matilda insists that he be placed in her custody without the formality of a court trial. But Ben, unconvinced by Billy's confession, demands that the boy get his day in court-even if it may cost him his life. Comedian Foster Brooks, aka "The Lovable Lush", plays the stone-sober role of Judge Rogers. Originally telecast on February 15, 1970, "The Law and Billy Burgess" was written by Stanley Roberts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1970
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Investigating the strange noises coming from her garage, widow Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones) discovers her five children -- Keith (David Cassidy), Laurie (Susan Dey), Danny (Danny Bonaduce), Chris (Jeremy Gelbwaks), and Tracy (Suzanne Crough) -- performing an impromptu rock concert, complete with instruments. Spontaneously joining her kids' makeshift band as lead vocalist, Shirley has a lot of fun, but never imagines that this little performance could lead anywhere. But thanks to the machinations of agent Reuben Kinkaid (Dave Madden) -- whose love of money supersedes his hatred of children -- the Patridges' recording of "I Think I Love You" is soon topping the charts, leading to the "official" formation of that celebrated traveling singing aggregation, the Partridge Family. Thus begins season one of the ABC sitcom bearing the name of that selfsame singing group. Piling into the family's dilapidated, brightly painted bus, the Partridges embark on a steady progression of adventures in a variety of locales, never failing to deliver at least one tune per episode.
Several guest stars grace The Partridge Family during its inaugural season, beginning with a young Farrah Fawcett in the second episode. In subsequent weeks, Ray Bolger and Rosemary DeCamp make their first joint appearance as Shirley's lively parents; Pat Harrington Jr. plays a gangster who puts the muscle on wheeler-dealer Danny Partridge when the ten-year-old starts giving stock tips to the gangster's fiancée; Morey Amsterdam is cast to type as a gag writer brought in to "juice up" the Partridge's act; Dick Clark shows up as himself in another episode, while in a story centering around Keith Partridge, Keith's prom date is played by Annette O'Toole. Other first-season highlights include the classic episode in which Danny is mistakenly drafted, and the one in which Keith arranges for his family to perform in front of a controversial feminist group, just so he can score points with his latest sweetheart. On two separate occasions, episodes of The Partridge Family did double duty as the pilot episodes for potential spin-off series. The first, starring no less than Richard Pryor and Louis Gossett Jr. as a pair of Detroit nightclub owners, failed to yield a series of its own; the second, in which teen idols David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman meet face to face, had better luck, resulting in the weekly half-hour sitcom Getting Together. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Several guest stars grace The Partridge Family during its inaugural season, beginning with a young Farrah Fawcett in the second episode. In subsequent weeks, Ray Bolger and Rosemary DeCamp make their first joint appearance as Shirley's lively parents; Pat Harrington Jr. plays a gangster who puts the muscle on wheeler-dealer Danny Partridge when the ten-year-old starts giving stock tips to the gangster's fiancée; Morey Amsterdam is cast to type as a gag writer brought in to "juice up" the Partridge's act; Dick Clark shows up as himself in another episode, while in a story centering around Keith Partridge, Keith's prom date is played by Annette O'Toole. Other first-season highlights include the classic episode in which Danny is mistakenly drafted, and the one in which Keith arranges for his family to perform in front of a controversial feminist group, just so he can score points with his latest sweetheart. On two separate occasions, episodes of The Partridge Family did double duty as the pilot episodes for potential spin-off series. The first, starring no less than Richard Pryor and Louis Gossett Jr. as a pair of Detroit nightclub owners, failed to yield a series of its own; the second, in which teen idols David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman meet face to face, had better luck, resulting in the weekly half-hour sitcom Getting Together. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, (more)
- 1969
Upon discovering that one of the teenage members of his inner-city basketball team is involved with a gang of warehouse thieves, Mark (Don Mitchell) figures that the best course of action is to determine the boy's identity himself, then persuade him to give himself up and face the consequences. But the vicious head of the gang doesn't quite see things the same way. Prominently featured in the cast is a pre-Partridge Family David Cassidy, delivering an unusual characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
