Jack Cassidy

I wish I could have seen Jack and Shirley Jones in their tour of WAIT UNTIL DARK (no kidding). And I love him on those studio cast albums he did for Columbia in the mid-50s: OH, KAY!, THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE, ROBERTA, etc.

I loved him in the two Columbo episodes he did.

I refuse to acknowledge David as a DL fave.

"His name is....... Faggot."

Didn't he die in grease fire?

Literally. In his own house.

Hard to believe he was 49 years old when he died. I would have thought he was older. Being burned to death has to be one of the worst ways to die.

He fell asleep on the couch in his penthouse apartment with a lit cigarette in his hand. He had been drinking that night. The couch caught fire when he dropped the cigarette. They found his remains by the apartment door.

[quote]Being burned to death has to be one of the worst ways to die.

It was still better than doing eight shows a week with Linda Lavin.

bisexual = men and boys!

r11 is so tired. All that attitude does is spotlight how much gay guys love pussy.

[quote]What are your favourite Jack Cassidy roles?

There are just so many. The horny stableboy. The sadistic handyman. The swarthy pizza delivery boy. He played them all to perfection.

R11 is a troll.

His best role was fathering all of those hot sons ...... Patrick, Shaun, David .....

Patrick has the biggest dick of all the Cassidy men.

He was so good at playing a pompous douche. I don't recall him doing any other roles.

He was bipolar and had some episodes (as they used to call them) as he got older. Apparently he would go around naked at inappropriate times. It made him difficult to live with and he ended up alone.

To die that way is sad. I am going to hell for this, but I had to laugh when I read he was cremated -- I mean why not? He was already halfway there ....

I love you Daddy! (Repeated 1,267 times in a row)

I think I only saw him on He and She.

Saw him in person once, in the 1970s at the taping of some short-lived TV game show - can't remember the name of the show, but it had 2 contestants each with a celebrity partner, as on Password or The $10,000 Pyramid, but it wasn't either of those. At the time I had no idea he was David Cassidy's father. I remember him as being tall and good-looking and that excited me as a teenage gayling. He seemed to have an imposing presence, like Dean Martin or Dan Rowan, an important-looking man in his physical presence. So many years later, after his death, to find out he swung both ways... Oh Lord!

[quote]Patrick has the biggest dick of all the Cassidy men.

Oh, ok, Patrick is my new favorite of all the Cassidy men !

I seem to remember him playing a gay interior decorator. Maybe it was on Get Smart?

I find it very hard to imagine he was attracted to women, don't believe it.

He was something of a fire bug. There's an episode of the syndicated version of What's my Line? where he was a mystery guest. When he came out, he had a lighter, had it set so the flame was big, and he lit it with a maniacal smile.

The E! television mysteries and Scandals did a whole episode on him and suggested he was obsessed with fire. No coincidence that he died that way.

He was well cast as Ted Baxter's more handsome and successful brother on MTM. I think he turned down the role of Ted Baxter before it was offered to Ted Knight.

I'd give anything to see video of crippled Cole Porter crawling on all fours to get to Jack Cassidy's cock as Cassidy teased him with it.

According to David, he was abusive and contributed to his alcoholism. And he did seem like a creep, probably right-wing, so I don't think David is exaggerating or making it up.

I remember Jack Cassidy playing an evil, prissy homosexual in The Eiger Sanction. I was a young Gayling at the time and was worried that all homosexuals were supposed tips act like that.

Yes, see R4

[quote]He was bipolar and had some episodes (as they used to call them)

What do they call them now?

In her autobiog, Shirley Jones writes that on her wedding night she went into the bathroom and when she came out, Jack was wearing her negligee, peignoir and high heels and "looked better in them than I did."

Why am I not surprised?

R1- I saw the 2 of them in L.A. and the play was taut and he was a vile tormentor. And yes, there was the audience gasp moment and many actually leapt in their seats

Cole Porter was 36 years older than Jack. So if their affair took place in, say, 1955, Jack would have been 28 and Cole 64. Doesn't seem likely for a successful Broadway actor.

watching the show bout his son now, david, sad....

wonder if his mean old gay daddy would have gotten very far up the ladder of fame if not for his legendary long fat cock.

many storys of him bein a doosh.

why would Shirley marry a transvestite??

One of the original super heroes.

Am I the only one who remembers him as a flamboyant gay character on a TV show called “He And She”?

To comment on a few things already mentioned, the part of Ted Baxter was written for him specifically. He considered it but turned it down. He almost immediately regretted it when MTM became a huge hit during its first season. I suspect that his guest appearances as Ted's brother or cousin later in the run were to remind Ted Knight that he was replaceable when his salary demands became excessive.

The Cole Porter story is true. The incidents took place in the late '40s/early '50s. Cassidy was bi, narcissistic and cruel. Porter had lost the use of his legs after a bad accident while riding a horse in the late 1930s when the horse fell, throwing Porter and then rolling over him. The doctors recommended amputation but Porter was too vain to allow it. He spent the rest of his life on crutches and eventually in a wheelchair.

Porter kept many men, including Harold Lang. When he supported Cassidy, Cassidy would sit on the opposite side of the room with his enormous cock out and tell Porter if he wanted it, to come over and get it, which Porter would do on his stomach, crawling with his elbows.

Lang's relationship with Porter explains the existence of the execrable song Bianca in Kiss Me, Kate, the score of which is otherwise a string of pearls. But that's another story.

I meant to mention that Porter, after the riding accident, lived his life in extreme pain, which is why his doctors recommended amputation as the only way to relieve it, but he was too vain too allow it.

A screaming alcoholic with slightly above average acting talent.

Shirley is always bragging about Jack and David's enormous cocks.

On the OBCR of Fade Out, Fade In, starring Carol Burnett, Cassidy, playing a vain matinee idol, does a brilliant job of 'My Fortune Is My Face." He obviously understood the role. By contemporary reviews, he was also brilliant as the vain seducer/adulterer Kodaly in the original production of She Loves Me. The wonderful original cast album supports the reviews.

evid as long as he played a creep, he did a good job

why did she stay married to the fug as long as she did

total size queen???

[quote]Being burned to death has to be one of the worst ways to die.

Tell me about it

I never understood why anyone thought he was handsome. Or Ted Knight for that matter.

R43, Preach, girl.

he seemed like a horrid father and worse hubby, but then she was married to the monstrous marty ingels. .. lordy

You took the words right out of my mouth, Linda.

Patrick cassidy was of course in Longtime Companion, and is very good. I heard the Cole Porter story when I was very young in the 70s and have always fucking loved it, so power driven, what a prick, in everyway

In his memoir, Arthur Laurents wrote that Harold Lang had the perfect body for fucking.

no one has a good thing to say bout old jack.

what a goomba.

Patrick Cassidy was at his most magnificent in the TV version of Dirty Dancing,

No, r36, I remember He and She and loved Cassidy in it. His character was an egotistical actor named Oscar North--it's possible that North's TV role was as a superhero, but it's just as possible that I made that up. Also loved him as Kodaly in the original She Loves Me. Nobody did the preening, flamboyant male better than he.

In her autobiography, Shirley Jones confirms Jack's bisexuality and the Cole Porter relationship, but she also details the endless parade of women he fucked during their marriage. One he was most serious about was Yvonne "Batgirl" Craig.

How big?

Let's talk more about Patrick....DAMN!

I liked it when he played Mr. Banana's Foster

Did Nanette Fabray MURDER Jack Cassidy? She was seen with him the very night he was roasted alive in his apartment — they were seen together drinking. Did she slip something in his drink? I’m fairly certain she did.

What was her motive? Fabray went on to be on the MTM show after Cassidy, but she played Mary’s mother, so it’s not as if she had to elbow Cassidy out of the way for a part. I’m still trying to comprehend why she did it.

Patrick Cassidy was best in the TV movie Dress Gray.

A story surrounding the death of a gay cadet at a prestigious military academy.

Also stars Alec Baldwin.

Jack was the finest of all Bob Cratchets.

A really beautiful voice. I’ve only listened to his recordings not seen him on screen.

R49

Gore Vidal sampled Mr. Lang's wares as well.

Is there anyone Gore Vidal didn't sleep with back then?

Bipolar disorder/manic depression can manifest itself where those affected have incredibly powerful manic periods of hypersexuality. This could perhaps explain some of Jack Cassidy's behaviour in that area.

Teenager Jack Cassidy had a thing with Cole Porter. In early 1950's Jack had moved onto bigger and better things (and how), Tom Tryon.

Sounds gruesome...

Official autopsy findings:

"At approximately 0600 hrs. 12 – 12 – 76, a private citizen called fire department that the 4th floor of building 1221 N. Kings Road, West Los Angeles, was on fire.

After the fire was controlled, decedent (Jack Cassidy) was discovered lying on the floor in the living room near the porch. Fire Dept. personnel pronounced death at 0615 hours. Decedent was charred.

It was surmised that fire was possibly caused by cigarette which started from the sofa in said living room. The whole unit was burned.

A co-tenant state to LASO investigator that he heard music coming from the scene at 0510 hours.

The scene is occupied by one Jack Cassidy, an actor and president of Richmond Hill Productions.

LASO Dep. Gleason will attempt to get dental chart of Mr. Cassidy.

Not known if decedent was drinking liquor but there is a liquor bar in said living room at scene.

His body was taken to the Coroner as John Doe 257

Toxicology puts his blood alcohol level at 0.12%"

"The body is that of a completely charred male that weighs 131 pounds and measures approximately 69 inches in height. The age of the body is difficult to assess but it appears to be muscular and appears to be about the stated age of 49 years old. The bony structures of the head are those of a Caucasian male. The scalp is completely burned. The external plate of the skull is charred. The ears are completely charred. The eyes are also charred. The nose is also charred. The mouth is charred and some of the skin is noted. The teeth show multiple post-line caps in front teeth. The upper teeth show a few caps on the premolar and molar teeth. The chest shows complete charring of the skin but the ribs are well-preserved. There is no traumatic injuries to the ribs or spine. The upper extremities and the lower extremities show complete charring of the skin and muscles. The abdominal wall shows complete charring with exposure of some of the small intestines which are also burned."

“The mouth and pharynx shows a small amount of black soot. The esophagus is clear. The stomach contains approximately 5 cc. of light brown fluid. The small intestine shows grossly normal architecture except for the hilum which is exposed through the burned surface of the abdomen.

The scalp is completely charred. The external plate of the skull is charred and the internal plate remains.

“The comparison of the postmortem dental x-rays of John Doe 257 with the antimortem dental x-rays of Jack Cassidy supplied by Frank Greenbaum, D.D.S. confirms the positive match. Therefore John Doe 257 is Jack Cassidy." /quote

Official cause of Death – Extensive Thermal Burns of Body”

With such a low alcohol blood level Jack Cassidy likely was done in by lack of oxygen and thermal burns. Poor soul probably was on fire when he woke up and tried to make it out of apartment.

Talk about twisting the knife.....

Apartment building where Jack Cassidy died in that tragic fire filed claims against his estate in probate court. They sought compensation for damage caused by the fire.....

Love this photo of him DROOLING over Paul Valentine. The woman in between them isn't even on the radar.

R52 Indeed, Cassidy’s actor character played a superhero. He appeared in some scenes in a cape, helmet, and leotards. He got a laugh pretty much every time he strode into a scene in that getup.

He did three Columbo episodes, R2, and they were all pretty great.

Patrick looked the most like Jack.

Legends..........

Martin Short's version is better.