At a Glance
- Teen idol Shaun Cassidy says father Jack’s ego was “his shortcoming” as a parent
- Jack Cassidy resented wife Shirley Jones and son David’s greater fame
- Shaun, 67, calls his late father “not a good father” but treasures the gifts he did receive
- Why it matters: Offers rare, candid look at celebrity family fractures behind the 1970s spotlight
Legendary 1970s teen idol Shaun Cassidy has peeled back the curtain on his famously tense relationship with his Tony-winning father, Jack Cassidy, revealing that the elder Cassidy’s ego left him unable to celebrate his own family’s success.
In a sweeping interview on the podcast Nostalgia Tonight With Joe Sibia, the 67-year-old singer-actor detailed the emotional distance Jack maintained as wife Shirley Jones and sons David and Shaun eclipsed him in mainstream fame.
The Resentment Behind the Spotlight
Shaun recalled that Jack-an Emmy-nominated scene-stealer best known to TV audiences as a suave villain on Columbo-struggled once the spotlight shifted.
- Jones had already won an Academy Award and headlined major films before The Partridge Family made her a household name again.
- David became “kind of the biggest thing in the world for a while,” Shaun said, sending teen-magazine sales into the stratosphere.
- Rather than cheer them on, Jack “had a hard time with it,” Shaun explained, attributing the reaction to jealousy wrapped in ego.
“But he had taken a backseat to my mother,” Shaun told host Joe Sibia. “And then along comes David. And David becomes kind of the biggest thing in the world for a while. And he had a hard time with it.”
“His Shortcoming”
Shaun did not mince words about the lesson he drew from watching his father bristle at others’ triumphs.
“That was his shortcoming,” Shaun said plainly. “A lot of parents would have been very proud of their son or their wife, for that matter.”
He linked the attitude to a performer’s insecurity that Jack never resolved.
- “My father had a big ego,” Shaun said.
- He believes Jack, like many in show business, “had a sort of core insecurity that he was looking for an audience to fill.”
The comments mark one of the star’s most direct assessments of how Jack’s personal needs collided with family happiness.
The Accent That Never Was
In a separate conversation with News Of Los Angeles in September 2023, Shaun painted Jack as “a bit of a phony” in public settings.
“My dad was so complicated,” he said, noting that he and his siblings were puzzled when Jack began deploying an unexplained British accent during media interviews.
- The accent, Shaun claimed, “didn’t exist in any country ever.”
- Jack “basically invented this public persona,” Shaun added, suggesting the actor felt compelled to manufacture mystique.
Those flourishes, combined with Jack’s inability to nurture his children’s success, left emotional gaps that Shaun still processes decades later.
Writing the Script That Never Was
Jack Cassidy died in an apartment fire in 1976 at age 49, when Shaun was still a teenager. Because their time together ended so abruptly, Shaun said he has spent years imagining the relationship that might have matured had Jack survived.
“You get to write the script of how your life with that person would have been, had they lived,” he reflected.
His preferred version casts Jack in a warmer light:
- “I’d like to just write the story that I would have gotten closer with my dad,” Shaun said.
- “He would have been proud of me,” the script continues, offering a hopeful coda to a complicated history.
“I Wouldn’t Have Traded Him”
Despite the blunt assessment that Jack was “not a good father,” Shaun insists the ledger is not entirely negative.
“I don’t say that with disrespect,” he clarified on the podcast. “I just say it with objectivity.”
The gifts Jack did pass down remain priceless to his son:
- A love of performance that launched Shaun into his own chart-topping music and TV career
- Memories of a “wildly talented man” who lit up Broadway and television
- Genetic strands of charisma that helped Shaun sell out arenas with songs like “Do You Believe in Magic” and “That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll”
“I wouldn’t have traded him for the world,” Shaun concluded. “I got so many gifts from him, so many.”
Carrying the Cassidy Torch
Today, Shaun carries forward the family’s entertainment legacy while acknowledging the fractures fame can inflict.
- His mother, Shirley Jones, 91, continues to act, maintaining the Oscar-winning stature that once eclipsed Jack.
- David Cassidy, who died in 2017 of liver failure at 67, remains an icon of 1970s pop culture.
- Shaun still tours and records, channeling lessons learned from both the highs and lows of being a Cassidy.
By speaking candidly about Jack’s ego, Shaun hopes others navigating similar family tensions recognize they are not alone.
Key Takeaways
- Shaun Cassidy traces his father’s parental failings to an outsized ego unable to celebrate relatives’ success.
- Jack Cassidy’s resentment toward wife Shirley Jones and son David’s greater fame created lasting family tension.
- Though Jack died in 1976, Shaun continues to reconcile the complicated legacy of talent, pride, and lost opportunity left behind.
