Hello, kittens and dawgs! Three years ago this month, I featured The Partridge Family on Saturday Songsuasion in one of my very first editions. I thought it would be cool to learn what became of The Partridge Family TV show band members in this edition of What ever happened to?
Let’s begin in reverse order by starting with the youngest family member. Suzanne Crough starred as little Tracy Partridge. After The Partridge Family, Suzanne made several TV movies and guest appearances on TV shows. She graduated from Los Angelo’s Pierce College, married William Condray in 1985, mother of two daughters, bookstore owner, and an OfficeMax manager. It seems her life was normal. I read she expressed an interest in returning to acting after the kids were grown. Sadly, in April 2015 Crough died suddenly at her home in Laughlin, Nevada. I had no clue until now. The reported cause of death was a rare form of cardiomyopathy. She was only 52. I always thought little Tracy was the sweetest, cutest little thing. I know she’s missed by those who love and knew her best.
On the drums is the next youngest Partridge family member, Chris. Two actors played this character role. First Chris played by Jeremy Gelbwaks, but he left at the end of season one and apparently the business. His father’s job transferred him to the east coast the summer of 1971. Gelbwaks wanted to return to show biz. The closest he came was doing the usual Partridge Family reunion stuff. Anything more beyond that wasn’t meant to be for him to make a comeback. His career path lead him down a more stable life as a computer analyst, marriage, and a life in New Orléans, Louisiana. It would be cool to know more about the Gelbwaks. Unfortunately, there is limited info floating around on him in cyberspace. 🙁
Brian Forster starred as Chris #2 and remained with the show through season 4. Forster has some interesting family roots. His father was an actor and his grandfather played Alfred on Batman, but that’s not the most curious bit I learned. What’s really intriguing is he’s the great-great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens. Cool right? Forster did some limited acting after The Partridge Family run was over (and reunions), mostly at a community theater, but I’m not sure if he still acts on stage. What I found sort of neat is Forster was once a race car drive in northern California. You can read this interview on Forster to learn more about him.
Danny Bonaduce played the wise-cracking character of Danny Partridge and I loved his role. I reckon most of us know a little about Bonaduce since the departure of the 70s TV show with his drug and alcohol addiction troubles. That’s so sad, but it seems he got his life on track and is a host of KZOK radio station in Seattle, WA. He describes himself as a dad, husband, madman, and radio God. He still wears that infectious smile that says, there’s trouble brewing. To keep up with all the news, you can visit Danny Bonaduce Official Site.
Before winning the spot as Laurie Partridge, Susan Dey, was a model. That was new to me, but I remember seeing her in TV ads after the TV show aired. In The Enquirer online, I read an article from 2014 where it mentions a quote from 1993 of her battling anorexia for more than half her life. Geez, I knew she was slender, but had no clue she had an eating disorder. The same piece also mentions she’s a recovering alcoholic. I may remember hearing about her problem with alcohol. I recall reading somewhere she had a crush on David Cassidy, but I never knew until now that they actually dated for a while once the TV series ended. The relationship didn’t go anywhere, though. Aside from four years with The Partridge Family, Dey starred in several other TV shows and her most prominent role in recent years was on the hit TV drama, L.A. Law. If you’re a Susan Dey fan, then you can find her show biz life cataloged at the Everything Susan Dey blog. She has a daughter from her first marriage and is currently married to TV producer, Bernard Sofronski. Outside the entertainment industry, I learned Susan Dey is a board member of the Rape Treatment Center at UCLA Medical Center. She appears to be just as lovely as the girl who played Laurie Partridge.
David Cassidy was the star of the show playing the very cute, Keith Partridge and lead vocalist. I knew this teen idol was crazy popular in the day with ten albums by The Partridge Family on top of five solos. Concerts were a sell out with Cassidymania growing with every appearance. Sadly, a 14-year old girl trampled to death by the crowd at one of his concerts in 1974 became a turning point for Cassidy. That’s when he decided to quit touring and acting; instead devoting his time to recording and songwriting with international success continuing.
Did you know he became the first recording artist to have a hit with, “I Write the Songs“ at #20 in the UK? I didn’t know. In 1990, Cassidy returned to the US charts with “Lyin’ to Myself” and I’d be lyin’ to myself if I said I remembered it, but I don’t. Do you?
In 1998 he recorded this adult contemporary hit. Yes, another new-to-me tune.
In 2011, his Then and Now album went platinum internationally; returning Cassidy to the Top 5 in the UK for the first time since 1974.
I thought David Cassidy fell off the face of the planet, but he stayed plenty busy. I just didn’t know it. The in-between years he did some acting on-screen and Broadway. He appeared on Celebrity Apprentice four years ago, which was a happy surprise and the first time I’d seen the teen idol in years. On a personal level, I learned he’s a champion for Alzheimer’s research and prevention when possible because his mother had the disease. He’s dealt with alcohol problems most of his adult life. Divorced and married three times and has a daughter, Katie Cassidy, who is a singer/songwriter. He currently lives in Florida. One of the heart-wrenching things I read is Cassidy filed for bankruptcy in 2015. I hope he finds good fortune again.
Shirley Jones played The Partridge Family mom. Other than Danny Bonaduce, she was the only other cast member to use her real first name for the show. As one of TVs best-loved moms, this is what she said about The Partridge Family.
The problem with Partridge—though it was great for me and gave me an opportunity to stay home and raise my kids—when my agents came to me and presented it to me, they said if you do a series and it becomes a hit show, you will be that character for the rest of your life and your film career will go into the toilet, which is what happened. But I have no regrets.
I think the starlet had her priorities straight. The now remarkable 82-year-old Jones has a long list of acting credits consisting of TV shows, musicals, big screen production, and music recordings pre-Partridge Family right up through now. Shirley and Jack Cassidy divorced in the mid-70s. She married Marty Ingels in 1977. I found it interesting that she admits that Jack wanted to get back together on the eve of his death, but she refused to reconcile and admits now had Jack not died that she doesn’t know if she would’ve married Marty. Ingels and Jones had very different personalities, which caused friction in their marriage resulting in several separations, but they managed to hold it together until Ingels death last October from a massive stroke. She said this about her late husband, “He often drove me crazy, but there’s not a day I won’t miss him and love him to my core.” She lives a full life with a career, mother to three (Shaun, Patrick, and Ryan Cassidy) boys, step-mom to David Cassidy, grandma to ten, and keeps active dancing, swimming, politics, traveling, and spending time with family. If you ask me, she sounds a lot like Shirley Partridge still.
A few interesting tidbits on The Partridge Family. The only cast members allowed to sing was Shirley Jones and David Cassidy. Originally the music producer, Wes Farrell, decided that Cassidy would lip sync with the rest of the cast, but he convinced Farrell to give him a try. Good thing that he did, huh? Here are a few more fun things I didn’t know, did you? The P
A few interesting tidbits on The Partridge Family. The only cast members allowed to sing was Shirley Jones and David Cassidy. Originally the music producer, Wes Farrell, decided that Cassidy would lip sync with the rest of the cast, but he convinced Farrell to give him a try. Good thing that he did, huh? Here are a few more fun things I didn’t know, did you? The Partridge Family had a cartoon spin-off, Milton Bradley produced a board game after the show, and Charlton Comics ran TPF featured publication (1971-’73).
Want sort of cool facts can you share about The Partridge Family? Where you crazy over David Cassidy? Did you see him in concert? Do you own any Partridge Family music?
I’ll admit it, I am a fan. Not a screamin’, gone wild kind of fan, but I liked their music and I loved the show. I never saw David Cassidy in person, but I’m sure if given the chance I’m sure I would’ve liked that then. In recent years I finally bought the album, Come On Get Happy! The Very Best Of The Partridge Family on CD. I don’t know why it took me so long because it has great songs on it!
Show some love for this retro favorite by giving a little tweet-out! Maybe, one of former Partridge Family members will get wind and come by for a little visit. cross fingers ?
Have a tunetastic day and please don’t forget to join me for not-so Wordless Wednesday!
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I remember that program. It wasn’t too bad Songs were pretty good, but I just never got into it. It was about the time of my first child, and I was working. So busy. Now I do know David Cassidy can not understand that teenage idols do grow older and he just keeps working. Voices do change, but his is still going strong. I say good for him, but wake up. Time goes on. Stop living in the past Make a new life for yourself and become a different star. It’s very sad. Anyway you’ve picked out some real winners here. Love them all. You go girl. hugs
You have a lot of interesting information here. Something I can add is that someone, I don’t remember who, claimed that David Cassidy and Susan Dey had a sexual relationship, which Dey adamantly denied. David Cassidy has had money problems for many years. Soon after his huge success, he was reduced to sleeping on friends’ couches. According to Shirley Jones and some other cast members, no one was sad to see the first Chris leave because he was a brat. Danny Bonaduce came from an abusive home. Some of the adults on the show got together to keep him safe, but it was Dave Madden who took most of the responsibility for Bonaduce.
Love,
Janie
Janie, I don’t remember reading Cassidy and Dey had an intimate (sexual) relationship, but I did read that they tried dating. Isn’t it horribly sad to read of celebrities who become penniless? I just don’t understand that at all. I did read Chris #1 didn’t get along with the others. There was a personality clash or something. Maybe, that’s just a nicer way of saying he was a brat, I don’t know. Hopefully, whatever the problem was he outgrew it. There’s nothing worse than finding out a poorly behave kid is nothing more than the same kid only bigger with age. I don’t know all the story behind Bonaduce, but I did get he came from dysfunctional home. That’s nice that his TV family took a strong interest in him. He went through a rough patch, but at least now he’s on the right track (or so it seems) working and isn’t homeless.
I never got into The Partridge Family all that much, but I couldn’t help having some interest in Susan Dey. In the early 80’s I saw David Cassidy when he was touring with the musical Little Johnny Jones. The show was playing at the Texas State Fair where over the years I saw 2 other musicals as well. They had a fantastic music hall and always presented top notch musicals during the fair run. I though he did a fine job in the musical though I wouldn’t say it was all that great of a musical. But it’s by George M. Cohan and has some classic songs and it’s still a pretty good show.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Lee, Susan Dey was and still is a pretty woman. I definitely understand the attraction. The Partridge Family, especially David Cassidy was most appealing to young girls. It comes as no real surprise when I learn guys didn’t get into the show or him that much. Thanks for sharing your experience with seeing Cassidy
Hi, Cathy!
I watched The Partridge Family for a couple of seasons but lost interest after that. My favorite character was Reuben Kincaid played by the late Dave Madden who died in 2014. I had come to admire Dave in the late 60s as a regular on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.
What struck me about The Partridge Family was the imbalance among the cast members. The two youngest were hardly ever involved in a story line, had very little screen time and few lines of dialogue. It makes me wonder why they were neglected to that extent when similar series like The Brady Bunch gave each of the children their fair share of lines and screen time.
There are quite a few famous Cassidys and they are all related. Veteran actor Jack Cassidy, who died tragically in a fire in 1976, was David Cassidy’s father. When David was still a boy his parents divorced and Jack married Shirley Jones. Jack and Shirley gave birth to the successful actor, singer, writer and producer Shaun Cassidy. David Cassidy’s daughter Katie Cassidy stars in one of my favorite comic superhero TV series – Arrow.
Thanks for the memories plus the new info about The Partridge Family, dear friend Cathy!
Tom, I thought about including Dave Madden in the mix, but kept the post with just the TV series family members. Thanks for adding this bit of trivia. What I didn’t mention is when Jack Cassidy divorced David’s mom, Evelyn Ward, they didn’t tell him for a couple of years because they thought it best he had the stability of having him think his parents were a couple, but during those early years David Cassidy was being raised pretty much by his grandparents. I remember Shaun Cassidy. He didn’t quite make it out of his half-brother’s popularity shadow, but gathered a little steam with the teenie boppers. I think I remember Katie Cassidy being on Arrow. We started that series and haven’t finished it with all the other ones in progress. We’ll eventually get back around to it, though.
This was a fun post! I remember having to watch the show when it was on. It was a favorite at our house. Lots of great research you’ve done in getting the latest details for each. I wonder though… what ever happened to Mr Kincaid?
Mary, Mr. Shady pointed out that Mr. Kincaid (Dave Madden) died in 2014. According to Wikipedia the cause of death myelodysplastic syndromes (also known as MDS or myelodysplasia) are hematological (i.e., blood-related) medical conditions that cause ineffective production (or “dysplasia”) of all blood cells. Madden continued to act and IMDB has a complete list of what he did after The Partridge Family ended.
The show was before my time – I was just a baby when it aired – and I didn’t really see many episodes in syndication either. Yet oddly – I have 3 songs of theirs on my iPod!! LOL I guess I just like happy tunes. And I wasn’t really a David Cassidy fan because my first actual celebrity crush was his step brother Shaun!! I did have his albums and even met him as a young girl when he was on tour in Canada! *swoon* LOL
Les, you met Shaun Cassidy? That’s so cool! I’m envious! lol I do remember the girls going nuts over him. I always thought he was a cutie, but I had more of crush on big brother, David.
I used to watch that show religiously. I was never into David Cassidy and I wanted Danny to get a good spanking. I loved Shirley Jones especially since I saw her great talent in films like Oklahoma and Carousel where she sang one of my favourite song, “You’ll Never Walk Aalone.” I had the paper dolls from this show and would play with that…wish I had it now. I felt bad for the girl who died…I hope her condition is not inherited.
Birgit, Oh yeah, I always thought Danny needed a good spanking every now and then. lol I had a bit of a crush on David Cassidy. It’s funny I was never really nuts over any celebrity to the point I got all crazy or all star-crossed. You know I may have had the paper dolls, too. That almost sounds familiar. I hope the condition that little Laurie (Suzanne Crough) had isn’t hereditary. I know she had two kids. It’s little hard to hear about someone who’s younger (she’s two years younger) than you who dies.