David Cassidy in the News
Shaun Cassidy learns lessons from David's career
January 28, 1977
By Bruce Blackwell
San Bernardino Sun
LOS ANGELES – Shaun Cassidy may play a steady, methodical, easy going Joe Hardy on ABC's new "Hardy Boys Mystery Hour," but in real life, he's aggressive and fast-moving. Shaun, "18, the son of actress Shirley Jones and the late Jack Cassidy, has learned about the business from his family, and in particular, from his halfbrother, David Cassidy.
David, several years Shaun's senior, was a teenage rock idol who went from super-stardom to oblivion almost overnight. David did not, by all accounts, take his fall from Olympus graciously, and he suffered deep emotional pain. Shaun says he's been able to learn from what happened to his brother. "It's been a great benefit to me that I've had a look at the assets and liabilities of being a teenage star. David and I were very close, and I learned through his experience," Shaun said. "I treat this very much as a business. If you can separate your business life, from your social life, it's the best way," he said. He noted, though, that separating work from outside activities can be difficult "if you're working 24 hours a day."
"David," said Shaun, "was really disillusioned and bitter. When he went into show business, he was all starry-eyed. I'm not," he said matter -of-factly. Until recently, Shaun stated, he had "never thought about an acting career," and said he had wanted to write and record music. He released an album and toured Europe last year, and is a popular rock star overseas. Plans for the release of a second album are in the works. His parents, Shaun said, "were definitely reluctant about me going into showbusiness." But although his family didn't want him to enter the field, they taught him the ropes, and when Shaun decided to become a actor, he was well-prepared. "No acting school," he said, "could have taught me more than my parents. If I'm any good at all, it's a tribute to my father. He was the most talented in my family."
Although Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones have had busy careers, , Shaun said "my parents were both so much more involved in being parents than celebrities. They always treated their children as if they (the youngsters! came first." Of his values in life, the young actor said. "Beverly Hills is a terrible place for a child to grow up if he's to have any values at all." but said he had concluded "the simple things in life are usually the best things. I can do without the luxuries but they're nice to have around."
Shaun said that he just graduated from Beverly Hills High School in June, and that while a student. "I never wanted to go to college. I wanted to go into show business. But now that I'm in show business," he continued. "I want to go to college." He stated that if he remains in the industry. "I'd like to be a producer, I like the business side. But if I decide to get out of the business, I'd like to be a psychologist." Hardy Boys producer Joyce Brotman said that casting the series was a difficult chore, and more than 100 young men were interviewed and filmed.
But, she said, when Shaun's test was shown, "he jumped off the screen." While Shaun Cassidy still has a long way to go in his development as an actor, he seems pretty well grounded, and if "The Hardy Boys" clicks, our bet is that he'll be better equipped than most to handle success.
