Chatham vet remembers good friend, pop idol David Cassidy
Contributed by Jerry Bilinski. Chatham veterinarian Jerry Bilinski, left, and 1970s pop idol David Cassidy riding horses together. The two met 20 years ago when Cassidy asked Bilinski to board his horses at the Bilinskis’ farm in Chatham. Bilinski shared fond memories of his friend after Cassidy died Tuesday at age 67.
November 22, 2017
By Richard Moody
Columbia-Greene Media
www.hudsonvalley360.com
Local philanthropist, horse breeder and animal activist Dr. Jerry Bilinski shared his memories of his good friend actor and singer David Cassidy, who died Tuesday at the age of 67 of liver failure.
Bilinski said Cassidy spent a lot of time at Bilinski’s Waldorf Farm in Chatham.
“Someone recommended me to take care of [Cassidy’s] horses about 15 or 20 years ago, and that’s how we met,” Bilinski said. “He would stay with us for several years after he sold his house and was unmarried and I would board his horses.”
Bilinski, a veterinarian who has been a long-time supporter of the Columbia-Greene Humane Society, remembers going to the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs with Cassidy one time, which led to quite a mix up.
“We left with the wrong car,” Bilinski said. “We were brought to the wrong car and left. There was no indication it was the wrong car, it was the right color, make and model and even had a Saratoga umbrella inside like my car did.
“[Cassidy] couldn’t find his keys that he left in the car, and I told him he must have dropped them,” Bilinski continued.
It was lucky the pair stayed in Saratoga a while after leaving the track, Bilinski said, because a half-hour after they left, Bilinski received a call making him aware he took the wrong vehicle.
“We would talk forever and joke and laugh all the time,” Bilinski recalled of his good friend of 20 years. “He had a great sense of humor.”
Cassidy was an actor and singer best known for his role as Keith Partridge on the ’70s show “The Partridge Family.” Cassidy and the Partridge Family’s songs was on Top 40 radio, and the teen heartthrob appeared in multiple fan magazines as many girls’ fantasies.
Soon after the hit TV show premiered in 1970, Cassidy and the Partridge Family released the No. 1 hit “I Think I Love You.”
Cassidy was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1970, and his 1972 solo album “Cherish” went gold, or sold 500,000 albums. The Partridge Family, meanwhile, had six albums sell as many copies from 1970 to 1972.
After the show ended in 1974, Cassidy went out on his own performing solo shows at major venues like Madison Square Garden. He pushed the envelope of his good-boy look and attempted to spice up his squeaky-clean image by posing nude in a photo shoot for the cover of Rolling Stone in 1972.
In the magazine article, Cassidy said he was already dreaming about the end of his acting career.
“When he went on stage, he almost became a different person,” Bilinski said. “Now he was of my wife, Darlene’s, generation. I was more of an Elvis and Beatles type of guy. He [Cassidy] was an idol to her.”
Bilinski remembered a time when Cassidy invited him and his wife to watch him perform at Wembley Stadium in London.
“It was really interesting to be there and see him perform and be part of the entourage,” Bilinski said. “We would be driving and listening to the old songs and he would tell me about the musicians performing who he knew.”
Bilinski said Cassidy performed at several Columbia-Greene Humane Society’s biggest annual fundraisers.
“[Cassidy] was a big supporter of the Humane Society, so he devoted his time to that,” Bilinski said. “We always had the best attendance when he donated his time.”
Cassidy continued to perform and sell music throughout the 1980s and 1990s and made several appearances on television including as a constant on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2011.
Cassidy was married and divorced three times to actress Kay Lenz from 1977 to the early 1980s; Meryl Tanz, a horse breeder, who he married in 1984; and Sue Shifrin from 1991 to 2014.
“He loved the farm here,” Bilinski said. “I remember he used to sit on the porch and smoke a cigar.”
Bilinski visited Cassidy at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well.
“Cassidy was an aficionado of pedigrees for horses,” Bilinski said. “He was a good man — he just had problems.”
In later years, the former pop idol wrote books about the toll stardom took on him. Cassidy wrote an autobiography in 2007 “Could It Be Forever? My Story,” in which he talks about his life and career, including his marriage problems and constant battle with substance abuse — especially drinking.
Cassidy revealed this year that he had dementia. After watching his mother struggle with dementia, he worked with organizations to educate others about Alzheimer’s disease.
“In the last few years, I worried for him,” Bilinski said. “We tried to support him and help. I always feared this might happen. It happened exactly as I feared.”
Cassidy died in a hospital in Fort Lauderdale after being admitted in kidney and liver failure.
“It is a wasted talent — he could still be performing if it wasn’t for his demons,” Bilinski said. “As I have got older, I accept these losses more easily because you can’t stop it anyway. The loss will be felt even more in August [the start of Saratoga’s horse racing season].”
Ernie Sisto/The New York Times. David Cassidy in concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, March 11, 1972. Cassidy, the Partridge Family heartthrob who struggled with the paradoxical isolation of a life lived in the spotlight, died on Nov. 21, 2017. He was 67.
