David Cassidy's Success On The Partridge Family Was Reportedly Too Much For His Father's Ego To Handle

Jack Cassidy always wanted to be a star, but it was his son, David Cassidy, who ended up taking the spotlight. Despite being a former Broadway singer who made a couple of television appearances, Jack failed to break out. This eventually led him to live vicariously through his son, who managed to accomplish all the dreams he once had for himself. After David found historic success in his starring role in the hit show "The Partridge Family," Jack felt inadequate. This jealousy caused a major rift between father and son that became impossible to resolve. 

A pop-culture historian, Geoffrey Mark, described the untold truth of David and the tense family dynamic due to Jack's ego. "Jack Cassidy is almost a textbook example of show business narcissism. A very handsome man who believed he deserved to be a huge star," Mark told Woman's World. "David, on the other hand, was very sympathetic. It's not that his own stuff was lost on him, but where Jack let it be known what he had to offer, David did not even like discussing it," he further explained.

Jack would go on to marry David's "The Partridge Family" co-star Shirley Jones, making her David's fictional mom and real-life stepmom, which added another chapter to the shady truth of '70s sitcom stars. Jack reportedly latched onto both David and Shirley's fame until they got divorced in 1975. "Because now he saw himself in competition with a younger, handsomer version of himself who perhaps was more talented," Mark went on to explain. "And that led to bad blood between them. He didn't understand why he wasn't bigger. He did wonderful guest shots, but he wasn't a great big television star. He did nightclub work with Shirley, but without Shirley, there was no nightclub work for him." 

The strain between Jack Cassidy and his son David Cassidy only worsened over the years. In 1975, David revealed they no longer had a relationship. "I'm incommunicado with my old man," he said (via Woman's World). "I've never known him and I never will. You can't miss something you never knew and I don't care to, quite candidly." David reportedly had the same relationship with his own daughter, Katie Cassidy, who went on to star in "Gossip Girl" and "Arrow." Not only did David remove Katie from his will before his death, but he also claimed they had no relationship shortly before his passing in November 2017. "I wasn't her father. I was her biological father but I didn't raise her," David told People. "She has a completely different life."

In 1976, Jack agreed with his son's previous 1975 statement by doubling down on the fact that they no longer spoke. "We're not friends. We don't see each other. We're not speaking. But I have three other sons. He has but one father," Jack said (via Woman's World). "The fact that you're a star doesn't help at all to cement relationships with the people you love. Stardom is an empty vessel."

Later that year, Jack tragically died in a horrific incident: He had been drinking and smoking while inebriated, causing him to accidentally set himself on fire and burn to death. "The tragedy of a family falling apart like that," pop-culture historian Geoffrey Mark told Woman's World. "And David never having the opportunity for reconciliation, even if one didn't happen, there was always the possibility. That's something David had to live with, and we'll never know if that's part of what he used drugs and alcohol to try and fix."