Shaun Cassidy calls late dad Jack Cassidy phony,…
Shaun Cassidy is blasting his late father, Jack Cassidy.
In a new interview with People, Shaun, 66, called the Tony Award-winning actor — who died in an house fire in 1976 at age 49 — a “phony.”
“My dad was so complicated,” the actor and singer said about Jack. “He basically invented this public persona with an accent that didn’t exist in any country ever.”
Shaun Cassidy performs during a live live performance look in Aug. 2019. John Atashian/Getty Images
Jack Cassidy performing in the play “unlawful killing Among Friends.” Bettmann Archive
Shaun recalled that when Jack received well-known and started showing on speak reveals, he’d communicate with a borderline-British accent — which confused Shaun and his youthful brothers, Patrick, 63, and Ryan, 59.
“Patrick and Ryan and I would be like, ‘What is up with this dude?’” shared. “I mean, it seemed so phony to us, and that wasn’t like who he was. I’m not sure he ever really figured out who he was.”
Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones in a car with their kids at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. Getty Images
Shaun went on to declare that Jack “was not a good father.”
“And I don’t say that with disrespect,” the previous teen idol continued. “I just say it with objectivity. And yet I wouldn’t have traded him for the world. I got so many gifts from him, so many.”
Jack Cassidy in 1950. Getty Images
The “He & She” actor, who shared Shaun with fellow Hollywood star Shirley Jones, 91, was allegedly not concerned Shaun’s life when he was growing up.
“I didn’t get the dad who went to my Little League games or took me on camping trips or any of that stuff. My mom did,” Shaun told People. “My mom showed up for a lot of that stuff, but she was also gone a lot. She was making movies around the world. I think one of the reasons she took ‘The Partridge Family’ job is because she wanted to be close to home.”
Shaun Cassidy and Melinda Newman communicate at An Evening With Shaun Cassidy in Los Angeles on Sept. 4, 2025. Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Shaun Cassidy attends the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival. Getty Images for TCM
Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy. Corbis via Getty Images
Shaun added of his dad and mom, “Who they really are is not how they’re perceived by the public anyway. The public has an idea of who they are. If you grow up in a family of show folk, everything is very presentational.”
“I talked to my brothers about this the other day. I had very, very few photographs of our family just sitting around the living room,” Shaun explained. “Almost all the pictures I have were taken by professional photographers, often for magazines.”
Shaun Cassidy in a portrait photograph. Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
Shaun Cassidy blows out his birthday cake candles on his second birthday with mother Shirley Jones. Bettmann Archive
“Going out in public with them as a little kid, everyone was in love with my mother, and everybody was sort of dazzled by my father,” Shaun remembered. “I remember being proud of that, feeling like, ‘Oh, isn’t that cool?’”
Jack had another son, actor and musician David Cassidy, from his marriage to his first spouse, Evelyn Ward. David died in Nov. 2017 from organ failure after years of alcoholism. He was 67.
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