Entertainment

Bobby Sherman Turns 73: A Look Back At His Career And Where He’s Been For The Past 30 Years

Published on: July 23, 2016 at 6:58 AM
By Victoria Miller

Bobby Sherman is celebrating his 73 rd birthday. The former teen idol, who was the cover boy for many posters, magazines, and even lunch boxes in the late 1960s and early ’70s, was born on July 22, 1943, according to Kool 94.5 . Bobby has long been retired from show business, but his loyal fanbase will never forget his heyday as a superstar.

Bobby Sherman is best known for his recording career and TV roles, but he left the spotlight decades ago to donate his time to public service. Bobby Sherman even received the Humanitarian Award during the Malibu Music Awards last October.

Sherman was discovered by actor Sal Mineo in the early 1960s, and he quickly landed a job as a house singer on the teen variety show Shindig! Sherman earned six gold records during his recording career, including the singles “Julie, Do You Love Me” and “Easy Come, Easy Go,” easily putting him in teen idol territory.

In a 1996 interview with Global TV , Bobby Sherman talked about what is what like to have his face plastered on a lunchbox.

“They’re a collector’s item,” Sherman said. “There was a lot of commercial merchandise out there. I know I participated in it one way or another, but really didn’t have any. That was the machinery behind the Rock and Roll, teenage idol, kind of thing.”

In the same interview, Sherman also revealed that he didn’t necessarily come up with the words for all of those handwritten blurbs in the teen magazines like Sixteen and Tiger Beat .

“Generally, they would give me things then I would proof read them. I would say ‘Yeah, that looks right’…then I would write it out between shots when I was doing Here Come The Brides . I didn’t sit and make those things up, but they knew me well enough. And they really had the best interest of the fans at heart. So they kept it straight and narrow, and fairly accurate.”

While his recording career was big, Bobby Sherman also had a successful TV career. Bobby starred alongside fellow teen idol David Soul in the series Here Comes the Brides , from 1968 to 1970. Sherman played bashful logger Jeremy Bolt in the Western-themed comedy.

Sherman’s guest appearance on The Partridge Family in 1970 served as a pilot for the star’s short-lived spinoff, Getting Together . That show didn’t go anywhere, but Bobby Sherman’s fans stood by his side.

While he was a frequent guest star on everything from The Monkees to The Love Boat , it was 16 years before Bobby Sherman landed his next regular TV role, on Sanchez of Bel Air, in 1986. Bobby played Frankie Rondell on the short-lived comedy.

Bobby Sherman found his true calling a few years later. Sherman was already a trained EMT when he joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1988 as a specialist officer to train police recruits in first aid and CPR. Decades later, he continues to donate his services as a sworn officer with the LAPD, and he is the founder of The Bobby Sherman Volunteer EMT Foundation.

In a 1993 interview with the Los Angeles Times , Sherman said his interest in first aid was fueled by a Red Cross class he took in 1978 when his two sons, Christopher and Tyler, were little. In 1984, Sherman started TAC 5, an independent paramedic squad for technicians who are “between jobs” and want to keep up their skills.

Bobby also recounted a story about how his teen idol fame still follows him on rescue calls with Fire Department paramedics.

“On one call in Northridge, we were working on a hemorrhaging woman who had passed out,” Sherman told the Times . “Her husband kept staring at me. Finally, he said, ‘Look, honey, it’s Bobby Sherman!’ The woman came to with a start. She said, ‘Oh great, I must look a mess!’ I told her not to worry, she looked fine.”

Sherman signed an autograph for his fan before paramedics carried her to the ambulance.

Bobby Sherman retired from the entertainment business for good after he was part of the “Teen Idol Tour” with Peter Noone and Monkees alums Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz in the late 1990s.

Take a look at the video below to see Bobby Sherman performing one of his biggest hits, “Julie, Do You Love Me?”

[Photo by Alan Kent/Getty Images]

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