David Cassidy: Inside His Relationship With His Real-Life Blood Brothers Patrick, Ryan, and Shaun Cassidy

David Cassidy was the only child of Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward, but the ’70s heartthrob had three half-brothers; Patrick, Shaun, and Ryan, from his father’s later marriage to Shirley Jones. While they didn’t all grow up in the same household, the Cassidy brothers were always close, even after their father Jack’s death in 1976 at age 49.

“They are my best friends, along with my wife,” David said of Patrick, Shaun, and Ryan in 2001, according to Masslive.

After David’s death, Shaun Cassidy penned a poignant tribute in which he recounted his older brother’s visits to their home when they were kids.

“When I was a little boy and my big brother would come to visit, the first call of business would be a punishing pillow fight,” Shaun wrote on Twitter. “During the battle, he would regale me with hysterical stories of our father, often culminating in his taking a giant leap off my top bunk… I tried to catch him of course. I always tried to catch him. But I never could. Now, I will carry him, along with all of the funny/sad/extraordinary days we shared, none more filled with love than these last few at his side.”

When I was a little boy and my big brother would come to visit, the first call of business would be a punishing pillow fight. During the battle, he would regale me with hysterical stories of our father, often culminating in his taking a giant leap off my top bunk…

— Shaun Cassidy (@shaunpcassidy) November 22, 2017

…I tried to catch him of course. I always tried to catch him. But I never could. Now, I will carry him, along with all of the funny/sad/extraordinary days we shared, none more filled with love than these last few at his side. pic.twitter.com/nc4w9HdTLC

— Shaun Cassidy (@shaunpcassidy) November 22, 2017

In recent years, the Cassidy brothers had an unexplained, “significant” period of estrangement but reconnected three months before David’s death.

“David called me and it was like nothing had changed, like no time had passed,” Patrick Cassidy told the Palm Beach Post.

David Cassidy not only shared a close personal relationship with his half-brothers, but he shared a professional relationship with them as well. In 1993, David and Shaun teamed up to star in the Broadway show Blood Brothers.

“Probably one of the highlights of my life was being on Broadway with my brother Shaun,” David once said, according to Masslive. “It was so successful instantly for the both of us and it changed my life and his.”

After a successful run in Blood Brothers, Shaun helped David rework the Las Vegas show EFX. The 1996 show marked the start of Cassidy’s successful career in Las Vegas.

Thirteen years later, all four Cassidy brothers worked together on the ABC Family sitcom Ruby and the Rockits. The Shaun-Cassidy directed series starred David and Patrick Cassidy and included Ryan, the youngest Cassidy brother, as the show’s lead set dresser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGdotB_5-Uc

Shaun Cassidy told the Los Angeles Times that their father Jack’s personality inspired David’s narcissistic character, David Gallagher. The Cassidy brothers all had some ambivalent feelings towards their father, whom David once described as a bipolar alcoholic. But all of the Cassidys were in awe of Jack’s talent and charisma.

“If you put all my brothers together, we would add up to all the talent that was in my father,” David said.

In the days before David Cassidy’s death, the 67-year-old Partridge Family star was surrounded by his brothers and other close family members, who gathered by his bedside at his Fort Lauderdale hospital. Cassidy’s brother Patrick told the Palm Beach Post his recent role in a Boca Raton theater production made it possible for him to be by his brother’s side when he needed him most.

“I had never before gotten a regional show in the state of Florida,” Patrick Cassidy said.

“When I came down here and [David] took a turn for the worse. And I know that the point of it all, the reason I’m down here, was to be here with my brother, to have five days to sit with him, and talk to him.”

David Cassidy was rushed to a Fort Lauderdale hospital several days before his death, and the timing of the tragedy coincided with his brother’s surprising role that, coincidentally, landed also him in South Florida. A source told People David lit up “like a Christmas tree” when his brother Patrick walked into his hospital room.

Patrick said that while the whole Cassidy family showed up to say their goodbyes to David, the timing of the show was a blessing for him because he was able to sit and talk to his brother throughout his final week of life.

While Patrick Cassidy looks the most like the Cassidy brothers’ famous father, he said David had ” a lot” of Jack Cassidy in him.

“My father has been gone over 39 years, but he still lives in each one of us,” Patrick said. “But David (had) so much of my father in him, all of his mannerisms … his facial gestures.”

[Featured Image by Lennox McLendon/AP Images]