- - Shaun Cassidy Recalls Dad Jack Cassidy's Struggles with Family's Fame and Reveals What Their Last Conversation Was About

Angela AndaloroJanuary 13, 2026 at 8:00 PM

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Shaun Cassidy (left), Jack Cassidy -

Shaun Cassidy talked about his career during a recent appearance on Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia

Shaun, 66, also opened up about his late father, Jack Cassidy, and his struggles with the family's fame

Shaun also recalled the last conversation he had with his father

Shaun Cassidy is opening up about his relationship with his late father.

The former teen idol, 66, appeared on Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia, where he discussed his complicated relationship with his late father, legendary performer Jack Cassidy.

Shaun noted that his dad was a "wildly talented man," but had a hard time with his family's fame eclipsing his own.

"He had taken a backseat to my mother. And then along comes David. And David becomes kind of the biggest thing in the world for a while. And he had a hard time with it," Shaun shared.

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Shirley Jones, Jack Cassidy and David Cassidy

Jack's eldest son eldest, David, was born during his first marriage to actress Evelyn Ward in 1950. Jack and Ward split in 1956, and he went on to marry The Partridge Family star Shirley Jones, with whom he welcomed sons Shaun, Patrick and Ryan.

"That was his shortcoming," Cassidy continued. "A lot of parents would have been very proud of their son or their wife, for that matter. But, you know, my father had a big ego, and I think like a lot of performers, had a sort of a core insecurity that he was looking for an audience to fill."

Shaun was beginning to experience his own star rising just as Jack was at the end of his life. During their final conversation before Jack's death in Dec. 1976, Shaun shared the news that he was cast in his first major role, as Joe Hardy in The Hardy Boys.

"The last time I saw my father, I told him that I got the job on The Hardy Boys, and he knew Glenn Larson, who was the producer. And Glenn, back in the day, was like Aaron Spelling."

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Shirley Jones, Shaun Cassidy, Anne Pennington, Marjorie Williams and the two children Caitlin and John Cassidy

Jack wouldn't get to see Shaun's career unfold, but the actor believes that he would have received it better than he did Jones' success, or David's.

“I would like to think that having... gone through it with my mother and David, he would have been more accepting of it and maybe even proud of it," he shared, adding, "One of the blessings of losing people when you’re a young person is you get to write the script of how your life with that person would have been had they lived."

"I don’t know," Cassidy continued, "but I’d like to just write the story that I would have gotten closer with my dad, he would have been proud of me.”

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