In Memory of Actor Jack Cassidy: 48 Years After His Tragic Death By Fire

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In the early morning of December 12, 1976, charismatic actor Jack Cassidy returned to his luxury penthouse in West Hollywood following a festive evening. He made himself a drink, lit a cigarette, sat on his sofa, and fell asleep.

A few hours later, firefighters were called in battle a blaze of fire at his residence. But it was too late to save Cassidy, whose scorched remains were discovered in the hall near his front door. The actor had attempted to crawl to safety but suffocated from a lack of oxygen.

Cassidy, ex-husband to actress/singer Shirley Jones, who he invited over for dinner the night he died, was only 49 years old. Together they had three sons: Patrick, Ryan, and Shaun Cassidy.

Their half-brother, David Cassidy, played the son of Jones on TV's The Partridge Family. David's real mother was Evelyn Ward, Jack's first wife.

David's Startling Memory of His Father

In his 1994 autobiography, C'Mon, Get Happy, David Cassidy wrote that he became increasingly concerned about his father in the last years of his life. Jack Cassidy, who turned down the role of Tex Baxter (played by Ted Cassidy) on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, suffered from bipolar disorder and was an alcoholic, who was displaying increasingly erratic behavior.

A Columbo TV Mystery Tie-In

Jack Cassidy's demise occurred less than 10 months after his final Columbo appearance in Now You See Him, which aired on February 19, 1976.

Along with Patrick McGoohan, Robert Culp, George Hamilton and William Shatner, Jack Cassidy is one of only five actors to play two or more murderers in the Peter Falk TV mystery series, Columbo: Ken Franklin in "Murder by the Book" (1971), Riley Greenleaf in "Publish or Perish" (1974), and "Now You See Him" (1976).