Shaun Cassidy

Shaun Paul Cassidy, born September 27, 1958, in Los Angeles, California, is an American singer, actor, television producer, and screenwriter. He is the son of Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Jones and Tony Award-winning actor Jack Cassidy, and grew up in both Los Angeles and New York City. His siblings include half-brother David Cassidy and younger brothers Patrick and Ryan Cassidy. Cassidy attended the Solebury School, a boarding school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, before graduating from Beverly Hills High School. He is also the godson of singer and actor Gordon MacRae, who appeared alongside his mother in the films Oklahoma! and Carousel.

While still in high school, Cassidy signed with Mike Curb's Curb Records division of Warner Bros. Records and began his recording career. His debut album, Shaun Cassidy, released in 1977, achieved multi-platinum status and produced the number-one U.S. Billboard Hot 100 single "Da Doo Ron Ron," earning him a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist at the 20th Annual Grammy Awards. The Eric Carmen-penned follow-up single "That's Rock 'n' Roll" peaked at number three. His second album, Born Late, yielded the hit "Hey Deanie," also written by Carmen, which reached number seven, along with a cover of The Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic?" peaking at number 31. His third album, Under Wraps, released in 1978, sold a million copies, though the decline of AM radio and shifting tastes began to diminish his teen-star appeal. Room Service failed to chart on the U.S. Billboard 200, and his final album, Wasp, released in 1980, took a harder rock direction, produced by Todd Rundgren with Utopia as the backing band and featuring covers of David Bowie's "Rebel, Rebel" and The Who's "So Sad About Us."

Concurrent with his early recording success, Cassidy starred in the ABC television series The Hardy Boys Mysteries from January 1977 to January 1979. He subsequently appeared in the short-lived series Breaking Away and had a stint on the daytime soap opera General Hospital. Through most of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, Cassidy shifted his focus to stage acting, appearing in Broadway and West End productions including Mass Appeal and Bus Stop, as well as the American premiere of Pass/Fail at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. He received a Drama-Logue Award for his performance in Mark Sheriden's Diary of a Hunger Strike at the Los Angeles Theater Center.

Cassidy's Broadway credit includes the musical drama Blood Brothers, in which he appeared in 1993 alongside his half-brother David Cassidy. The production ran for over a year on Broadway. It was during this engagement that Cassidy wrote his first television pilot, American Gothic, which led to a long-term contract with Universal Television.

That pilot became the series American Gothic, which aired from 1995 to 1996 and was produced in collaboration with Sam Raimi. Cassidy went on to create, write, and produce numerous additional television projects, including Roar in 1997, starring Heath Ledger; Cover Me from 2000 to 2001; Invasion from 2005 to 2006; Ruby & The Rockits in 2009, featuring his brothers Patrick and David; and New Amsterdam, which ran on NBC from 2018 to 2023 starring Ryan Eggold, on which Cassidy served as executive producer and writer.

In 2021, Cassidy brought his one-man show, The Magic of a Midnight Sky, to stages nationwide, marking his first live music performance in nearly forty years. Cassidy has been married three times and has seven children. He married model Ann Pennington in 1979; they divorced in 1993 and had two children together. He married actress Susan Diol in 1995; they divorced in 2003 and have one daughter. In 2004, he married producer Tracey Lynne Turner, with whom he has four children.