Patrick Cassidy
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
The second of three sons of Broadway star Jack Cassidy and Oscar-winner Shirley Jones, Patrick Cassidy followed in his parents' footsteps in a career that has encompassed the stage and screen. Tall (6'2"), lanky, with blond hair blue eyes and a dazzling smile, he made his TV acting debut in the cautionary NBC movie "Angel Dusted" in 1981. That same year, Cassidy made his Broadway debut replacing Rex Smith as the male ingenue Frederick in the revisionary take on Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance." His pleasant voice and personable presence quickly won him many fans, although he was still overshadowed by his elder siblings and their status as teen idols. In 1983, Cassidy made his TV series debut as a star baseball player with a beautiful wife (a pre-fame Sharon Stone) and a psychological problem (he was a bedwetter!) in the short-lived NBC drama "Bay City Blues."
Cassidy was back on the Great White Way playing songwriter Jeff Barry in the ill-fated revue cum musical "Leader of the Pack." He fared better on the small screen as a manipulative West Point cadet who crosses the wrong person in "Dress Gray" (NBC, 1986) and co-starring alongside legend Loretta Young in the vehicle that marked her return to acting, the sentimental but not maudlin holiday movie "Christmas Eve" (NBC, 1986). Cassidy next stepped into Patrick Swayze's dancing shoes, assuming the role of Johnny Castle in the TV spin-off of "Dirty Dancing" (CBS, 1988), which didn't last too long on the air.
After a decade as a mostly journeyman player, Cassidy enjoyed one of his best roles as the closeted soap opera actor hired to portray daytime's first homosexual character in "Longtime Companion" (1990), which chronicled the effects of the AIDS epidemic on a group of gay men in NYC. He then landed the stage role of a strolling balladeer who acts as a chorus in the controversial stage musical "Assassins" (1990-91), written by John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim. For the remainder of the decade, Cassidy divided his time between the occasional film part ("I'll Do Anything" 1994), guest roles on TV (notably a recurring part on ABC's "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" in 1997) and stage work ("Company" in 1993, an L.A. production of "Assassins" in 1995, this time as John Wilkes Booth). In 1999, he and his second wife, singer-dancer Melissa Hurley Cassidy, toured with Deborah Gibson in the popular Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (a role his half-brother David played on Broadway in the 1980s). The fall of the following year, Cassidy, now sporting a beard, returned to Broadway paired stage with Cheryl Ladd in the revival of "Annie Get Your Gun."
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Music (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1981
NYC stage debut replacing Rex Smith as Frederick in "The Pirates of Penzance"
1981
TV acting debut, "Angel Dusted" (NBC)
1983
Debut as TV series regular, played a married baseball player with a bedwetting problem on the NBC series "Bay City Blues"
1983
Feature acting debut, "Off the Wall"
1985
Cast as Jeff Barry opposite Dinah Manoff in the Broadway musical revue "Leader of the Pack"
1986
Portrayed murdered West Point cadet David Hand in the NBC miniseries "Dress Gray"
1986
Co-starred with Loretta Young in the NBC TV-movie "Christmas Eve"
1988
Returned to series TV as Johnny Castle in the short-lived CBS sitcom based on "Dirty Dancing"
1990
Played The Balladeer in the Off-Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins"
1990
Portrayed a gay actor cast as a gay character on a soap opera in the feature "Longtime Companion"
1992
Starred in "Conrack", a musical based on the Pat Conroy novel; production performed at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC
1993
Had leading role of Bobby in the Long Beach Civic Light Opera production of "Company", starring Carol Burnett
1994
Acted in James L Brooks' "I'll Do Anything"
1995
Portrayed John Wilkes Booth in the Los Angeles Repertory staging of "Assassins"
1996
Performed "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" with half-brother David and older brother Shaun at a benefit for AIDS Project Los Angeles
1997
Had title role in "Lord Protector"; shown at American Film Market
1997
Played recurring role on the ABC series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman"
1998
Cast as Macheath in Los Angeles production of "The Threepenny Opera"
1999
Co-starred with wife Melissa Hurley and Deborah Gibson in a tour of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"
2000
Assumed role of Frank Butler in the Broadway production of "Annie Get Your Gun"
2001
Toured as Ramades in "Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida"
Family
Companions
