Patrick Cassidy (born
January 4, 1962, in Los Angeles, California
) is an American
actor best
known for his roles in musical
theatre and television.
Personal life
Cassidy grew up in an
Irish-American
family. He is the son of
Shirley Jones
and
Jack Cassidy. His brothers are
Ryan and
Shaun
Cassidy, and his half-brother is
David
Cassidy. He is also the uncle of
Melrose Place star
Katie Cassidy.
He is married to actress
Melissa
Hurley and is the father of two sons, Cole Patrick and Jack
Gordon.
Career
He decided to enter his high school's drama program after breaking
his collarbone while playing as the quarterback for his high school
football team.
Screen
His first starring television role was in 1981 in the cautionary
NBC movie
Angel Dusted. In 1983, he starred in
Bay City Blues as a
baseball player in the
minor leagues. The show was canceled after just
four episodes.
In 1986, he played a West Point
cadet in Dress Gray (for which he received
an Emmy Award nomination) and appeared in
the holiday TV movie Christmas Eve with Loretta Young. In 1988, he starred in
the television series
Dirty Dancing, based on
the film. Two years later, he starred in
Longtime Companion about an actor
battling
AIDS. In 1994, he appeared in the
films
I'll Do Anything and
How the West Was Fun
with
Mary-Kate and Ashley
Olsen.
In 1997, he had a recurring role on TV's
Lois &
Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,and had another
Superman-related recurring role a few years
later as the biological father of
Lana
Lang in
Smallville.
He co-starred alongside his half-brother
David in a 2009
ABC Family comedy series
entitled
Ruby & The
Rockits created by his brother
Shaun. ABC Family announced on September 12,
2009 that the show had been canceled.
Stage
Cassidy
played Frederic in the 1981 national tour of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance before
taking over the role on Broadway
in
1982.
Cassidy's next Broadway role was
Jeff
Barry in the
Ellie Greenwich
jukebox musical Leader of the Pack. In
1990, he originated the role of The Balladeer in
Stephen Sondheim's
Assassins at
Playwrights Horizons, an
off-Broadway theater.
In 1993,
Cassidy starred as Bobby opposite Carol
Burnett in a Los
Angeles
production of Sondheim's musical Company. In 1995, he portrayed
John Wilkes Booth in the Los
Angeles Repertory staging of
Assassins. In 1998, he was
Macheath in an L.A. production of
The Threepenny Opera; he was
nominated for the Garland Award for Best Actor for his work in the
role. In 1999, he played the title character in a national tour of
Joseph
and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 2000, Cassidy
co-starred with
Cheryl Ladd in
Annie Get Your
Gun on Broadway. In 2001 he played Radames in the national
tour of the musical
Aida; he
won the 2002 National Broadway Theatre Award for Best Actor in a
Touring Musical before bringing the role to Broadway in 2002. In
2004-05 he was back on Broadway in
42nd Street as Julian Marsh
playing opposite his mother as Dorothy Brock.
References
- Cassidy Brothers Comedy Among New ABC Family
Shows NY Times, February 1, 2009
External links
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