DAVID CASSIDY The Rise & Fall of a TEEN IDOL

WORLDWIDE FAME AND ADORATION WEREN'T ENOUGH TO FILL THE HUGE HOLE IN HIS HEART

- LOUISE A. BARILE

When his phone rang late at night, celebrated horse trainer Gary Contessa expected it to be a call from David Cassidy. "We would talk horses all night," he tells Closer. "He knew sires and broodmares like no one I ever met. He learned from me, and I learned so much from him. He was one of my best friends."

At the dawn of the 1970s, few stars shined as bright as David, who catapulted to fame on The Partridge Family. His green eyes, feathered hair and velvety singing voice provoked such fervor among his fans that it would become a burden. "They get flustered and I get flustered," David said. "It's no fun when they rip your clothes."

The memory of his disapproving father, Broadway actor Jack Cassidy, also haunted David. The Tony-winning star had sneered at his son's television success and died in an apartment fire in 1976 before they could reconcile. "I didn't have a chance to say, 'I love you." David confessed.

Born to Jack and his first wife, actress Evelyn Ward, in 1950, David spent his formative years with his maternal grandparents. "The thing that used to make me sad about David was that he was so happy remembering the years before he was famous," Chip Deffaa, co-author of David's autobiography C'mon, Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus, tells Closer. "He showed me the little woods he used to run around at Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange, N.J. He would say those were his happiest times."