Bobby Sherman

Before Shaun Cassidy, even before David Cassidy, there was TV teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman.

At the height of his career, Sherman had a hit TV series, a succession of smash singles and the adoration of millions of teenyboppers who bought 16 and Tiger Beat in record numbers when his face adorned their covers.

20-year-old Robert Cabot Sherman Jr. was studying child psychology at Pierce College in LA when a girlfriend took him to a cast party for The Greatest Story Ever Told.

He made quite a splash singing with the band at the party, whose members he knew from high school in Santa Monica, California.

Among the party guests who caught Sherman’s impromptu gig were Natalie Wood, Jane Fonda and Sal Mineo.

Three days later, an agent – tipped off by one of the party guests – sent Bobby to an audition for a new TV series, and he landed a spot on Shindig!, the prime-time rock ‘n’ roll revue that lasted from 1964 to 1966.

Sherman began cutting records for Decca and Cameo-Parkway, but his singing career didn’t take off until 1968 when he starred in Here Come The Brides as the adorable stutterer Jeremy Bolt. Within months Bobbymania was going full force.

Weekdays were spent taping the TV show, and on weekends he would head for the recording studio or hit the road touring. The gold records started coming with Hey, Little Woman, Julie, Do Ya Love Me and Easy Come, Easy Go.

Although somewhat diminished, Sherman’s popularity survived the 1970 cancellation of Here Come The Brides and the subsequent failure of Getting Together – a 1971 Partridge Family spin-off that went up against All In The Family.

He continued his TV career guesting on The Mod Squad, The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.

He also appeared in feature films, like rock comedy movie Get Crazy (1983), in which he and fellow teen idol Fabian were featured as the henchmen of an evil promoter.

Sherman moved into TV production and directing commercials while cutting records in his home studio.

Thanks to sound financial advice, Sherman managed to keep the money he made during his windfall years – although he was subject to occasional outbursts of whimsy, like the $15,000 1/5th scale replica of Disneyland’s Main Street that he built in the backyard of his Encino home in the 1970s (pictured).

In March 2025, Sherman announced he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer. He died at his home in Los Angeles on 24 June 2025, aged 81.