David Cassidy – sweet face, wrecked life

The clean-cut teenybop idol of the 1970s, David Cassidy, has died suffering from alcoholism and dementia. He found fame as a child actor in The Partridge Family before going on to sell more than 30 million records, from which he earned very little having signed away the rights. Off screen and stage, he was a voracious consumer of women, drink, drugs and fast cars, an echo of his father, a philandering sex addict, manic depressive and alcoholic, who routinely beat him as a child. He hated the pressures of fame and really wanted a career as a serious actor – which never happened.

The gap between the public celebrity image and the private reality, as ever, being a Grand Canyon wide.

David Cassidy, born 12 April 1950 at 9.55am New York, was a Sun Aries in the public-career 10^th house opposition Neptune in the 4^th, which often occurs with individuals who sacrifice their own identity for their family; with the Sun in a trine to a compulsive-spending Pluto in the 2^nd – he spent his life largely mired in debt. It’s a very untogether chart, not overly descriptive, so it’s tricky to see why he hit such heights, only to sizzle out in a wasted life. Mars in the 4^th certainly suggests an angry father; and a 10^th house Sun type often feels they don’t deserve their success. His Aquarius Moon conjunct Jupiter and Venus in Pisces would give him a sugary sweet appeal for women; but with his Venus opposition Saturn he’d never feel loved.

His Venus was opposition his Mars/Pluto midpoint, giving him considerable emotional turmoil; and his Moon (Jupiter) were opposition his bleak, deprived Saturn/Pluto midpoint. Neither of which would make for a happy, harmonious relationship life.

His can-be-humanitarian or can-be-super-indulgent 9th harmonic was very strong; as was his victim 12H.

His father also died in tragically ironic circumstances being burned alive after falling asleep drunk with a cigarette in his hand. What a depressing family.