David Cassidy may not have been the first teenage idol, but he was the first to demand control of his life, walking away from the entertainment industry's star-machinery even as it went into over-drive. And when that industry discarded him, Cassidy's resolve to return was more self-fulfilling than the first time around.

Cassidy was born on April 12, 1950, the son of actors Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward. His parents divorced when he was three, and David lived with his mother in West Orange, New Jersey. At 11, Cassidy and his mother moved to Los Angeles, and David spent his teen years hanging out in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury scene, graduating from a private school and pursuing small acting jobs. He moved to New York City in his late teens, working in a textile factory by day and taking acting classes by night, before starring in the 1969 Broadway...