{"id":11406,"date":"2025-06-24T18:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T18:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11406\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T18:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T18:27:09","slug":"bobby-sherman-teen-idol-in-the-1960s-and-70s-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11406\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Sherman, teen idol in the 1960s and ’70s, dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bobby Sherman, whose winsome smile and fashionable shaggy mop top helped make him into a teen idol in the 1960s and \u201970s with bubblegum pop hits<\/a> like \u201cLittle Woman\u201d and \u201cJulie, Do Ya Love Me,\u201d has died. He was 81.<\/p>\n

His wife, Brigitte Poublon, announced the death Tuesday and family friend John Stamos posted her message on Instagram: \u201cBobby left this world holding my hand \u2014 just as he held up our life with love, courage, and unwavering grace.\u201d Sherman revealed he had Stage 4 cancer earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Sherman was a squeaky-clean regular on the covers of Tiger Beat and Sixteen magazines, often with hair over his eyes and a choker on his neck. His face was printed on lunchboxes,<\/a> cereal boxes and posters that hung on the bedroom walls of his adoring fans. He landed at No. 8 in TV Guide\u2019s list of \u201cTV\u2019s 25 Greatest Teen Idols.\u201d <\/p>\n

He was part of a lineage of teen heartthrobs who emerged as mass-market, youth-oriented magazines and TV took off, connecting fresh-scrubbed Ricky Nelson in the 1950s to David Cassidy<\/a> in the \u201960s, all the way to Justin Bieber in the 2000s.<\/p>\n

Sherman had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart \u2014 \u201cLittle Woman,\u201d \u201cJulie, Do Ya Love Me,\u201d \u201cEasy Come, Easy Go,\u201d and \u201cLa La La (If I Had You).\u201d He had six albums on the Billboard 200 chart, including \u201cHere Comes Bobby,\u201d which spent 48 weeks on the album chart, peaking at No. 10. His career got its jump start when he was cast in the ABC rock \u2019n\u2019 roll show \u201cShindig!\u201d<\/a> in the mid-\u201960s. Later, he starred in two television series \u2014 \u201cHere Come the Brides\u201d (1968-70) and \u201cGetting Together\u201d (1971).<\/p>\n

After the limelight moved on, Sherman became a certified medical emergency technician and instructor for the Los Angeles Police Department, teaching police recruits first aid and CPR. He donated his salary.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, people say, \u2018Well, if you could go back and change things, what would you do?\u2019\u201d he told The Tulsa World in 1997. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think I\u2019d change a thing \u2014 except to maybe be a little bit more aware of it, because I probably could\u2019ve relished the fun of it a little more. It was a lot of work. It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears. But it was the best of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

A life-changing Hollywood party<\/p>\n

Sherman, with sky blue eyes and dimples, grew up in the San Fernando Valley, singing Ricky Nelson songs and performing with a high-school rock band. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was brought up in a fairly strict family,\u201d he told the Sunday News newspaper in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1998. \u201cLaw and order were important. Respect your fellow neighbor, remember other people\u2019s feelings. I was the kind of boy who didn\u2019t do things just to be mischievous.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was studying child psychology at a community college in 1964 when his girlfriend took him to a Hollywood party, which would change his life. He stepped onstage and sang with the band. Afterward, guests Jane Fonda, Natalie Wood<\/a> and Sal Mineo asked him who his agent was. They took his number and, a few days later, an agent called him and set him up with \u201cShindig!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherman hit true teen idol status in 1968, when he appeared in \u201cHere Come the Brides,\u201d a comedy-adventure set in boom town Seattle in the 1870s. He sang the show\u2019s theme song, \u201cSeattle,\u201d and starred as young logger Jeremy Bolt, often at loggerheads with brother, played by David Soul.<\/a> It lasted two seasons.<\/p>\n

Following the series, Sherman starred in \u201cGetting Together,\u201d a spinoff of \u201cThe Partridge Family,\u201d<\/a> about a songwriter struggling to make it in the music business. He became the first performer to star in three TV series before the age of 30. That television exposure soon translated into a fruitful recording career: His first single, \u201cLittle Woman,\u201d earned a gold record in 1969.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the rest of the world seemed jumbled up and threatening, Sherman\u2019s smiling visage beamed from the bedroom walls of hundreds of thousands of teen-age girls, a reassuring totem against the riots, drugs, war protests and free love that raged outside,\u201d The Tulsa World said in 1997.<\/p>\n

His movies included \u201cWild In Streets,\u201d \u201cHe is My Brother\u201d and \u201cGet Crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

From music to medicine<\/p>\n

Sherman pulled back from his celebrity career after several years of a frantic schedule, telling The Washington Post: \u201cI\u2019d film five days a week, get on a plane on a Friday night and go someplace for matinee and evening shows Saturday and Sunday, then get on a plane and go back to the studio to start filming again. It was so hectic for three years that I didn\u2019t know what home was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherman\u2019s pivot to becoming an emergency medical technician in 1988 was born out of a longtime fascination with medicine. Sherman said that affinity blossomed when he raised his sons with his first wife, Patti Carnel. They would get scrapes and bloody noses and he became the family\u2019s first-aid provider. So he started learning basic first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation from the Red Cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I see an accident, I feel compelled to stop and give aid even if I\u2019m in my own car,\u201d he told the St. Petersburg Times. \u201cI carry equipment with me. And there\u2019s not a better feeling than the one you get from helping somebody out. I would recommend it to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to his work with the Los Angeles Police Department, he was a reserve deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriff\u2019s Department, working security at the courthouse. Sherman estimated that, as a paramedic, he helped five women deliver babies in the backseats of cars or other impromptu locations. <\/p>\n

In one case, he helped deliver a baby on the sidewalk and, after the birth, the new mother asked Sherman\u2019s partner what his name was. \u201cWhen he told her Bobby, she named the baby Roberta. I was glad he didn\u2019t tell her my name was Sherman,\u201d he told the St. Petersburg Times in 1997.<\/p>\n

The teen idols grow up<\/p>\n

He was named LAPD\u2019s Reserve Officer of the Year for 1999 and received the FBI\u2019s Exceptional Service Award and the \u201cTwice a Citizen\u201d Award by the Los Angeles County Reserve Foundation.<\/p>\n

In a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2004,<\/a> then-Rep. Howard McKeon wrote: \u201cBobby is a stellar example of the statement \u2018to protect and serve.\u2019 We can only say a simple and heartfelt thank you to Bobby Sherman and to all the men and women who courageously protect and serve the citizens of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, Sherman would join the 1990s-era \u201cTeen Idols Tour\u201d with former 1960s heartthrobs Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones of the Monkees and Peter Noone of Herman\u2019s Hermits. <\/p>\n

The Chicago Sun-Times in 1998 described one of Sherman\u2019s performances: \u201cDressed to kill in black leather pants and white shirt, he was showered with roses and teddy bears as he started things off with \u2018Easy Come, Easy Go.\u2019 As he signed scores of autographs at the foot of the stage, it was quickly draped by female fans of every conceivable age group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherman also co-founded the Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children\u2019s Foundation in Ghana, which provides education, health, and welfare programs to children in need.<\/p>\n

He is survived by two sons, Christopher and Tyler, and his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in his final days, he stayed strong for me. That\u2019s who Bobby was \u2014 brave, gentle, and full of light,\u201d Poublon wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bobby Sherman, whose winsome smile and fashionable shaggy mop top helped make him into a teen idol in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2122,12296,12297,2059,276,1899,12308,12307,171,57,12298,12306,3793,12303,12302,224,12309,975,12299,12305,12304,12300,12301,12295,3981,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-11406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-arts-and-entertainment","9":"tag-bobby-sherman","10":"tag-brigitte-poublon","11":"tag-ca-state-wire","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-celebrity-deaths","14":"tag-david-cassidy","15":"tag-david-soul","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-jane-fonda","19":"tag-jeremy-bolt","20":"tag-john-stamos","21":"tag-justin-bieber","22":"tag-la-la","23":"tag-los-angeles","24":"tag-micky-dolenz","25":"tag-music","26":"tag-notable-deaths","27":"tag-patti-carnel","28":"tag-peter-noone","29":"tag-rick-nelson","30":"tag-sal-mineo","31":"tag-sherman","32":"tag-teens","33":"tag-u-s-news","34":"tag-united-states","35":"tag-unitedstates","36":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114739756836062330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}