Bobby Sherman, Heartthrob Singer and TV Actor of the 1970s, Dies at 81
Bobby Sherman, whose image was plastered on lunch boxes, bedroom posters, and fan magazines as a teen idol of the 1960s, has passed away. Sherman was also an actor in Here Come the Brides. An 81-year-old man, he was. His second wife, Brigitte Poublon, broke the news of Sherman’s death on Tuesday. The news of his Stage 4 cancer diagnosis broke in March.
After 29 wonderful years of marriage, Bobby held my hand as he departed this world, just as he had supported our lives with love, bravery, and grace that never wavered. “I was his Cinderella and he was my Prince Charming,” she wrote during their time together. Bobby Sherman, who was discovered at a Hollywood cast party when he was 20 years old, received his big break in 1964 when he was signed as a regular vocalist for the ABC musical variety show Shindig!
He was a regular on the show, which ran from January 1965 through January 1966 and featured the best acts and songs of the time, for nearly 16 months. Bobby Sherman, who had brown hair and blue eyes, first appeared on ABC’s Honey West in 1965 as the abducted son of a wealthy businessman. In 1967, he portrayed a singing surfer reminiscent of Frankie Avalon on NBC’s The Monkees. Sherman then landed on Here Come the Brides.
On the 1968–1970 Screen Gems/ABC series, Sherman played Jeremy Bolt, the timid and stuttering youngest brother of three brothers. Inspired by the timeless Stanley Donen musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), this “Western without guns” was loosely based on the 1860s Mercer Girls, who were brought to the boom town of Seattle to work as teachers.
Robert Brown and David Soul, who would go on to star in Starsky & Hutch, played Sherman’s siblings on the show, and Bridget Hanley played Sherman’s romantic interest, Candy Pruitt. Lotte, played by Joan Blondell, is a saloon owner who watches out for the town’s new women.
In Jonathan Etter’s 2015 book, Gangway, Lord! The Here Come the Brides Book, executive producer Bob Claver discussed the abundance of Bobby Sherman shows. The characters and the plot were what made those my favorites. It was only natural for Bobby to have a core group of supporters who admired him. He was a fascinating performer.
Because of his extensive television appearances, Sherman’s singing career flourished. In 1969 and 1970, he had three singles that sold one million copies and reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100: “Little Woman” (which peaked at No. 3), “La La La (If I Had You),” “Julie, Do Ya Love Me,” and “Easy Come, Easy Go.”
It resulted in an extremely hectic schedule. In 1998, he told The Washington Post, “I’d film five days a week, get on a plane on a Friday night and go someplace for matinee and evening [concerts] Saturday and Sunday, then get back on a plane to start filming again.” This was his concert schedule.
Bobby Sherman played the role of a struggling songwriter in his new series Getting Together, which he had a sneak peek at in March 1971 as a guest star on ABC’s The Partridge Family. It only aired for fourteen episodes before being cancelled due to competition from All in the Family on CBS.
Bobby Sherman most recently was a paramedic training instructor at the Los Angeles Police Academy, where she worked as an emergency medical technician. He went on to serve as a deputy sheriff in San Bernardino County and as a reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Born on July 22, 1943, in Santa Monica, Robert Cabot Sherman Jr. spent his childhood in Van Nuys. Woodland Hills Dairy was his father’s milk delivery service, and he would get up at 3:30 in the morning every day to deliver milk to his 1,000 customers.
In the soundproof room his dad had constructed for him, Bobby Sherman honed his skills on guitar, piano, trumpet, trombone, French horn, and drums as he grew up. Sherman attended Pierce College to study child psychology after graduating from Van Nuys’s Birmingham High School in 1961. His girlfriend accompanied him to a cast party for The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).
After he stood up and sang with the band, Sal Mineo, Jane Fonda, and Natalie Wood approached him, expressing their interest in managing him and helping him launch his career. He wrote a song, had it recorded by Mineo, and then tried out for Shindig! He received a 28-show offer an hour afterward.
Covers of Sherman’s songs like “She’s Not There,” “Have I the Right,” and “I’m Into Something Good” would air on Shindig!, where the audience would squeal in delight. (All that yelling over the years reportedly caused Sherman to develop hearing loss.) Sherman received rave reviews for his performance in Here Come the Brides, a film written by William Blinn (who would later write Brian’s Song), particularly for his portrayal of the character’s stammering.
The Love Boat, Frasier, Ellery Queen, The Mod Squad, Emergency!, The F.B.I., and Murder, She Wrote were among Sherman’s television appearances. His 1986 USA sitcom Sanchez of Bel Air, in which he played a musician who lived next door to a Latino family headed by Reni Santoni, was a brief affair.
Published in 1996, Sherman’s autobiography is titled Still Remembering You. In a “Teen Idol Tour” that included Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits and Davy Jones of The Monkees, he made a triumphant return to concert stage two years after a 25-year hiatus. When Sherman was asked in 1994 by Dick Clark why he became an EMT, Sherman gave an honest answer.
