‘Partridge Family' Star Danny Bonaduce Gives Rare Update on Susan Dey and Shirley Jones
Danny Bonaduce opened up about The Partridge Family and shared updates on his former co-stars more than 50 years after the show ended its four-season run.
The actor, who played Danny Partridge on the musical ABCsitcom from 1970 to 1974, appeared on the Pop Culture Retro podcast on May 28 and was asked if he had kept in touch with his TV mom, Shirley Jones.
"I see her rarely, but I'd still be probably, but she's 92 right now, and you know, she still looks good, but I haven't spoken to her in a while," Bonaduce, 66, shared. "I spoke to her son. I talked to Shaun Cassidy relatively often, and apparently, she's doing just great, but she's fully retired."
Bonaduce also spoke about Susan Dey, the actress who played his sister Laurie Partridge on the ‘70s sitcom before moving on to a starring role on L.A. Law in the 1980s. When asked if it was true that Dey wanted nothing to do with The Partridge Family, Bonaduce confirmed that it was the case.
"But I don't think it's like it was," he clarified. "I thought it was like a real bad thing of bad memories. It's just not her thing. She just doesn't want to be famous. She wants nothing…she has a normal job in upstate New York. But I always thought. ‘You want nothing to do with it? Why? It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Why?' But it's just not her thing. Like, I really liked being famous."
Bonaduce noted he wasn't "exactly sure" what Dey did for work after leaving the entertainment industry decades ago. "A regular job with an office, but I don't know if she still does it. She's got to be 73 or four," he added.
Dey seemingly cut ties with her Partridge Family past sometime in the 1990s. In 2000, series star David Cassidy told The Deseret News he hadn't spoken to Dey in nearly a decade and actually wrote her a letter to clear the air.
"I never heard a response, and I don't know why. Neither has Shirley, neither has Danny, neither has any of them," he said at the time. "I really feel badly that Susan Dey, for whatever her own personal reasons, can't embrace the fact that she was 16, 17 years old, and millions of people loved her for that. You don't have to prove that you're so serious. We know you're serious. In life, be thankful."
Cassidy died in 2017 at age 67, two years after your youngest Partridge Family cast member Suzanne Crough (Tracy on the series) passed away at age 52.
In the new interview, Bonaduce also shared an update on Ricky Segall, the young actor and singer who appeared on The Partridge Family during the show's final season and was compared to Cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist) on The Brady Bunch.
"So, he was fine," Bonaduce said of the child actor. "He was the cute kid. We all knew it was the cousin Oliver thing, everybody, you know."
Bonaduce revealed that Cassidy, the teen heartthrob and main star of the show, took issue with the addition of the musical moppet when producers added him to the cast.
"If you look when [Ricky] sings, I actually play guitar. David does not," Bonaduce noted. "David just would not accompany the kid. I guess you know when you're a big star, and you've sold a million records, you don't have to play for the six-year-old. So I play the guitar for Ricky Segall. Nice guy. I think he ended up a minister. I'm not positive, but I think he ended up actually a minister for a time."
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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 7:12 AM.