Bobby Sherman, Top Teen Idol of Late 1960s and Early ’70s, Dead at 81 After Cancer Battle
He also starred in the TV show Here Come the Brides with another future pop star, David Soul.
Bobby Sherman, one of the top teen idols of late 1960s and early ’70s, died after a battle with kidney cancer, his wife, Brigitte Poublon, announced alongside actor John Stamos in an Instagram post on Tuesday (June 24). He was 81.
“It is with the heaviest heart that I share the passing of my beloved husband, Bobby Sherman.
Bobby left this world holding my hand — just as he held up our life with love, courage and unwavering grace through all 29 beautiful years of marriage,” Poublon wrote in her statement. “I was his Cinderella, and he was my prince charming. Even in his final days, he stayed strong for me. That’s who Bobby was — brave, gentle and full of light.”
“He was a man of service,” she noted. “He traded sold-out concerts and magazine covers for the back of an ambulance, becoming an EMT and a trainer with the LAPD. He saved lives. He showed us what real heroism looks like — quiet, selfless and deeply human.”
Sherman was a teen idol just before, and briefly concurrent with, Donny Osmond and the late David Cassidy. But there was a difference: Sherman was 26 in 1969 when “Little Woman” became his first smash hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 3. By comparison, Cassidy was 20 in 1970 when The Partridge Family topped the Hot 100 with “I Think I Love You.” Osmond was just 13 in 1971 when The Osmonds topped the Hot 100 with “One Bad Apple.” Being older than his rivals may have shortened Sherman’s run at the top. His entire Hot 100 career, from first hit to last, spanned just two and one-half years.
Sherman first rose to fame playing youngest brother Jeremy Bolt on the TV series Here Come the Brides, which aired on ABC from 1968 to 1970. One of his brothers was played by David Soul, who also went on to become a pop hitmaker. Soul topped the Hot 100 in 1977 with the ballad “Don’t Give Up on Us.” He died in January 2024 at age 80.
Here Comes the Brides had a zesty theme song, “Seattle,” but even with two singers in the cast, it was Perry Como who had a top 40 hit on Hot 100 with the song in the spring of 1969. But Como’s No. 38 hit was nothing compared to the enormous success Sherman had with both singles and albums from 1969-71 on Metromedia Records. Sherman’s first smash, “Little Woman” reached No. 3 for two weeks in October 1969 — while The Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” was in its third and fourth weeks at No. 1. These hits proved that bubblegum could do big business.
Bubblegum is used here as a descriptor, not a pejorative. Most of Sherman’s hits were bright, bouncy and brassy. While they were often classified as bubblegum due to Sherman’s teen appeal, they were not all that different from such other pop hits of the period as Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good),” Edison Lighthouse’s “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes),” Dawn’s “Candida” and Ray Stevens’ “Everything Is Beautiful.” Melodic pop songs with catchy choruses have always had an audience.
Sherman followed “Little Woman” with three more top 10 hits in 1969-70 – “La La La (If I Had You),” “Easy Come, Easy Go” and “Julie, Do Ya Love Me.” All four of these hits were certified gold by the RIAA. Sherman also had three top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 – Bobby Sherman, Here Comes Bobby and With Love, Bobby. All three of these albums were likewise certified gold.
Jackie Mills produced the first five of Sherman’s 10 Hot 100 hits. Ward Sylvester produced four of the next five. Sherman produced and arranged the other one, “Waiting at the Bus Stop,” which he also co-wrote with Ronald Boutwell. Alas, it wasn’t as successful as Sherman’s previous singles had been. It peaked at No. 54 in September 1971, breaking a string of seven top 30 hits in a row.
Sherman slowed the tempo for one song, “Jennifer,” a sweeping ballad written by future Oscar winners Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager. It too, stalled in the bottom half of the Hot 100, peaking at No. 60 in November 1971.
Sherman was born Robert Cabot Sherman Jr. on July 22, 1943, in Santa Monica, Calif. He grew up in Van Nuys, Calif., with his sister Darlene. (Future songwriting legend Diane Warren also grew up in Van Nuys.)
Sherman first recorded for Starcrest Records in 1962. He was a regular on Shindig!, the pop music TV show which aired on ABC from 1964-66. In 1965, he bubbled under the Hot 100 with “It Hurts Me” on Decca Records, which had a Roy Orbison vibe.
Sherman appeared on an episode of the 1965-66 series Honey West as a kidnapped band member. He also appeared on The Monkees (1966-68) in the episode “Monkees at the Movies,” playing a surfer-singer named Frankie Catalina (a play on Frankie Avalon).
In March 1971 he acted (as songwriter Bobby Conway) in an episode of the ABC hit The Partridge Family which served as a “back-door pilot” for an ABC series of his own, Getting Together. But Sherman’s chart fortunes cooled over the summer of 1971. When the fall season began in September, ABC did not include Getting Together in its highly successful Friday night lineup, which consisted of The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222, The Odd Couple and Love, American Style.
Instead, ABC slotted it to lead off the network’s Saturday night lineup where it had the misfortune of going head-to-head with All in the Family, which was starting its second season on a new night. That classic comedy shot to No. 1 in the ratings. Clobbered in the ratings by TV’s top hit of the 1970s, Getting Together was cancelled after 14 episodes.
In 1974, Sherman guest-starred on an episode of the Jack Webb series Emergency!, which eventually led to a second career — as a paramedic. He volunteered with the Los Angeles Police Department, working with paramedics and giving CPR and first aid classes. For more than a decade he served as a medical training officer at the Los Angeles Police Academy. Sherman also became a reserve deputy sheriff in 1999 with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in California, continuing his CPR and emergency training of new deputy hires. He retired from the sheriff’s department in 2010.
Sherman appeared on TV periodically through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, usually on such popular but decidedly middle-brow fare as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Murder, She Wrote. In 1997, he played himself on an episode of one of TV’s classiest comedies, Frasier.
In 1998, Sherman appeared in The Teen Idol Tour with Peter Noone (of Herman’s Hermits fame) and Davy Jones (of The Monkees). (Micky Dolenz, also of The Monkees, replaced Jones on the tour in 1999.)
Sherman’s first wife was Patti Carnel; the couple had two sons. Sherman married Brigitte Poublon in July 2010 in Las Vegas. Sherman and his second wife co-founded the Brigitte & Bobby Sherman Children’s (BBSC) Foundation. Its mission is to provide students in Ghana with an education and music program, and to provide tools to pursue higher education.
Poublon announced Sherman’s stage 4 cancer diagnosis on Facebook on March 25, writing: “As many of you know, Bobby has been retired for some time and is no longer able to participate in cameos, sign autographs, or make appearances. It is with a heavy heart that we share Bobby has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. During this challenging time, we kindly ask for your understanding and respect for our privacy.”
Sherman is survived by his wife, sons Tyler and Christopher, and six grandchildren.
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