Shirley Jones’ son recalls his unlikely afternoon with Hollywood mobster James Cagney

Seven-year-old Ryan Cassidy spent an afternoon with a Hollywood gangster, a day he will never forget.

The 57-year-old youngest son of ‘The Partridge Family’ matriarch Shirley Jones and Tony Award-winning actor Jack Cassidy, as well as the brother of teen idol David Cassidy, reflects on his time with James Cagney.

He detailed his afternoon with the Oscar-winning actor in a new children’s book titled “James Cagney was my babysitter” which also features a foreword and afterword by 89-year-old Jones. The actress worked with Cagney, who died in 1986 at the age of 86. The two stars have become friends over the years.

James Cagney was one of the most iconic stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. (Photo by FPG/File Photos/Getty Images)

“There are a lot of actors that I grew up with, and actors and actresses that I’ve met over the years,” Cassidy told Fox News Digital. “And there’s so many that people have forgotten, or maybe this generation doesn’t know about. And I wanted to share a very sweet story that happened [to] me when I was seven in a format that will tell people today who that man was.”

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Ryan Cassidy has written a children’s book about his special afternoon called ‘James Cagney was my babysitter’. (Good Knight Books)

Cassidy grew up in Hollywood, but life wasn’t always glamorous. Her parents’ seemingly perfect marriage had fallen apart. One afternoon, his father picked him up and they headed to Cagney’s house in Beverly Hills. Cagney, who was semi-retired at the time, knew Cassidy’s parents were going through a separation.

James Cagney left a lasting impression on Ryan Cassidy, whose parents had separated. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

“[Due to] a series of events, my dad had to leave,” Cassidy recalled. “And Cagney said, why don’t you leave Ryan here? And I’m going to take care of him for a little while. I’ve always been very shy and didn’t want to be with people I didn’t know. I didn’t want to spoil anything.”

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Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy were married from 1956 to 1974. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

At the time, Cassidy had no idea that Cagney was one of the most iconic stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. In the 1930s, he was the leading gangster of the screens, but he was also a sought-after man of song and dance. He was revered by many, and in 1974 he became the first actor to receive the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award.

Shirley Jones, left, worked alongside James Cagney in ‘Never Steal Anything Small’ in 1959. (Universal-International/Getty Images)

But to Cassidy, he was just a family friend whose home was decorated with vivid illustrations reminiscent of “a fairy tale.”

“Even at that age, as a kid, I feel like he cared about where I was at,” Cassidy explained. “He wanted to make sure I was okay. He wanted to boost my self-esteem somehow by expressing interest in my interests. He didn’t do it for him. did for me. And that was pretty important at a time when I didn’t know what was going on.”

James Cagney is seen here in the harness of one of his horses at his home at Verney Farm in Stanfordville, New York, circa 1956. (Icon and Image/Getty Images)

Although he found fame in Hollywood, Cagney was reportedly enamored of country life. In 1936, he bought a farm in Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Frances spent as much time as possible between movies. During their retirement years, the couple lived on a farm near Millbrook in Dutchess County, New York, where they bred Morgan horses. When not in front of a camera, Cagney immersed himself in reading, painting, farming, and classical guitar.

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James Cagney, his wife Frances Cagney and their dog Reddy are pictured here in a photo taken in the yard of their home in Beverly Hills, California, circa 1935. The couple were married from 1922 until Cagney’s death in 1986. (De Carvalho Collection/Getty Images)

“He loved to paint,” Cassidy said. “I think he loved decorating because his house was beautifully decorated. He was an actor who, when he was contracted to Warner Bros. studios, he’d shoot a picture and then he’d go to New York and go be with his horses and his But his hobby was really painting. There are several paintings he did that are wonderful. I mean, he couldn’t wait to get out a pen and a pad and start drawing .

“He asked me, what do you want me to draw for you?” Cassidy shared. “And I said, I want you to draw this sprite in your window. It turned out to be from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And he drew it for me.”

James Cagney made many “gangster” films during his life. In real life, the actor was an artist who had taken refuge in the country life. (Getty Images)

It’s a drawing, Cassidy said, that he still cherishes 50 years later.

Over the years, Cagney would check on Cassidy, especially when tragedy struck. In 1976 Cassidy’s father died in a fire. Officials say a cigarette may have started the fire that swept through his Los Angeles penthouse apartment. The 49-year-old and Jones divorced in 1974.

“I think I’ve looked for father figures throughout my life and mentors that I’ve sought out for guidance,” Cassidy explained. “[Whether] consciously or unconsciously, I wanted to find someone who could say, it’s going to be okay. And, I’m proud of you. Or, you are doing a good job. I don’t think you ever lose that. I had to find my father in a way that he is not there in the physical sense. But I feel my dad around me all the time.”

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Jack Cassidy died in 1976 at the age of 49. (Getty Images)

“But like anything else, you learn to deal with it,” Cassidy explained. “It’s been a very, very long time, but I still miss him all the time. I think about him all the time.”

Cassidy described her mother as still “the backbone of our family”.

Ryan Cassidy next appeared in “The Facts of Life”. (NBCU Photo Bank)

“The great thing about my mom is she was never like, I’m a movie star and that’s what I do,” Cassidy explained. “She was like, this is my career and this is my life my kids, my husband. This was her life. And she was from a very small town. She had a small town sensibility. And she tried to instill that in his children. So even though we grew up in show business, we had a real life as much as it could be a real life.”

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Ryan Cassidy, right, described his mother Shirley Jones as the “backbone” of the family. (Danny Feld/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

“My mom was playing a mom on TV, but she was coming home, and she was as much of a mom to us as she was a mom on TV,” he continued. “But the reason she was so good in that role of Mrs. Partridge was because it was something that came naturally to her. She was nurturing, loving and compassionate, just a wonderful mum.”

Cagney had heartfelt words for the matriarch’s grieving son.

“He said to my mom, your son Ryan is a shrewd and artistic young man, and I treasured those few hours I spent with him,” Cassidy beamed. “I know I never forgot my afternoon with him. He was a really sweet, wonderful old man who was also incredibly charming and charismatic. And he showed me a certain kindness, without me being his own child or grandson. I never forgot him.”

Ryan Cassidy frequently spotted Dean Martin at the local Hamburger Hamlet. (Martin Mills/Getty Images)

Another actor who has been on Cassidys mind is Dean Martin. Growing up, Cassidy said this star was often at the Hamburger Hamlet to watch sports from the bar.

“Dean lost his son, and I don’t think he’s really recovered from that,” Cassidy admitted. “Whatever he went through, I think he wanted to be alone. It was his place to go and sit. But he was always so nice to me. He was a lovely man who always asked questions about my mother.”

The crooners’ eldest son, Dean Paul “Dino” Martin, was killed instantly in 1987 when his fighter jet slammed into an isolated mountain. He was 35 years old.

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Dean Paul Martin Jr. died in 1987 at the age of 35. (Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)

Ten years before the tragedy, Frank Sinatra’s 82-year-old mother, Natalie “Dolly” Sinatra, was killed in a nearby plane crash in the same mountain range.

“Went there one night with my mom, it was Father’s Day,” Cassidy said. “And I noticed him. I said, Mom, Dean Martins sitting at the bar. And she said, Is he? Oh, I want to come up and say hello to him. I think my mom was really sorry for him. His dads Day and Dean are sitting there all alone. She walked up to him and said, Dean? It’s Shirley Jones. He turned around and said, Oh, Shirley! He’s got up and put his arms around her. My mom got very emotional. She started crying.”

Martin died on Christmas Day 1995. He was 78 years old.

Dean Martin died in 1995. He was 78 years old. (John Springer/CORBIS/Corbis Collection via Getty Images)

However, not all Cassidys memories of Martin are sad. He described how Martin’s sense of humor never left him.

“It was his favorite place to go,” Cassidy noted. “His white Rolls-Royce sat directly in front of the Hamlet and his license plate said Drunkie on it. Incredible talent this guy was.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.