Bobby Sherman, the Southern California heartthrob whose success on the television screen and music charts in the late 1960s and early 1970s cemented his teen idol status, has Stage 4 cancer.
His wife, Brigitte Poublon, disclosed his diagnosis in a Facebook post on Tuesday, saying that the 81-year-old retired actor and singer was no longer able to make appearances. She did not say what type of cancer her husband had or how long he had been ill.
Mr. Sherman vaulted to stardom in the Western comedy series “Here Come the Brides,” making his debut in 1968 in the role of Jeremy Bolt, one of several brothers intent on finding companions for the lonely lumberjacks at their logging business in Seattle after the Civil War. From 1968 to 1970, the show ran for 52 episodes on ABC, helping to put Mr. Sherman in the public eye and on the covers of teeny-bopper magazines.
One of his first breaks came in the mid-1960s, when he was cast as a house singer on the variety show “Shindig!” which was also broadcast on ABC. And he landed cameos on two prominent sitcoms of the era. The first was “The Monkees,” with Mr. Sherman playing Frankie Catalina in a 1967 episode — a nod to another teen idol, Frankie Avalon. In 1971, he appeared in one episode of “The Partridge Family.”
But Mr. Sherman achieved his greatest success as a recording artist, with a collection of catchy hits about love and coming of age that associated him with a style known as bubble gum music.
His single “Little Woman” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 list in 1969 and earned him a gold record. The next year, he struck gold again with “Easy Come, Easy Go,” which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Julie, Do Ya Love Me.”
With his piercing blue eyes and flowing hair, Mr. Sherman, a former high school football star who was born in Santa Monica, Calif., made an instant impression on Hollywood’s elite at a party in the 1960s where he was asked to sing. The guest list included Jane Fonda, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Mr. Sherman’s performance led to his being introduced to Jack Good, a producer of “Shindig!”
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Sherman made occasional appearances on television, including on “The Love Boat” and “Murder, She Wrote,” but he receded somewhat from the spotlight.
He later became an emergency medical technician and organized a squad of volunteer paramedics to work special events in Southern California. He taught first aid to recruits at the Los Angeles Police Department Academy, according to a 1993 feature on him in The Los Angeles Times.
Mr. Sherman, who has two sons from his first marriage, became a technical reserve officer for the L.A.P.D. In 1999, the department named him reserve officer of the year. He was also a reserve deputy sheriff for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
In a speech on the floor of the U.S. House in 2004, then-Representative Buck McKeon of California honored Mr. Sherman for his unusual role change.
“Bobby is a stellar example of the statement ‘to protect and serve,’” he said.
