Teen Heartthrob, Singer, and EMT Trainer Bobby Sherman, Dead at 81

I used to work in and around Hollywood, so I know how the game is played and how stars are "made." The majority of supposed "discoveries" are acts that have been trotted out and poll-tested for years, even decades. Teen heartthrob, singer, and actor Bobby Sherman is among the last of true Hollywood discoveries. Sherman was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles in the 1960s. While 17 years older than my husband, Sherman's and his upbringing in The Valley were similar--it was a different valley than it is today. Miles of tract homes, freeways, and shopping malls, surrounded by orange groves and wide open fields. Sherman was a good-looking boy who grew up in a nuclear family, played music in a high-school rock band, and just had fun in his youth.

“I was brought up in a fairly strict family,” he told the Sunday News newspaper in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1998. “Law and order were important. Respect your fellow neighbor, remember other people’s feelings. I was the kind of boy who didn’t do things just to be mischievous.”

In 1964, Sherman was studying child psychology in community college when he and his girlfriend popped into a Hollywood party.

He stepped onstage and sang with the band. Afterward, guests Jane Fonda, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo asked him who his agent was. They took his number and, a few days later, an agent called him and set him up with “Shindig!”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Sherman was a squeaky-clean regular on the covers of Tiger Beat and Sixteen magazines, often with hair over his eyes and a choker on his neck. His face was printed on lunchboxes, cereal boxes and posters that hung on the bedroom walls of his adoring fans. He landed at No. 8 in TV Guide’s list of “TV’s 25 Greatest Teen Idols.”
Sherman hit true teen idol status in 1968, when he appeared in “Here Come the Brides,” a comedy-adventure set in boom town Seattle in the 1870s. He sang the show’s theme song, “Seattle,” and starred as young logger Jeremy Bolt, often at loggerheads with his brother, played by David Soul. It lasted two seasons.

After "Here Comes the Brides," Sherman was tapped to star in “Getting Together,” a spinoff of the popular sitcom, “The Partridge Family.” He had the illustrious distinction of being the first performer to star in three TV series before he turned 30. Sherman also starred in the movies “Wild In the Streets,” “He is My Brother,” and “Get Crazy.”

But what makes Sherman's journey even more noteworthy is the fact that he walked away from it all, choosing his health, sanity, and his family over stardom. It was after the short-lived series, "Getting Together," that Sherman had his epiphany, walking away from Hollywood to pursue a career in emergency medicine. In 1988, Sherman became a certified emergency medical technician (EMT). In 1989, he founded his non-profit EMT program and dedicated his time to training LAPD officers and emergency personnel.

Sherman’s pivot to becoming an emergency medical technician in 1988 was born out of a longtime fascination with medicine. Sherman said that affinity blossomed when he raised his sons with his first wife, Patti Carnel. They would get scrapes and bloody noses and he became the family’s first-aid provider. So he started learning basic first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation from the Red Cross.
“If I see an accident, I feel compelled to stop and give aid even if I’m in my own car,” he told the St. Petersburg Times. “I carry equipment with me. And there’s not a better feeling than the one you get from helping somebody out. I would recommend it to everybody.”
In addition to his work with the Los Angeles Police Department, he was a reserve deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, working security at the courthouse. Sherman estimated that, as a paramedic, he helped five women deliver babies in the backseats of cars or other impromptu locations.
In one case, he helped deliver a baby on the sidewalk and, after the birth, the new mother asked Sherman’s partner what his name was. “When he told her Bobby, she named the baby Roberta. I was glad he didn’t tell her my name was Sherman,” he told the St. Petersburg Times in 1997.
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Sherman also became officially sworn in as a police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1992, where he served as the chief medical training officer. Also in 2011, the now 81-year-old and his second wife, Brigitte Sherman, established The Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children’s Foundation, a philanthropic endeavor aimed at empowering Ghanaian children by giving them access to quality education.

According to reports, Sherman donated his LAPD and San Bernardino Sheriff's Department salaries.

My friend and fellow entertainment industry annalist Theresa remembers seeing Sherman at a San Fernando Valley gas station in the 1990s. She said he drove a Rolls-Royce with a license plate frame that said, “My other car is a VW.” Looks like Sherman had a self-deprecating sense of humor to boot--my kind of guy.

In March, his second wife Brigette Poublon revealed that Sherman had been diagnosed with advanced-stage kidney cancer and that it was terminal. On Tuesday, Sherman took his last call and final bow. He was 81 years old.

Robert Cabot Sherman, Jr. was born July 22, 1943, in Santa Monica, CA to Robert Cabot Sherman, Sr. and Juanita Sherman. Sherman was raised in Van Nuys with his sister Darlene. His father owned Woodland Hills Dairy, his own milk delivery service. Sherman worked with his father, rising at 3:30 a.m. each day to serve over 1,000 customers.

Sherman played guitar, piano, trumpet, trombone, French horn and drums while growing up, practicing in the soundproof room at home that his dad had built for him.
After graduating from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys in 1961, Sherman was studying child psychology at Pierce College when a girlfriend took him to a cast party for The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).
He got up and sang with the band, then was approached by actors Natalie Wood, Jane Fonda and Sal Mineo, who said they would like to manage him and jumpstart his career. With Mineo’s help, he recorded a song, then auditioned for Shindig! An hour later, he had an offer for 28 shows.

Sherman's first wife was Patti Carnel (pictured), who bore him two sons: Christopher and Tyler. They divorced in 1979. In 2010, Sherman met and married Brigitte Poublon.

Sherman’s autobiography, Still Remembering You, was published in 1996. Two years later, he returned to the concert stage after 25 years away to take part in a “Teen Idol Tour” with Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits and Davy Jones of The Monkees.

He was rich in life and in friends. Actor, musician, and fellow (former) teen heartthrob John Stamos cross-posted this beautiful tribute from Poublon:

From one ex teen idol, to another - rest in peace Bobby Sherman. This is from his wife, my friend, Brigitte
“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. 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.
As he rested, I read him fan letters from all over the world—words of love and gratitude that lifted his spirits and reminded him of how deeply he was cherished. He soaked up every word with that familiar sparkle in his eye. And yes, he still found time to crack well-timed jokes—Bobby had a wonderful, wicked sense of humor. It never left him. He could light up a room with a look, a quip, or one of his classic, one-liners.
Known around the world for his music and acting, he brought joy to millions through songs like “Julie, Do Ya Love Me,” “Easy Come, Easy Go,” and “Little Woman,” and through his beloved role in Here Come the Brides.
But to those who truly knew him, Bobby was something much more. He was a man of service. 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.
Bobby is survived by his two sons, Tyler and Christopher, and six beautiful grandchildren.
He lived with integrity, gave without hesitation, and loved with his whole heart. And though our family feels his loss profoundly, we also feel the warmth of his legacy—his voice, his laughter, his music, his mission.
Thank you to every fan who ever sang along, who ever wrote a letter, who ever sent love his way. He felt it.
Rest gently, my love.
With gratitude and love, Brigitte Poublon Sherman.”
@bbscfoundation

RIP to a true entertainment talent and trailblazer, and a man of philanthropy, service, and responsibility. Enjoy this tribute to Bobby Sherman's career.

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