'60s Teen Heartthrob Bobby Sherman Dies at Age 81 at Home in Encino—Where He Famously Built Replica Disneyland for His Kids

Yahoo

9 hours ago

Iconic musician and former teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman has passed away at the age of 81 inside his Encino, CA, home—months after revealing that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
Sherman's wife, Brigitte Poublon, announced the news of his death in a heartfelt statement that was shared on Instagram by the couple's longtime friend, actor John Stamos.
'It is with the heaviest heart that I share the passing of my beloved husband, Bobby Sherman,' Brigitte wrote.
'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.'
Brigitte went on to praise her late husband for his unwavering generosity, detailing how he traded his chart-topping music career to dedicate his life to helping others, as a CPR teacher and an emergency services worker.
'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,'' she went on.
'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.'
Sherman is survived by his wife, as well as his two sons, Tyler and Christopher, who he shared with his former spouse, Patti Carnel; and six grandchildren.
In March, Brigitte shared the news of her husband's kidney cancer diagnosis, telling Fox News that Sherman's body was 'shutting down' and revealing that the singer was undergoing hospice care at their Encino home.
'He was doing crossword puzzles with me in the last few days. And then all of a sudden Saturday, he turned around and … he's just sleeping more and his body's not working anymore. It's not. Everything's shutting down,' she told the outlet.
She added that her husband had been receiving treatment at hospital, but that he had expressed his desire to spend his final days at home with his loved ones, recalling: 'His last words from the hospital last night were, 'Brig, I just want to go home.''
The iconic musician shot to fame in the late 1960s, when his hit song 'Little Woman' rocketed up the charts, turning him into a singing legend, while his role in the comedy western series 'Here Come the Brides' transformed him into an on-screen star.
At the height of his fame, Sherman confessed that balancing his acting and musical careers became quite the tricky task, explaining that he was constantly traveling back and forth between sets and the stage.
'I'd film five days a week, get on a plane on a Friday night and go someplace for matinee and evening [concerts] Saturday and Sunday, then get on a plane and go back to the studio to start filming again,' he told The Washington Post in 1998. 'It was so hectic for three years that I didn't know what home was.
'I was disoriented—I never knew where I was, always had to be reminded. But, in all honesty, I must say I had the best of times because the concerts were great, the fans were great. It was the proverbial love-in, but it just zapped so much out of me.'
However, in the late 1980s, Sherman—who was born in Santa Monica, CA—took a step back from the spotlight, instead choosing to focus on a life of service, although he continued to dabble in minor on-screen roles until the late 1990s.
Behind the scenes, Sherman was said to be a doting father to his kids, earning wide praise in the 1980s when it was revealed that he had constructed a replica of Disneyland's iconic Main Street for the boys in the backyard of their Encino home.
In an interview with Dateline that was filmed in 1985, Sherman revealed that he'd originally intended to build his sons a treehouse, but he felt that they were too young to safely enjoy it.
'Originally what I was going to do was build my boys a treehouse, but they were rather young and I kept having these nightmares of them falling out,' he confessed. 'So I said, 'Well, I'll try something else, I'll build a western street.'
'The more I thought about that, the more I thought, well, even if it's brand new, to be authentic looking, it's going to look old and beat up. So I decided, I know, I'll build the first two blocks of Main Street at Disneyland.'
Sherman noted that he had 'done a lot of work' with Disney throughout his career, so he reached out to the company, who kindly sent him the specs for the section of Main Street that he wanted to build.
Still, the project was a much more complex undertaking than he had anticipated, he confessed, revealing: 'I was thinking it was going to take three months… two and a half years later of hard labor, I finished the first two blocks of Main Street, Disneyland.'
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