Danny Bonaduce Says Father Compared Acting to ‘Pimping’ When He was 10

Danny Bonaduce was a child star thanks to The Partridge Family, but things on the home front weren’t easy.

In an interview that aired during the Sept. 15 episode of The Real Brady Bros., Danny, 66, opened up to hosts and The Brady Bunch stars Barry Williams and Christopher Knight about what life was like as a kid with his dad, Joseph Bonaduce.

Danny remembered that he was growing up in Pennsylvania, where his dad worked at the Philadelphia Zoo, when Joseph, who died in 2004 at 77, decided to submit a script he wrote to The Dick Van Dyke Show, “which at that time was the hottest show on TV.”

“He wrote and he sent it off to the producers who wrote back and said, ‘We got the script from you, but we cannot open it legally unless you send it through an agent,’ ” Danny remembered. But, the producers had, in fact, opened it and read it. They told him, “Not only would we like to purchase it, we would like to pay for your move to California.”

The family moved to Beverly Hills, where Joseph began working as a TV writer and producer. Danny also began working as a child actor, appearing on Bewitched and in commercials. “But my dad hated it,” he remembered. 

Then he was cast as Danny Partridge in The Partridge Family, which followed a fictional group of siblings (and their mom, played by Shirley Jones). “Because of the nature of being a singing group, [we] had different kinds of fans than normal sitcom stars,” he said. Instead, the fans treated them like a band, and he said that “the first day” the show aired, he had fans in his front yard with signs.

“So I’m off to do an episode of The Partridge Family. And my dad, who was not a real nice man, but very talented, as I get to the door and I’m going out, my mom’s beside me because she has to drive me to set,” he remembered. “He holds me, and he’s got the door, and he won’t open it completely.”

His dad told him, “Now listen to me, son. I want you to remember this. Acting is one step below pimping.”

Danny said he “didn’t even know” what that meant. His father let him leave, but his father “hated” the show. “My family did not like that I was on the part of the show. It caused some real rifts in my life,” he said.

Knight, 67, was stunned, since Joseph also worked in the entertainment industry. “How did he like being a writer, or was he conflicted about it?” he asked. 

“He was mean about it,” Danny said. “He was mean about a lot of stuff.” He remembered that his dad would angrily write on his typewriter in their house’s bathroom, and if he came out of the room, he would run and hide from his father. “But people really wanted to hire him that were willing to put up with some of his craziness,” he said. 

But he remembered it didn’t always work out. Joseph was a writer-producer on One Day at a Time, and star Bonnie Franklin told his dad she was going to change a joke he wrote. Joseph told her, “No, you’re not. Bonaduce jokes are carved in stone.”

“During a live performance where they’re recording, she changes the line,” Danny said. His father came out with the cameras still rolling and said, “I told you Bonaduce jokes are carved in stone.” He was escorted from the set and told not to come back.

“My dad was also banned from the set of The Partridge Family,” he said. “ He thought Shirley Jones liked him a lot more than she did.” Joseph asked her out and made her “really uncomfortable,” so he was banned. 

“He took it as a badge of honor,” Danny said. Joseph told him, “I’ve been kicked out of better places than The Partridge Family.”

The Partridge Family — which also starred the late David Cassidy, Susan Dey and Dave Madden — ran from 1970 to 1974. The “band” released multiple albums, with the 1970 single “I Think I Love You” reaching No. 1 on the Hot 100. 

Bonaduce’s career slowed down in the ‘80s, and he eventually retired from acting and became a radio host. He stayed good friends with Cassidy until his death in 2017.