Dave Madden of The Partridge Family Dies at 82

 Posted on June 3, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  654 words  |  Martina Birk

Dave Madden, who played band manager Reuben Kincaid on “The Partridge Family,” died Thursday in Jacksonville, Florida of congestive heart and kidney failure. He was 82.

Madden’s character was typically aggravated by the mischievous Partridge kids and tangled frequently with Danny Bonaduce’s character.

While the series starred Shirley Jones, with her real-life son David Cassidy as the resident heartthrob, it was Madden and the freckle-faced Bonaduce who became the reigning comic duo.

Jones said Madden “made the show, I felt.”

“His relationship with Danny Bonaduce is what made the show work: this strange, mad little boy and the grown man who was even worse as a father figure,” she said Thursday. “It was hysterical!”

Before “The Partridge Family,” Madden was part of the ensemble on the “Laugh-In” comedy series, sipping and sometimes spitting milk along with joining in the show’s zany sketches and crazy jokes. He later had a recurring role as one of the customers at Mel’s Diner on the long-running sitcom “Alice.”

Born in Ontario, Canada, he grew up in Terre Haute, Ind. and He began in show business as a nightclub comic and landed his first acting job on the short-lived sitcom “Camp Runamuck” in the mid-1960s.

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More recently, he did voice work for videogame “The Curse of Monkey Island” and narration for TV show “Herman’s Head.” Madden also appeared on ’70s staples “Love American Style,” “The Love Boat” and “Fantasy Island.”

In 2007 he published a memoir, “Reuben on Wry.”

Survivors include his wife, a daughter and a son.

 (The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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