Early stage career in 1957 Her first audition was for an open bi-weekly
casting call held by John Fearnley,
casting director for
Rodgers and Hammerstein and their various musicals. At the time, Jones had never heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Fearnley was so impressed, he ran across the street to fetch
Richard Rodgers, who was rehearsing with an orchestra for an upcoming musical. Rodgers then called
Oscar Hammerstein at home. She was reunited with
Ron Howard (who had played her brother in
The Music Man) in ''
The Courtship of Eddie's Father'' (1963). With an uncharacteristically brunette hairstyle, Jones played the role of a woman who falls in love with Tony Randall's lion-owning professor in
Fluffy (1965). In her film career, she has worked with some of Hollywood's icons:
Jimmy Stewart,
Gene Kelly,
Marlon Brando,
James Cagney,
Henry Fonda,
Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin and director
John Ford. Her 20-year-old stepson
David Cassidy, who was an unknown actor at the time, played Shirley Partridge's eldest son Keith and became a
teen idol. The show also spawned a number of albums and singles by The Partridge Family, performed by David Cassidy and Shirley Jones. That same year, their single "
I Think I Love You" reached number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 music chart, making Jones the second person, after
Frank Sinatra, and the first woman to win an acting Oscar and also have a number-one hit on that chart. Her achievement was matched only by
Cher and
Barbra Streisand. The Partridge Family won a
NARM award for the best-selling single of the year in 1970 for their hit "I Think I Love You". In 1971, The Partridge Family was nominated for a
Grammy under the
Best New Artist category. The series' run ended in 1974. Shirley Jones's friendship with David Cassidy had begun in the mid-to-late 1950s, when David was just six, after he learned about his father's divorce from his mother Evelyn Ward. Upon David's first meeting with Shirley before co-starring with her on
The Partridge Family, he said, "The day he tells me that they're divorced, he tells me, 'We're remarried, and let me introduce you to my new wife.' He was thrilled when her first film,
Oklahoma! (1955), had come out; and my dad took me to see it—I just see her, and I go, uh-oh, it doesn't really quite register with me, 'cause I'm in total shock, because I wanted to hate her, but the instant that I met her, I got the essence of her. She's a very warm, open, sweet, good human being. She couldn't have thawed it for me—the coldness and the ice—any more than she did." Shirley was shocked to hear her stepson was going to audition for the role of Keith Partridge. David said, "At the auditions, they introduced me to the lead actress [Shirley Jones] 'cause they had no idea, they had no idea. So I said, 'What are you doing here?' She looked at me and said, 'What are you doing here?' And I said, 'Well, I'm reading for the lead guy.' I said, 'What are you doing here?' She said, 'I'm the mother!'" Cassidy discussed his relationship with his stepmother on the show: "She wasn't my mother, and I can be very open, and we can speak, and we became very close friends. She was a very good role model for me, watching the way, you know, she dealt with people on the set, and watching people revere her." Cassidy appeared on many shows alongside his stepmother, including
A&E Biography,
TV Land Confidential, and
The Today Show. He was one of the presenters of his stepmother's
Intimate Portrait on
Lifetime Television, and the reality show pilot
In Search of the Partridge Family, where he served as co-executive producer. The rest of the cast also celebrated the 25th, 30th, and 35th anniversaries of
The Partridge Family (although Cassidy was unavailable to attend the 25th anniversary in 1995 owing to other commitments). Jack Cassidy's death in 1976 drew Jones and Cassidy closer, as Shirley's three children and stepson mourned their father.
Shirley and other projects In 1975, Jones starred in
Winner Take All as a compulsive gambler who wrecks her marriage by stealing from her husband and by eventually cheating on him with her bookie. In 1979, Jones tried her hand at television for the second time, starring in the
NBC show
Shirley, which, like
The Partridge Family, featured a family headed by a widowed mother. It failed to win ratings and was cancelled toward the middle of the season. Jones also played the "older woman" girlfriend of Drew Carey's character in several episodes of
The Drew Carey Show. She reprised Shirley Partridge in a cameo in a 2000 episode of ''
That '70s Show.'' She was also in the dramatic project
There Were Times, Dear, in which she played a loyal wife whose husband is dying of
Alzheimer's disease. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for this work. In February 1986, Jones unveiled her star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street just around the corner from Hollywood Boulevard. In 1983, she appeared in a rare revival of
Noël Coward's operetta,
Bitter Sweet. In 2004, she returned to Broadway in a revival of
42nd Street, portraying diva Dorothy Brock opposite
Patrick Cassidy, the first time a mother and son were known to star together on Broadway. In July 2005, Jones revisited the musical
Carousel onstage in Massachusetts, portraying "Cousin Nettie". Jones appeared as aunt of a struggling widow during the Great Depression, in Hallmark Channel's
Hidden Places in 2006. She received an Emmy Award nomination for Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie, and the
Screen Actors Guild Award for Actress in a Movie or Miniseries. She also appeared in ''
Grandma's Boy'' (2006) as a nymphomaniac senior citizen. On November 16, 2007, she took the stage at the
Ford Center in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, during the Oklahoma Centennial Spectacular concert that celebrated the state's 100th birthday. Jones sang the songs "
Oklahoma!" and "
People Will Say We're In Love" from the musical
Oklahoma!. In early 2008, it was announced that Jones would play
Colleen Brady on the long-running
NBC soap opera
Days of Our Lives.
ABC Family series
Ruby & The Rockits featured Jack and Patrick Cassidy. Jones guest-starred as their mother. In 2008, U.K. label
Stage Door Records released the retrospective collection
Then & Now featuring 24 songs from Jones's musical career, including songs from the films
Oklahoma!,
Carousel, and
April Love. The album featured new recordings of songs including "
Beauty and the Beast", "
Memory", and a sentimental tribute to
The Music Man. She had a recurring role as Burt Chance's mother in the
Fox TV comedy series
Raising Hope. In mid-2012, Jones played Mrs. Paroo, when her son Patrick played Harold Hill, in a
California Musical Theatre revival of
The Music Man. In 2014, Jones guest-starred on an episode of
General Hospital as
Mrs. McClain. ==Personal life==