Shirley Jones’ son recalls his unlikely afternoon with Hollywood ‘gangster’ James Cagney

Ryan Cassidy is the youngest son of “The Partridge Family" matriarch Shirley Jones and Tony Award-winning actor Jack Cassidy. He has written a children's book on 1930s film star James Cagney.

He detailed his afternoon with the Oscar winner in a new children’s book titled "James Cagney Was My Babysitter," which also features a foreword and afterword from Jones, 89. The actress worked with Cagney, who died in 1986 at age 86. The two stars became friends over the years. Stephanie Nolasco covers entertainment at Foxnews.com.

"There are a lot of actors that I grew up with, and actors and actresses that I met through the years," Cassidy told Fox News Digital. "And there’s so many of them that people have forgotten about, or maybe this generation doesn’t know about. And I wanted to share a very sweet story that happened [to] me when I was seven years old in a format that will tell people today who this man was."