Bobby Sherman, actor and singer who became a teen idol in the 1960s and 1970s, dies at 81.

Bobby Sherman , whose charming smile and trendy shaggy hairstyle made him a teen idol in the 1960s and '70s with pop hits such as "Little Woman" and "Julie, Do Ya Love Me," has died at 81.

Sherman was a clean-cut regular on the covers of Tiger Beat and Sixteen magazines , often with his hair over his eyes and a choker around his neck. His face was printed on lunchboxes, cereal boxes, and posters that hung on the walls of his fans' bedrooms. Such was his impact that he was ranked number 8 on TV Guide's list of the "25 Biggest Teen Idols on TV."

He was part of that group of teen heartthrobs that emerged as mass-market, youth-oriented magazines and television took off, connecting the dapper Ricky Nelson in the 1950s to David Cassidy in the 1960s, all the way to Justin Bieber in the 2000s.

Sherman had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Little Woman", "Julie, Do Ya Love Me", "Easy Come, Easy Go", and "La La La (If I Had You)". He had six albums chart on the Billboard 200, including "Here Comes Bobby", which spent 48 weeks on the album chart, peaking at number 10. His career took off when he was cast on the ABC rock 'n' roll show "Shindig!" in the mid-1960s. He later starred in two television series: "Here Come the Brides" (1968-70) and "Getting Together" (1971).

Years later, Sherman became a certified emergency medical technician and instructor for the Los Angeles Police Department, teaching first aid and CPR to police recruits and donating his salary.

"A lot of times, people say, 'Well, if you could go back and change things, what would you do?'" he told The Tulsa World in 1997. "And I don't think I would change anything, except maybe be a little more aware of it, because I probably could have enjoyed it a little more. It was a lot of work. It was a lot of sweat, blood and tears. But they were the best of times."

Sherman grew up in the San Fernando Valley, singing Ricky Nelson songs and performing with a high school rock band. "I grew up in a pretty strict family," he told the Sunday News in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1998. "Law and order were important."

He was studying child psychology at a community college in 1964 when his girlfriend took him to a party in Hollywood that would change his life. He went onstage and sang with the band. Afterward, guests Jane Fonda, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo asked him who his agent was. They took his number, and a few days later, an agent called and connected him with "Shindig!"

Sherman achieved true teen idol status in 1968 when he appeared in "Here Come the Brides," a comedy-adventure set in the boomtown of Seattle in the 1870s. He sang the show's theme song, "Seattle," and starred as young lumberjack Jeremy Bolt, often at odds with his brother, played by David Soul. It ran for two seasons.

After the series, Sherman starred in "Getting Together," a spin-off of "The Partridge Family," about a songwriter struggling to make it in the music business. He became the first artist to star in three television series before the age of 30. That television exposure soon translated into a successful recording career: His first single, "Little Woman," was certified gold in 1969.

"While the rest of the world seemed disordered and threatening, Sherman's grinning image shone from the bedroom walls of hundreds of thousands of teenagers, a comforting totem against the riots, drugs, anti-war protests and free love raging outside," said The Tulsa World in 1997.