#Grease lightning cast 1978 movie
#Grease lightning cast 1978 series

He had appeared in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show for the same producers, and, he said in 1987, had been considered for the role of John Burns, which eventually went to Randall Carver:īut then one day I got the whole script and became real interested in the actor character, then called Bobby Taylor.

#Grease lightning cast 1978 series

Īfter breaking into series television in 1975 with Happy Days, followed by guest spots in several other TV shows, and three more films including Grease, he was cast as aspiring actor Bobby Wheeler on Taxi, which premiered in fall 1978. The two would reunite in the 1978 motion picture musical Grease, in which Travolta played Zuko and Conaway his buddy Kenickie. He played the role for 2 1/2 years while his friend John Travolta, with whom he shared a manager, later joined the show, playing the supporting role of Doody.

The following year, Conaway appeared in the original cast of the Broadway musical Grease, as an understudy to several roles including that of the lead male character, Danny Zuko, and eventually succeeded role-originator Barry Bostwick. He made his film debut in the 1971 romantic drama Jennifer on My Mind, which also featured future stars Robert De Niro and Barry Bostwick.

While at NYU, Conaway appeared in television commercials and had the lead in a school production of The Threepenny Opera. After playing with the rock band 3 1/2 beginning at age 15, he attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and later transferred to New York University. Ĭonaway worked as a child model, and attended high school at the Quintano School for Young Professionals. Conaway remained for the entire run, then toured with the national company of the play Critic's Choice. The 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning play was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play and ran 333 performances and one preview from November 29, 1960, to September 16, 1961. He also spent time living with his grandparents in South Carolina, which gave him enough of a Southern accent that when he accompanied his mother to a casting call for director Arthur Penn's Broadway play All the Way Home, a story set in Knoxville, Tennessee, the 10-year-old Conaway landed a featured role as one of four boys. They divorced when he was 3, and Conaway and his two older sisters lived with their mother. His mother, Helen, an actress who went by the stage name Mary Ann Brooks, taught music at New York City's Brook Conservatory. His father, Charles, was an actor, producer, and publisher. Drew.Ĭonaway was born in Manhattan, New York, and raised in the Astoria, Flushing, and Forest Hills neighborhoods of Queens. Conaway was featured in the first and second seasons of the reality television series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. He portrayed Kenickie in the film Grease and had roles in two television series: struggling actor Bobby Wheeler in Taxi and security officer Zack Allan on Babylon 5. The show, which was originally being developed for HBO Max before switching networks, will focus on the Pink Ladies, the clique of mischievous, sexually active, stereotype-busting Rydell High greaser girls led in the original film by Stockard Channing, aka Betty Rizzo.Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway (Octo– May 27, 2011) was an American actor. The first, called Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, has just been green-lit as a ten-episode series set to air on Paramount+, the streaming service of ViacomCBS. In fact, there are two such projects officially in the works. So in this era of seemingly endless revivals (see: Gossip Girl, Sex and the City) and prequels (see: Bridgerton, the Robert Langdon series, Game of Thrones), it was almost inevitable that Grease would soon be resurrected in one form or another (we are going to ignore the fact that there was a widely panned Grease 2 in the '80s).

#Grease lightning cast 1978 movie

It was the highest grossing movie musical of the 20th century, one that catapulted its leads to superstardom, inspired decades of '50s-themed Halloween costumes and karaoke go-tos, and spawned generations of funny, charming, nostalgic tales of teen love, angst, and attitude.

The 1978 film adaptation of the musical, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, is still today-43 years later-a paragon of the classic American teen flick. Before the existence of such iconic high school movies like Clueless and Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club and 10 Things I Hate About You, there was Grease.