GREASE was released almost 40 years ago but it’s still as much of a feel-good classic now as it ever was.
Here, we take a look at the actors who played Rydell High’s most memorable characters – from peachy keen cheerleaders to delinquent motoring enthusiasts…
Who was in the cast of 1978 movie Grease?
Olivia Newton-John as Sandy Olsson
Native Australian Olivia, now 69, was 29 years old and already a Grammy-winning pop and country singer when she bagged the lead role of Sandy, a naive new arrival to Rydell High.
She’d even competed for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, being beaten by ABBA’s song Waterloo.
But her role in Grease sent her career sky-rocketing, though she was initially anxious she’d be too old and wouldn’t be able to do an American accent.
Filmmakers accommodated Olivia with a screen test with co-star John Travolta, and adapted the musical’s story so that Sandy had been holidaying with her Aussie family before moving to the States.
Inspired by Sandy’s transformation in the movie, Olivia vamped up her pop career too, and she produced hits like Physical and Twist Of Fate, as well as starring in the bizarre musical movie Xanadu in 1980.
John Travolta as Danny Zuko
John Travolta, now 63, had the most fruitful career in Hollywood of all the cast after playing tamed heart-breaker and T-Birds leader Danny Zuko in Grease.
The Scientologist was a 23-year-old rising star when he bagged the role, having just made Saturday Night Fever, which earned him a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars.
He’d also released almost two dozen of his own singles.
After Grease he went on to star in Urban Cowboy, Face/Off, Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, The Thin Red Line, Battlefield Earth and Hairspray.
More recently he has impressed with his performance as Robert Shapiro in American Crime Story: The People Vs OJ Simpson.
Dyslexic John has been married twice and had three children, though tragically his son Jett died aged 16 of a seizure in the Bahamas.
Stockard Channing as Betty Rizzo
Pink Ladies leader Rizzo was played by Stockard Channing, who at 32 was the oldest of all the actors playing the students.
She was a popular TV and movie actress at the time, known for her comic turns and portrayals of feisty women.
She had two numbers in Grease displaying her fine singing voice, but her moving portrayal of Rizzo’s phantom pregnancy made her stand out too.
Grease led to her being given two US sitcoms based around her, and she won a Tony Award for her part in Broadway play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
Nowadays Stockard, 73, is known for her TV roles in The Good Wife and The West Wing, the latter of which won her an Emmy.
She has been married and divorced four times and this year has been performing in the West End in play Apologia.
Jeff Conaway as Kenickie Murdoch
Jeff – who began his career in TV shows Happy Days, Taxi and Babylon 5 – is sadly one of the cast members no longer with us.
Having played Danny’s second-in-command Kenickie, the original driver of Greased Lightning, former rock band frontman Jeff succumbed to drug addiction.
He fought the addiction throughout his life and in the 2000s went on US reality shows to try and get clean.
Part of his drug abuse was linked to a back injury he got while filming the energetic routine for Greased Lightnin’, which required painkillers.
The actor had also confessed to being in love with Olivia Newton-John during filming and he went on to marry her sister Rona, though they divorced in 1985.
He eventually married three times, and died aged 60 of various causes including pneumonia and encephalopathy, attributable to drug overdoses, in 2011.
Didi Conn as Francesca Alicia “Frenchy” Facciano
Frenchy was the pink-haired pal of Sandy who always showed her kindness when things got tough.
The character, who also showed up in Grease 2, was played by Didi Conn – real name Edith Conn – who is now 67.
The film star also made a cameo in the recent US live TV production of Grease, the only star of the original to do so.
Prior to Grease she’d only been in one movie, called You Light Up My Life.
But since the film came out, twice-married Didi has been in dozens of TV shows and films including Frida, Almost Summer, and Law & Order.
Didi’s son has autism which has led her to become a spokeswoman for Autism Speaks and she was a passionate supporter of former US President Barack Obama.
Recently, it was revealed that Didi will be competing on Dancing on Ice 2019 as the 11th celebrity to sign up for the show.
Michael Tucci as Sonny LaTierri
Michael Tucci, 71, had been in a sitcom and a horror movie when he bagged the role of T-Birds prankster Sonny in Grease.
He was 30 at the time, and his line “Come on guys, let’s go for a slice of pizza” has to be one of the best of the film.
Eventually his character managed to charm Marty Maraschino despite her rejecting him at the school dance.
You may now know Michael from crime series Diagnosis: Murder and Melissa McCarthy comedy The Heat.
He also starred alongside late comic Gary Schandling on his sitcom in the 80s.
Currently Michael teaches Introduction to Fine Arts and Theater Arts at St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge, California.
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News Pictures Who is in the Grease cast? Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Michael Tucci and Didi Conn
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”
Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
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