The story behind the classic movie musical. The programme examines the original stage musical in the early 1970s, which starred a young Richard Gere, and the changes that occurred between stage and screen, including the addition of several new songs and toning down the original show's darker elements. Plus, a look at some of the actors who could have played the roles made famous by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
11-05-2017
1h 7m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, film producer, dancer, and singer. He first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta's career re-surged in the 1990s, with his role in Pulp Fiction, and he has since continued starring in Hollywood films, including Face/Off, Ladder 49 and Wild Hogs. Travolta has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The first, for his role in Saturday Night Fever and the second for Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty.
He married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. The couple had a son, Jett, (April 13, 1992 - January 2, 2009), and have a daughter, Ella Bleu, born in 2000. They were married until Kelly's untimely death at the age of 57 in 2020 from breast cancer.
He was previously involved with actress Diana Hyland, whom he met while filming The Boy in the Plastic Bubble; the relationship ended when she died of breast cancer in 1977.
He is a certified pilot and owns five aircraft, including an ex-Australian Boeing 707–138 airliner. The plane bears the name Jett Clipper Ella in honor of his children. His $4.9 million estate in the Jumbolair subdivision in Ocala, Florida, is situated on Greystone Airport with its own runway and taxiway right to his front door.
He has been a practitioner of Scientology since 1975 when he was given the book Dianetics while filming the movie The Devil's Rain in Durango, Mexico.
Dame Olivia Newton-John AC, DBE was an English-born, Australian-raised singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two platinum and four double platinum) have been certified gold by the RIAA. She has sold an estimated over 100 million albums worldwide.
In 1978, she co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Grease, which became one of the most successful films and movie soundtracks in Hollywood history. It features two major hit duets with co-star John Travolta: "You're the One That I Want"—which is one of the best-selling singles of all time—and "Summer Nights".
She became the second woman (after Linda Ronstadt in 1977) to have two singles – "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Summer Nights" – in the Billboard top 5 simultaneously. Her performance earned her a People's Choice Award for Favorite Film Actress. She was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Musical and performed the Oscar-nominated "Hopelessly Devoted to You" at the 1979 Academy Awards.
In 1980, she starred with Gene Kelly and Michael Beck in the musical fantasy film Xanadu. Although it was a critical failure, its soundtrack was certified double platinum and scored five top 20 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. She charted with "Magic", "Suddenly" with Cliff Richard, and the title song "Xanadu" with the Electric Light Orchestra.
"Magic" was Newton-John's biggest pop hit to that point and still ranks as the biggest AC hit of her career. The film has since become a cult classic and the basis for a Broadway show that ran for more than 500 performances beginning in 2007 and was nominated for four Tony Awards including Best Musical.
She helped pioneer the music video industry by recording a video album for Physical, featuring videos of all the album's tracks and three of her older hits. The video album earned her a fourth Grammy and was aired as an ABC prime-time special, Let's Get Physical, becoming a top-10 Nielsen hit.
She teamed up with Travolta again in 1983 for the critically and commercially unsuccessful movie Two of a Kind, redeemed by its platinum soundtrack featuring "Twist of Fate", and a new duet with Travolta, "Take a Chance"Iowa.
In 2002, she was inducted into Australia's ARIA Hall of Fame and, in 2015, she was inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame. In recognition for "her work as an entertainer and philanthropist", she was bestowed Australia's highest honor, the Companion of the Order of Australia, in June 2019.
In 2008, she raised funds to help build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia. She led a three-week, 228 km walk along the Great Wall of China, joined by various celebrities and cancer survivors throughout her trek. The walk symbolised the steps cancer patients must take on their road to recovery.
She was a a long-time activist for environmental and animal rights issues. She battled breast cancer three times and was an advocate for breast cancer research and health awareness. Her business ventures included launching several product lines for Koala Blue and co-owning the Gaia Retreat & Spa in Australia.
Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway was an American actor, best known for his roles in the movie Grease, and the US TV series Taxi and Babylon 5. He also directed the 1992 film Bikini Summer 2.
Jeff spent some of his 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. 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.Conaway remained for the entire run, then toured with the national company of the play Critic's Choice.
Conaway worked as a child model, and attended high school at the Quintano School for Young Professionals. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and later transferred to New York University. While at NYU, he appeared in television commercials and had the lead in a school production of The Threepenny Opera. He made his movie debut in the 1971 romantic drama Jennifer on My Mind, which also featured future stars Robert De Niro and Barry Bostwick.
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 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. After breaking into series television in 1975 with Happy Days, followed by guest spots in several other TV shows, and three more movies including Grease, he was cast as aspiring actor Bobby Wheeler on Taxi, which premiered in fall 1978.
Conaway starred in the short-lived 1983 fantasy-spoof series Wizards and Warriors. He made guest appearances on such shows as Barnaby Jones, George & Leo and Murder, She Wrote. He appeared inJawbreaker, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Do You Wanna Know a Secret? He also played Mick Savage on The Bold and the Beautiful. From 1994 to 1999, he played Zack Allan on Babylon 5. In addition to acting, Conaway dabbled in music. In the mid-1960s, he was the lead singer and guitarist for a rock band, The 3 1/2, which recorded four singles for Cameo Records in 1966 and 1967.
On May 11, 2011, Conaway was found unconscious from what was initially described as an overdose of substances believed to be pain medication and was treated in Encino, California, where he was listed in critical condition. The actor was suffering not from a drug overdose but rather from pneumonia with sepsis, for which he was placed into an induced coma. On May 26, 2011, Conaway's family took him off life support after doctors determined they could do nothing to revive him. Conaway died the following morning at the age of 60.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stockard Channing (born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard) is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her roles as First Lady Abbey Bartlet on the NBC television series The West Wing; Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; Aunt Frances in Practical Magic, Cynthia Swann Griffin in The First Wives Club, Dolly in Must Love Dogs, and Ouisa Kittredge in both the stage and fim versions of Six Degrees of Separation - the film version earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
She also starred as Susan Goodenow in the actor-titled series The Stockard Channing Show, and as Mickey MacElwaine in both the movie and TV series Lucan.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Eddie Deezen (born March 6, 1955) is an American character actor, voice actor and comedian, best known for his bit parts as nerd characters in 1970s and 1980s films such as Grease, Grease 2, Midnight Madness, 1941 and WarGames, as well as for larger roles in a number of independent cult films, including Surf II: The End of the Trilogy and I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
As a voice actor, he is easily recognizable for his distinctively high-pitched and nasally voice, most notably used for the characters of Mandark in the Cartoon Network series Dexter's Laboratory, Snipes the Magpie in Rock-A-Doodle, Ned in Kim Possible and Lenny the Know-It-All in The Polar Express.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Eddie Deezen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia .
Susan Buckner (January 28, 1952 - May 2, 2024) was an American former actress, best known for playing Patty Simcox in 1978's Grease.
Prior to her acting career she was crowned Miss Washington in 1971 and in September went on to become a top ten finalist in the Miss America 1972 pageant (she tied for first in the swimsuit preliminary), which was eventually won by Miss Ohio Laurel Lea Schaefer. Her acting career is sprinkled with supporting roles in television, stage, and film.
Lorenzo de Santos-Lamas (born January 20, 1958) is an American-Argentinian actor and reality television participant. Lamas is known for playing Lance Cumson, the irresponsible grandson of Angela Channing (played by Jane Wyman) on the popular 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest, Reno Raines on the 1990s crime drama Renegade, and Hector Ramirez on the daytime soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful. Lamas also served as a judge on ABC television's short-lived reality show Are You Hot?. Presently, he stars in his own reality show, Leave it to Lamas, a series about his real-life family.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Lorenzo Lamas, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Dennis Cleveland Stewart (July 29, 1947 – April 20, 1994) was an American actor and dancer. Best known for Grease (1978), and Grease 2 (1983), and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978).
Eve Arden (born Eunice Mary Quedens; April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990) was an American film, radio, stage and television actress. Born just north of San Francisco in Mill Valley and was interested in show business from an early age. At 16, she made her stage debut after quitting school to joined a stock company. After appearing in minor roles in two films under her real name, Eunice Quedens, she found that the stage offered her the same minor roles. By the mid 30s, one of these minor roles would attract notice as a comedy sketch in the stage play "Ziegfeld Folies". By that time, she had changed her name to Eve Arden. In 1937, she attracted some attention with a small role in Oh, Doctor (1937) which led to her being cast in a minor role in the film Stage Door (1937). By the time the film was finished, her part had expanded into the wise-cracking, fast-talking friend to the lead. She would play virtually the character for most of her career. While her sophisticated wise-cracking would never make her the lead, she would be a busy actress in dozens of movies over the next dozen years. In At the Circus (1939), she was the acrobatic Peerless Pauline opposite Groucho Marx and the Russian sharp shooter in the comedy The Doughgirls (1944). For her role as Ida in Mildred Pierce (1945), she received an Academy Award nomination. Famous for her quick ripostes, this led to work in Radio during the 40s. In 1948, CBS Radio premiered "Our Miss Brooks", which would be the perfect show for her character. As her film career began to slow, CBS would take the popular radio show to television in 1952. The television series Our Miss Brooks (1952) would run through 1956 and led to he movie Our Miss Brooks (1956). When the show ended, she tried another television series, The Eve Arden Show (1957), but it was soon canceled. In the 60s, Eve raised a family and did a few guest roles, until her come-back television series The Mothers-In-Law (1967). This show, co-starring Kaye Ballard ran for two seasons. After that, she would make more unsold pilots, a couple of television movies and a few guest shots. She returned in occasional cameo appearances including the Principal McGee in Grease (1978), and Warden June in Pandemonium (1982), showing that she still had the wise-cracks and screen presence to bring back the fond memories of Miss Connie Brooks.
Dody Goodman (October 28, 1914 – June 22, 2008) was an American character actress. She played the mother of the title character in the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, her distinctive high-pitched voice announcing the show's title at the beginning of each episode. She was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show in the 1950s, and cast member of The Mary Tyler Moore Hour in 1979. Aside from film and television appearances, she also voiced Miss Miller in the television series Alvin and the Chipmunks and the film spin-off The Chipmunk Adventure. She also played on Punky Brewster, as Punky's teacher.
Sid Caesar (1922—2014) was an American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Frankie Avalon (born September 18, 1940) is an American actor, singer, and former teen idol.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Frankie Avalon, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Edd Byrnes (July 30, 1933 - January 8, 2020) was an American actor known for his starring role in the television series 77 Sunset Strip. He also was featured in the 1978 film Grease as Vince Fontaine.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Edd Byrnes, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
