Jeff Conaway

Jeff Conaway was an American actor born on October 5, 1950, in Manhattan, New York City, who was raised in the Queens neighborhoods of Astoria, Flushing, and Forest Hills. His father Charles worked as an actor, producer, and publisher, while his mother Helen, who performed under the stage name Mary Ann Brooks, was an actress and music teacher at New York City's Brook Conservatory. His parents divorced when he was three, after which Conaway and his two older sisters were raised by their mother.

Time spent with his grandparents in South Carolina gave the young Conaway a Southern accent that proved professionally useful. At age ten, he accompanied his mother to a casting call for director Arthur Penn's Broadway production of All the Way Home, a play set in Knoxville, Tennessee, and landed a featured role as one of four boys. The production, which ran 333 performances and one preview from November 29, 1960, to September 16, 1961, was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play and won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize. Conaway remained with the show for its entire run, then toured with the national company of Critic's Choice. He also worked as a child model during this period.

Conaway attended the Quintano School for Young Professionals and, beginning at age fifteen, played with the rock band 3½. He later studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts before transferring to New York University. While at NYU, he appeared in television commercials and took the lead in a school production of The Threepenny Opera. His film debut came in the 1971 romantic drama Jennifer on My Mind, which also featured Robert De Niro and Barry Bostwick.

His Broadway career extended from 1960 to 1994. Among his most significant stage credits was the original Broadway cast of the musical Grease, in which he began as an understudy to several roles, including that of lead character Danny Zuko, and eventually succeeded role-originator Barry Bostwick. He performed in the show for two and a half years, during which time John Travolta, a friend with whom he shared a manager, joined the cast in the supporting role of Doody. Conaway and Travolta reunited in the 1978 film adaptation of Grease, with Travolta playing Zuko and Conaway portraying his friend Kenickie. Conaway also starred on Broadway in The News and appeared in All the Way Home and Grease across his stage career.

On television, Conaway broke into series work in 1975 with Happy Days, followed by guest appearances on several other programs. He was cast as aspiring actor Bobby Wheeler on the sitcom Taxi, which premiered in fall 1978, having previously appeared in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show for the same producers. He left Taxi after the third season. In 1983, he starred in the short-lived fantasy-spoof series Wizards and Warriors, playing Prince Erik Greystone. From 1989 to 1990, he played Mick Savage on The Bold and the Beautiful. From 1994 to 1999, he portrayed security officer Zack Allan, a sergeant later promoted to security chief, on Babylon 5. He also made guest appearances on programs including Barnaby Jones, George and Leo, and Murder, She Wrote, and appeared in films such as Jawbreaker and Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.

In addition to acting, Conaway pursued a music career. As a teenager in the mid-1960s, he served as lead singer and guitarist for The 3½, which recorded four singles for Cameo Records in 1966 and 1967. In 1979, he recorded a self-titled debut album for Columbia Records, produced by Mike Appel, Bruce Springsteen's manager, with the single "City Boy" released from that project. In 2000, he released the album It Don't Make Sense You Can't Make Peace on the KEGMusic label.

Conaway was married three times. His first marriage, entered into when he was twenty-one, was to a dancer and was subsequently annulled. His second marriage, to Rona Newton-John, elder sister of his Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John, lasted from 1980 until their divorce in 1985. His stepson from that marriage, Emerson Newton-John, became a race car driver. His third marriage, to Kerri Young, ran from 1990 to 2000. Conaway struggled with substance abuse for much of his adult life, a subject he discussed openly. He appeared in VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew during its first and second seasons. He died on May 27, 2011.