Leo's girlfriend, Charlene "Cha-Cha" DiGregorio, is also 17 or 18 in the movie. Cha-Cha is a student at a different school in town, St. Bernadette's. She says in the movie, "They call me Cha-Cha because I'm the best dancer at St.
Some Rydell High School students were in their 30s
Annette Charles, who played bad girl Cha Cha DiGregorio, was 30. Only Lorenzo Lamas, who played Sandy's jock boyfriend Tom, and who had no lines, was an actual teenager.
Annette Charles, the actress who played Cha Cha DiGregorio in Grease, died this week in Los Angeles, reportedly after a battle with cancer. She was 63.
Another Grease actor has died. Annette Charles, who played Cha Cha Digregorio in the 1978 movie musical, lost her battle with cancer at age 63 on Wednesday, Access Hollywood reports.
Sometimes it's hard to look past how the 18-year-old Sonny was played by a 31-year old Michael Tucci, and how Rizzo, who was also supposed to be 18 in the movie, was played by a 33-year-old Stockard Channing.
Frenchy was played by Didi Conn, who was 26 while filming during the summer of 1977. Conn had appeared in multiple TV shows and movies before hitting it big with "Grease."
Stockard Channing, who was 33 when she played Rizzo in the first movie, told Vanity Fair one approach made her "look dirtier" than younger. Whether the project be "Friday Night Lights" or "Beverly Hills, 90210," casting adult actors to play teenagers has been a longstanding Hollywood tradition.
During the Thunder Road sequence in Grease (1978), she was experiencing terrible pain due to a tubular pregnancy, in which the fertilized egg begins growing in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus. This explains why she is frequently seen leaning against the cars.
The late Olivia Newton-John, who costarred as Sandy, was 29 at the time Grease was filmed; Stockard Channing, who played Rizzo, was the principal cast's oldest member at 33 during filming, according to a 2016 Vanity Fair article about the production.
Apparently, actress Dinah Manoff was such a bad dancer in real life that the directors left her character, Marty, out of the scene entirely! She also didn't get to be a part of all the hand-jiving — it looked like so much fun!
wins the dancing competition with Danny. Homely, pervy, and arrogant. Traditionally, the actress who plays Cha-Cha doubles as the Radio Singer accompanying Sandy during the song, "It's Raining on Prom Night".
Kelly Ward brought the youngest member of the T-Birds, Putzie, to life in a role specifically created for the film. Grease wasn't his first time working with costar John Travolta, as the two worked together on 1976's made-for-television movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
Cha Cha, despite having two names, is a fairly minor character. She's a catalyst in Sandy and Danny's breakup, although we're not sure why. Sandy gets mad at Danny when she asks about Cha Cha.
The Grease co-stars were still very close up until Olivia's death in August 2022, and even famously reunited in LA in 2002 to sing their classic hit 'You're The One That I Want'. John Travolta was a huge support to Olivia Newton-John as she underwent treatment for breast cancer.
Named after the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as greasers, the musical is set in 1959 at the fictional Rydell High School in Northwest Chicago. This fictional high school was based on Taft High School in Chicago, Illinois, and named after rock singer Bobby Rydell.
Grease was shot in various locations across the Los Angeles area, from the lively South Bay to the charming Silverlake neighborhood. Much of the production was filmed on-site, including exterior shots of Rydell High, taken at Venice High School, Huntington Park High School, and John Marshall High School.
Annette Charles (née Cardona; March 5, 1948 – August 3, 2011) was an American actress, dancer, and educator best known for her role as Charlene "Cha-Cha" DiGregorio in the 1978 feature film Grease. She made several appearances on television as well.
In a recently published oral history of Grease, Thurm, 80, has admitted the reason why a decision to cast older actors was made. “People might say the cast is too old, but Grease is not a documentary; it's a fantasy,” he told The Guardian. “It's a non-PC fairytale that is better for the cast not being teens.
With only a few television roles and small film appearances, Michelle Pfeiffer, then aged 23, was a relatively unknown actress when she attended the casting call audition for the role of Stephanie. Other actresses considered for the part included Lisa Hartman, Kristy McNichol, Andrea McArdle, and singer Pat Benatar.
The film is also notable for having Danny (played by John Travolta, who had already had top-40 hits before Grease) sing lead on the song, while Kenickie (Jeff Conaway) contributed with a few call-and-response lines.
One of the older looking actors in the film, the antagonist Leo 'Crater-Face' Balmudo — nicknamed for his acne scars — would have been around 30 when production started. He died in 1994 of complications from AIDS.
