Background and career
Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway (October 5, 1950 – May 27, 2011) was an American actor. He portrayed Kenickie in the film Grease and had roles in four television series: struggling actor Bobby Wheeler in Taxi (1978–1982), Prince Erik Greystone in Wizards and Warriors, security officer Zack Allan on Babylon 5, and Howard Griffin on Murder, She Wrote. Conaway was featured in the first and second seasons of the reality television series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.
Conaway was born on October 5, 1950, in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and raised in the Astoria, Flushing, and Forest Hills neighborhoods of Queens, New York City. His father Charles was an actor, producer, and publisher. His mother Helen, an actress who went by the stage name Mary Ann Brooks, taught music at New York City's Brook Conservatory. They divorced when he was 3, and Conaway and his two older sisters lived with their mother. He spent time living with his grandparents in South Carolina, which gave him a Southern accent. When Conaway accompanied his mother to a casting call for the Broadway play All the Way Home, a story set in Knoxville, Tennessee, the 10-year-old Conaway's accent helped him earn a featured role. The play was a critical and audience success, with nominations and wins for major theatrical awards, 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 also worked as a child model. He attended high school at the Quintano School for Young Professionals. 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.
While at NYU, Conaway appeared in television commercials and had the lead in a school production of The Threepenny Opera. 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.
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 Zuko for about 30 months, while his friend John Travolta, with whom he shared a manager, later joined the play first in the supporting role of Doody. The two reunited in the 1978 motion picture musical Grease, in which Travolta played Zuko and Conaway his buddy Kenickie.
After breaking into series television in 1975 with Happy Days, this was followed by guest spots in several other TV shows, and three more films including Grease. Conaway appeared as a guest in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The producers of Moore's show were developing a new series called Taxi and considered Conaway for a role of a struggling college student which went to Randall Carver. Conaway ultimately beat out Cleavon Little for the role of Bobby Wheeler, an aspiring actor who worked at a taxi company. The new show premiered in late 1978, and was a critical and popular success. After the third season, Conaway departed Taxi but two of his performances carried over into the fourth season and he appeared once more as a special guest. The primary reason for his leaving Taxi was drug abuse, which worsened after season one. Writer Sam Simon recalled in 2008 how during production of his first script for that show (season 3, episode 12) a missing Conaway was found in his dressing room, too high on drugs to perform. Conaway's dialogue for that episode was divided between his co-stars Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd, who delivered the jokes well enough that Conaway's absence had little negative effect on the episode. This development caused the show's producers to realize Conaway was expendable, which contributed to his termination. Conaway was reported as dissatisfied with being typecast as a "blond bimbo" and the "butt of struggling-actor jokes," and found the role repetitive. He also felt creatively stymied, stating he "loved the role" but he also realized Bobby was not as distinctive as other characters on the show: "[N]obody else could do Louie or Jim [DeVito and Lloyd's characters, respectively], they were such defined characters. But Bobby — anybody could walk in and say, 'Hi, Alex.' [to Judd Hirsh's character]."
Conaway starred in the short-lived 1983 fantasy-spoof series Wizards and Warriors. He made guest appearances on such shows as Barnaby Jones, George and Leo, and Murder, She Wrote. He appeared in films such as Jawbreaker, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, and Do You Wanna Know a Secret? From 1989 to 1990, he played Mick Savage on The Bold and the Beautiful. In 1993, he appeared onstage in Real Life Photographs. From 1994 to 1999, he played Sergeant, later promoted to Security Chief, Zack Allan on Babylon 5. In 2010, he provided voice-over for the English version of the animated short film Dante's Hell Animated (released in 2013), in which he is credited as "Hollywood legend Jeff Conaway".
