R.I.P. Jeff Conaway, star of Grease and Taxi

Jeff Conaway, the star of Grease and Taxi whose later years were marked by a long and very public struggle with substance abuse, has died. Conaway had lapsed into a coma earlier this month, and while initial reports said that he had overdosed, his former Celebrity Rehab supervisor Dr. Drew Pinsky disputed that claim, saying that Conaway was instead suffering from pneumonia and sepsis. Doctors took him off life support yesterday with the approval of his family (though against the objection of his longtime girlfriend, who filed an unsuccessful attempt to stop them in court). Conaway died earlier today. He was 60.
A Broadway-bred actor who had roles in ’70s films like I Never Promised You A Rose Garden and Pete’s Dragon and TV shows such as Happy Days, Conway truly broke out in 1978’s Grease, playing John Travolta’s cocky, lothario fellow T-Bird, Kenickie. His character’s romance with Stockard Channing’s Rizzo (and the pregnancy scare that results) provides one of the more dramatic storylines in the film, but Conaway’s star moment was far lighter: The rousing number “Greased Lightning,” in which Conaway, combs at the ready, straddles a sports car and nearly swaggers off with the whole movie.
After Grease put him on top of the world, Conaway landed a starring role on the seminal sitcom Taxi, playing the would-be actor Bobby Wheeler—a character every bit as vain and shallow as Kenickie, but whose constant struggles with breaking into the acting business make him decidedly loveable. Conaway was with the show through its third season before he was let go, after the producers became increasingly concerned about his drug abuse.