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Jeff Conaway as Kenickie in the 1979 hit
movie "Grease." Remember:
Rizzo: I've got so many
hickies people will think I'm a leper.
Kenickie: Relax... A hickie from Kenickie is like a
Hallmark card, when you only care enough to send the very best!
Rizzo: You pig!
Kenickie: Oh, I love it when you talk dirty! |
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Here's Jeff Conaway and his girlfriend Vikki Lizzi's interview...
Jeff was Kenikie in the movie Grease, the TV series
Taxi, Babylon 5 (to name but a few of his credits) and
most recently he was in the
reality show Celebrity Rehab season's one and two and Vikki was also
on both show's, but we saw her time in rehab in season two... This
is a really nice couple, and I had so much fun doing this interview,
I truly hope everyone enjoys it...
Yana: Jeff: How did you become an actor?
Jeff: When I was nine years old, and through series of events I decided I
wanted to become an actor, cause I originally wanted to be an
astronaut, but I had to get glasses, I had astigmatisms, so I
couldn't be a pilot so there went my dreams of being an astronaut.
One day I just decided I wanted to be an actor and I talked to my
mother about it and she said no,and I bugged her and she kept saying
no, and I asked her why not, and she said there was no security in
it, and I said well, I don't have any security now, what difference
does it make? My father left when I was three, and we were
struggling along, and she called up an agent and I went in and I
read for him, he set up an appointment for a Broadway show called
All The Way Home, and I went in and I got it. I auditioned three
times, and on my tenth birthday he called up said you got the part.
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From l to r, Jeff Conaway, Olivia Newton
John, John Travolta, and Stockard Channing. |
Yana: Jeff, How did you gain your role in Grease as Kenickie?
Jeff: Well, I had played Danny in the Broadway show, and when the movie
was being cast, I auditioned for the part of Danny, but I figured
whoever was more popular at the time would get the role and that was
John. My agent called and said they wanted me to read for a part,
and I said I thought John had the part of Danny, and he said that
they wanted to see me for Kenickie, and I said what are you crazy?
I'm Danny no, I can't play Kenickie, call them back and tell them
no. I hung up and thought about it for about 20 minutes, and called
back to tell my agent I would read for the part, and he said, "Conaway
I know you so well, I didn't make the call anyway," so I went in and
read for Kenickie and I got the part.
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Jeff as Bobby Wheeler on Taxi (1978) |
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Yana: We all know you in that role, but can you tell us about your
other movie roles?
Jeff: It's kind of hard to remember, I've done like 80 movies, so it's
hard to remember everything I've done. I did Pete's Dragon, I did
The Making of a Male Model, that was about a young gay man.
Yana: Wow. How brave that you did a role like that in a time when
being gay wasn't as excepted as it is today.
Jeff: Well, yeah it was illegal at them time, and it was a time when
they were raiding the gay bars and arresting everybody. It was
terrible, So yeah that was a really good role that I played. They
can always look up on the
IMDb and look up most of my credits, but
it's not real up to date.
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Jeff Conaway and Vikki Lizzi |
Yana: For you both: How did you meet?
Vikki: I like to take over here. Actually what happened was, I went
to the Burbank airport to pick up some blond friends of mine, and I
was outside by the curb in my 1965 Olds Cutlass convertible, and he
was behind me in his 1979 Porsche, and he said is there room for one
more in there, and I thought "oh no lets get out of here", I thought
he was some creep, but there was something that struck me about his
voice and I looked up in my rear view and I was starring at Kenikie
and my mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe that Kenikie was there
behind me, talking to me, so I told him to come over.
Yana: Of course people want to know about the romantic side, and the
big question always seems to be: Was it love at first site?
Vikki:
It was love at first sight for me when I was 11 and my father took
us to see Grease, even though he dragged us out of there in the
middle of the movie, because it was too risqué.
Jeff: For me it was interest at first sight.
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Jeff fights his pain on "Celebrity Rehab."
Click Here for video |
Yana: How did you injure your back? Jeff:
Well, while doing the Broadway show Grease, I did a stunt where I
jumped off the hood of the car and everyone was supposed to catch
me, but one guy was out of place and no-one caught me, so I landed
on my back, so I saw a doctor and they told me I would be fine for a
while, but would have problems in about 25 years, so I went on with
life and then one day we had moved and had this really large mirror
that weight about 150 pounds and I lifted it the first time and
didn't hit the hanger, and so I lifted again and still didn't hit
the hanger, so I lifted it the third time and sort of leaned
back-wards and I felt it go crunch and I fell back-wards, and I had
shattered the 5th vertebrae and I already had the problems with the
other disk along with degenerative problems they found during the
car injury, and that's when the surgeries started.
Yana: To you both: How did you become addicted?
Jeff: It was due to the back pain that I got started on the pain
pills, but then they weren't working anymore and I started on
cocaine to help with the pain, and it didn't take long from there.
Vikki: For the record, I am not a drug addict or alcoholic, I found
myself in a bout of depression when Jeff broke his back and I used
them to cope. I'd never abused anything before. The irony is I used
to frown upon addicts and alcoholics because they had no self
control and I found myself in the same predicament. You really
cannot judge people without experiencing same situations.
Yana: We all know that Jeff had several back surgeries, but how many
were there and what did they try to repair? Jeff:
Five surgeries altogether. Fusing the vertebrae. It took five surgeries
because the bones were so brittle and soft they could not hold up
the hardware, so it would collapse like a deck of cards and cause
the hunching over. FYI Bones can become soft from antacids.
Yana: On Celebrity Rehab, at times, Jeff came off as really mean, and I
don't think that's a fact at all, can you both tell us how you felt
seeing the episodes for the first time?
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Mary Carey, Vikki and Jeff celebrate a
birthday (2008) Photo: Vikki Lizzi Used
with permission |
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Jeff: We just laugh. It's really not a true reflection of the way we are
together. They took the worst times and we are both quick to rip
each other apart when we are mad, verbally I mean, and that happens
in relationships, and they seemed to choose the worst times to edit
into the show. The night we all went out to the Comedy Club, I sang
a song for Jeff that I wrote for him, and it would've been nice had
he been there to hear it, but that sometimes happens in
relationships, and most of the time we are a happy couple.
Yana: Was Celebrity Rehab a positive experience for your relationship?
Jeff: I would say it was.
Vikki: I would say it was both positive and negative.
Yana: Do either of you keep in touch with anyone from either season's
cast's? Vikki: Yes,
Mary Carey is one of my best friends now. We go out to
eat all the time. Jeff: Yeah Steven Adler.
Yana: Jeff, are you taking Dr. Drew's advice on teaching acting
classes? Jeff: Yes. As soon as I have healed a little more from my last back
surgery I am going to teach acting classes.
Yana: Tell us about your recent back surgery.
Jeff: Well, I am standing up now, and can walk. It went wonderfully. It
was good.
Yana: Can you both tell us about your recovery now? I understand it's
going great! Jeff: Yeah, since the last back surgery, things are going great, both of
us are no longer using, and we are getting better each day.
Yana: Jeff, Would you consider getting back into acting, or is your
music going to be your main focus for now? Jeff: No, yeah as soon as I heal more I am going to get back into acting
more.
Yana: Tell us all about your music? I personally have heard it and
LOVE the songs. Jeff: Well, Jeff came to one of my shows one night, and I preformed this
song called "Masturbate" and it had a rap part in it, and Jeff said he
hated it, it was the most vulgar thing he had ever heard, so I said
do you think you can do better? And he said of course, so he wrote
the rap and read it for us, and we loved it, and so he asked who we
were going to get to do the rap part, and we said you. That's how we
started doing music together. We write mostly sexually oriented
music but Jeff has a love for inspirational music as well so we
threw those on the album and called it Saint's and Sinners.
Yana: Will there be albums in stores soon? Jeff:
Yes it will, soon.
Yana: Is there anything else you want us to know that we haven't asked
about? Please tell us if there is.
Vikki wanted us to know that Cheston Vincent helped write the songs
for the album. Check out Vikki's music at:
www.vikkilizzi.com. Also there is a song called I'm so "High," that Vikki
wrote before she even knew what "high" meant. She said she laughs now,
because people must think it was written when she was high, but it
wasn't. "I'm So High" was produced by highly acclaimed record producer
Big Ed Moore. |