So I was watching Grease last weekend, which is a weird thing for a hetero-sexual man in his twenties to be doing, but whatever. As I was watching, sometime between “Summer Luvin'” and “Sandra Dee”, a thought occurred to me: “How old are these people?”
I mean, the majority of the cast looks well out of high school, and Stockard Channing looks like she could be John Travolta’s mom. So I decided to look up how old she was when it was filmed. Grease was released in 1978 and Stockard Channing was born in 1944.
So she was 34 when the movie came out. It’s a little weird to cast someone in their 30’s as a high school student, but I guess since the cast of Glee looks like they’re in constant danger of breaking a hip I guess its not that uncommon.
So maybe you’re wondering about some of the other characters. Well, most aren’t much closer to 18, in fact John Travolta was the youngest member of the main cast. Travolta was 24 when the movie came out. So not super old.
Australian pop sensation Olivia Newton was born in 1948, making her 30 years old when the movie was filmed.
So the cast of Grease was a little bit older than you might have expected. If you’ve seen the new live performance premiering on Fox and wonder how the cast for that one stacks up. Also pretty old as it turns out.
This version has Aaron Tveit as Danny Zuko. Aaron was born in 1983, making him 33, about the same age as Stockard Channing. Julianne Hugh, as Sandra Dee, was born in 1988. So she’s 28. Vanessa Hudgens was born in 1988 as well.
So there you go, everybody. Just remember if you’re in your 30’s thinking that you aren’t as young as you used to be, you can always get a role playing a teenager in a movie.
