Grease actress is unrecognisable 45 years on from film that launched career

08 June 2023 , 21:44

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Grease actress is unrecognisable 45 years on from film that launched career

Grease is the word and for many of the actors and actresses in the iconic production it is a film that changed their lives profoundly.

With the leading roles going to John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, they were the main stars to win the plaudits but a number of others put in a performance to remember.

Among them was Stockard Channing who took on the brilliant role of Rizzo. And now, 45 years after the career defining movie, the actress has been pictured attending the opening night of Medea in London's West End.

The occasion took place earlier this year and Stockard showed she had long ditched Rizzo's short dark brown hair and instead sports longer and lighter brown locks.

The famous role set Stockard off to stardom as she played a convincing high school student despite actually being 34 at the time.

John Travolta honours Olivia Newton-John as he recreates iconic Grease scene

Stockard Channing earlier this year (Dave Benett/Getty Images for @sohoplace)

Her appearance has changed dramatically (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Later in her career, Stockard went on to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for 1993's Six Degrees Of Separation.

Other credits include First Wives Club, Smoke, and The Business of Strangers.

She also portrayed First Lady Abbey Bartlet on The West Wing between 1999 and 2006. She previously discussed how, in her view, feminism had been "given a bad name".

Dennis Stewart as Leo, a Scorpions gang member and Stockard Channing as Rizzo (CBS via Getty Images)

"It seems [to be] like the 'we hate men' thing, which in my recollection wasn't the case at all," she said on The Andrew Marr Show in 2017.

"It was really about being equal to men – obviously we still don't have the equal pay thing, but we've got an awful lot. It's a cliche but it's true: a lot of young women take [things] for granted."

Stockard argued that hard-fought abortion rights are one of the freedoms young people today don't realise are in threat, saying she can still remember illegal abortions being carried out at home.

"When I was in college I remember that kitchen table stuff," she went on.

"It was really scary – life-threatening – and that something that a lot of people seem to take for granted. It could be taken away."

Jamie Roberts