While John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were perfect as Grease‘s Danny and Sandy, they weren’t the first choices to play their iconic roles. Had the producers had their own way the beloved musical could have been very different thanks to its alternate casting near misses.
Much like its sequel- the much-maligned Grease 2 – Grease‘s production story was far from plain sailing. In fact, if the first script treatment had made it to the screen, it might never have been popular in the first place. Certain ideas like Danny being a busboy and singing a song called “Gas Pump Jockey”, a supporting role for a real-life baseball star and a version of “Greased Lightnin'” by the Beach Boys thankfully ended up in the writer’s room trash. And the casting story was similarly marked by changes from the original plans.
If Paramount had got their way, Henry Winkler, best known at the time as starring as Fonzie in ABC’s Happy Days would have been cast as Danny, and Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher could have played the prim and proper Sandy. Here’s why it didn’t happen and the other names in the running.
When it came to making Grease, Paramount producer Allan Carr brought in first time director Randal Kleiser, who had been the college roommate of George Lucas, no less. Their next step was to cast their stars, and the studio wanted Henry Winkler to continue his greaser spirit from Happy Days on the big screen, but Winkler wasn’t so sure. The story goes that he turned it down over concerns that he would forever be typecast as The Fonz, having already played him since 1974, but the actor added more detail in later years, telling The Rachael Ray Show that he couldn’t deliver one key element of the performance: “Now I can dance Grease, but I can’t sing Grease.“
Winkler says he has no regrets about turning the role down because John Travolta was so perfect. Travolta actually already had a multi-picture deal with Allan Carr’s co-producer, had played Doody in Grease on stage and had been directed by Kleiser in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. After he made Saturday Night Fever, he came to Grease. Sandy’s journey to the big screen was more complex.
Initially, Kleiser looked at the daily rushes from Star Wars, thanks to college friend Lucas, but was unable to tell if Carrie Fisher be a good fit, which led to him considering Susan Dey, Deborah Raffin, and Marie Osmond (whose brother Donny had been consider for the Teen Angel). Osmond became the front-runner but dropped out in protest over Grease’s ending and Carr turned to Olivia Newton-John instead. Rather than her be flattered, Newton-John was reluctant to commit because her musical career was going well and her film debut, Toomorrow, had tanked and she didn’t want to make another flop. It took the hard work of Travolta, who saw her as the perfect choice (despite Kleiser’s initial reluctance) and rewrites to make Sandy Australian (because she couldn’t do an American accent) for it all to fall into place. Lucky too, because the idea of a 33-year-old Winkler and untested singer Carrie Fisher as Grease‘s stars doesn’t quite fit.
