Actress who played Cha Cha in 'Grease' dies at 63

[August 06, 2011]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Actress Annette Charles, best-known for her role as Cha Cha DiGregorio in "Grease," has died. She was 63.

Longtime friend Tom LaBonge, a Los Angeles councilman, said she died in the city after a battle with cancer. She died Wednesday night, said her agent, Derek Maki.

Her death comes a little more than two months after the death of "Grease" actor Jeff Conaway, whose character Kenickie was Cha Cha's date at the school dance.

Oozing a sultry confidence on film, Charles introduced her character at the dance by saying, "They call me Cha Cha, `cause I'm the best dancer at St. Bernadette's."

"...with the worst reputation!", responded Frenchie, played by actress Didie Conn.

Born Annette Cardona, Charles became a speech professor under that name at California State University, Northridge. She also continued acting, appearing on many television shows during the 1970s and early 1980s, including "Barnaby Jones," "The Bionic Woman," "Magnum, P.I.," "Bonanza," "The Mod Squad," "Gunsmoke" and "The Flying Nun."

As DiGregorio, Charles played a leggy, red-lipped bad girl with an appetite for bad boys. Her role as a gyrating vixen presented a sex-charged challenge to the film's prudish leading lady, the angelic and "lousy with virginity" Sandy Olsen, played by Olivia Newton John.

In a wild dance scene inside the school gymnasium, performed to Sha-Na-Na's "Born To Hand Jive," DiGregorio twirled and kicked alongside Kenickie before moving to seduce John Travolta's character, bad boy greaser Danny Zuko, on the dance floor.

Full of jubilant dance scenes, the musical was Travolta's hotly anticipated follow-up to another heavily-choreographed blockbuster, "Saturday Night Fever." "Grease," released in 1978, grossed $380 million worldwide.

[Associated Press; By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER]

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