Actor Jeff Conaway, Former Taxi Star, Dies
Also known for his role in the 1978 movie version of the stage musical Grease, Conaway appeared in numerous television series in a career spanning several decades.
Actor Jeff Conaway, best known for the role of Bobby Wheeler on the television comedy Taxi and as high-school bad boy Kenickie in the movie musical Grease, died May 27, 2011, at the Encino Tarzana Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized in a coma since May 11. He was 60.
According to news reports, Conaway was hospitalized after he was found unconscious, having tried to treat himself with pain pills and cold medicine while in weakened health.
Conaway, whose career began in the early 1970s, had for many years been troubled by drug and alcohol addiction, which he attributed in part on back problems and repeated surgeries. In 2008 he was one of the stars treated by Dr. Drew Pinsky on the reality series Celebrity Rehab, in which he sought to maintain sobriety.
In addition to portraying Kenickie in the movie version of Grease, he appeared in the Broadway production.
He starred in Taxi from 1978 to 1981, and later had regular roles on the series Berrenger’s and Babylon 5. In addition, he appeared in episodes of such shows as Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, Who’s the Boss? and Matlock.