Adrian Zmed's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) T.J. Hooker Officer Vin… Confessions of a Teen Idol Adrian Zmed Goodtime Girls Frankie Mil…

Main Movie Roles 1984 - Bachelor Party 1983 - The Final Terror 1982 - Grease 2

BIOGRAPHY:

Adrian George Zmed (born March 4, 1954) is a Romanian-American television personality and film actor noted for the roles of "Johnny Nogerelli" in Grease 2 and "Officer Vince Romano" in the T.J. Hooker television series.

Early life
Zmed was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 4, 1954, the son of George Zmed (b. 1916, d. January 12, 2010) a Romanian Orthodox priest, who served from 1952 until his retirement in 1983, and his wife Persida Golub. His father, George, was a first-generation American born in Chicago to Romanian parents, Nicolae and Paraschiva (née Bălan), who had immigrated from Comloşu Mare, Timişoara in the early 20th century. At the age of five, George and his family returned to Romania where he was educated, and lived there until returning to the United States in November 1952. George married Romanian-born Persida Golub on October 15, 1942 in Timisoara. The couple have three sons: Cornel, Walter and Adrian.

Zmed graduated from Lane Tech High School in Chicago. He began playing football as halfback for the Lane Tech High School team until he broke a bone in his leg, which in turn punctured a major artery, while playing. He quit sports and began acting, appearing in his high school's production of Guys and Dolls. After being featured on a local TV show as one of Chicago's top high school performers, Zmed transferred to the Goodman School of Drama and began studying voice at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. Zmed graduated with a BFA from the famed Goodman School of Drama.

Zmed's first major acting gig was the role of the male lead, Danny Zuko, in the national touring company production of Grease. He later appeared in the Broadway stage musical three times, twice in the role of Zuko. In the original Broadway production of Grease, he starred with Jeff Conaway, who played Kenickie in the 1978 motion picture Grease. At forty years old, Zmed revived the role of Danny Zuko during the show's revival in 1995.

Early TV career
In 1978, Zmed made his television debut, appearing as "Marty Decker" in two episodes of ABC's Starsky and Hutch. From there, he won the role of "Socks Palermo" in the short-lived CBS television series Flatbush (1979), based upon the Sylvester Stallone & Henry Winkler film, The Lords of Flatbush. Following the show's cancellation, he was cast as "Frankie Millardo" in Goodtime Girls, which was also cancelled after just one season (1980).

Zmed also received several guest roles on popular series of the day, including Angie, I'm a Big Girl Now and Bosom Buddies, and made a guest appearance in 1982's An Evening at the Improv.

T.J. Hooker He reached celebrity status as "Officer Romano" in ABC's T.J. Hooker, a television series about the life of a Los Angeles, California, cop. Meanwhile, Zmed played "Fred Feliciano" in the TV movie Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story (1984) and made guest appearances on a number of television shows throughout the 80s and 90s, including Hotel, Empty Nest, Murder, She Wrote and Caroline in the City. Zmed departed from T.J. Hooker in 1985 when the show moved to CBS, chosing instead to replace Deney Terrio as host of Dance Fever for the final two seasons of the syndicated series' run following Terrio's departure.

Movies
Following the huge success of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the movie version of Grease, Paramount Pictures quickly secured the rights to a sequel, and cast Zmed as "Johnny Nogerelli", the new leader of the "T-Birds", in Grease 2. Though it did not fare as well as its predecessor, the film was a modest success, and Zmed's performance in his first motion picture led to other movie roles, including 1983's The Final Terror, and his breakout role as "Jay O'Neill" in 1984's Bachelor Party, with Tom Hanks.

Current work
Zmed provided the voiceover for "Toth" in the 2002 video game, Star Wars Jedi Starfighter, and is under contract until April 2009 with Princess Cruise Lines to perform "Adrian Zmed, In Concert..." aboard the Coral Princess and the Island Princess. The show debuted June 25, 2008 on the Coral

Princess "Voyage of the Glaciers" sailing from Vancouver, Canada, north to Alaska in the Universe Lounge.

Zmed has appeared as himself on VH1's I Love the 80s, Saturday Night Live and Zmed also filled in for the sick Cooky The Clown on The Bozo Show. He appeared as Basil (the "floating head") on the NBC soap opera Passions and participated in VH1's Confessions of a Teen Idol, a reality show in which former teen idols attempt to revitalize their entertainment careers In 2006, he filmed a 30-second PSA on chained dogs for the humane non-profit Dogs Deserve Better organization.


TRIVIA:

• Has played the head of the T-Birds and male lead in both "Grease" stories; he not only played Johnny Nogerelli in "Grease 2" on screen, but took a turn playing Danny Zuko in a Broadway production of "Grease."
• Attended the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, his native town, and also appeared in such non-musical productions as "Romeo and Juliet" and "She Stoops to Conquer" at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.
• Was married to New Zealand-born actress Susan Wood and they had two sons, Zach and Dylan. He and Susan appeared together on stage in the off-Broadway production of Eating Raoul in 1992, based on the popular cult film in which Adrian played the title role, and a mid '90s revival of Grease in which Adrian was an over-aged replacement for the original Danny Zuko. Susan played the female lead - Sandy Dumbrowski.
• Bilingual; speaks Romanian as well as English
• Has 2 sons, Zach and Dylan.
• Graduated from Lane Tech High School in Chicago.