One of the “Falcon Crest” actor’s first acting roles was as a student at Rydell High School.

Lorenzo Lamas details how he replaced Gerald Ford’s son in Grease

One of the "Falcon Crest" actor's first acting roles was as a student at Rydell High School.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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June 4, 2026 4:56 p.m. ET

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Lorenzo Lamas plays Tom Chisum in 'Grease'. Credit:

- Lorenzo Lamas recalled at a recent *Grease* reunion how he landed the part of Tom Chisum in the movie musical.

- Lamas credited his mother, movie star Arlene Dahl, with introducing him to producer Allan Carr.

- Originally, the dopey jock role had been filled by actor Steven Ford.

Lorenzo Lamas' first movie role — and it was a big one — was supposed to have been played by someone else.

He recalled at a *Grease* reunion Saturday at the Hollywood Show in Burbank, Calif., just how he ended up with the part of Tom Chisum, which had originally been given to Steven "Steve" M. Ford, the son of President Gerald Ford. He'd since dropped out.

In March 1977, before he was acting full-time, he accompanied his mother, movie star Arlene Dahl, to the Academy Awards. They went to the famous Governors Ball after the ceremony.

"Everybody sits down at tables, and they serve a wonderful meal, and my mom and I were sitting kitty-corner to Allan Carr," Lamas said of the *Grease* producer. "Shirley Eder, a publicist at the time, was a friend of my mom's, and she came over to our table, and she said, 'Arlene, you have to introduce Lorenzo to Allan Carr, he’s producing the musical *Grease* for Paramount.'"

She did, and it went well.

Lorenzo Lamas in 1979, and Steven Ford in 1981.

Jack Mitchell/Getty; Dianna Whitley/Getty

"It's the first time I’m meeting anybody in show business," Lamas said. "I'm nine months out of military school, and Allan Carr says, 'Oh, Ms. Dahl, you are absolutely gorgeous,’ which she was. And he recognized her right away. And my mom, like moms do, pushed me in front of her, and she goes, 'Allan, I want you to meet my son Lorenzo. He's going to be a big star.'"

Her words made Lamas want to "die right there," Lamas said. "I just wanted to crawl under the table and disappear."

But it paid off.

"Two months later," Lamas recounted, "Allan Carr reached out to me somehow, I think through Shirley, and he wanted to meet with me at the studio, Paramount."

Lorenzo Lamas gushes about Heather Locklear romance: 'She is the most amazing woman'

Lorenzo Lamas recalls falling 'in love all over again' with 'Grease' costar Olivia Newton-John

So it was Lamas who got the play the dopey jock that Olivia Newton-John's Sandy dates to make John Travolta's Danny jealous.

Much of the appeal of the role was in acting opposite Newton-John, whom Lamas was a huge fan of.

He was more than willing to change the color of his hair from black to blond, as Carr requested. Really.

"I would have changed it into a rainbow color to do scenes with Olivia," he added.

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Ford was later cast in movies such as *When Harry Met Sally...,* *Starship Troopers*, and *Black Hawk Down*, as well as on TV's* The Young and the Restless*.

After *Grease*, which was the highest-grossing movie of 1978 and remains phenomenally successful, Lamas went on to appear on TV's nighttime soap *Falcon Crest*, from 1981 to 1990, and, from 2004 to 2006, on daytime sudser *The Bold and the Beautiful*. He's also starred in dozens of movies.

- Musical Movies

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Source: “EW Musical”