As the bold singer Coco Hernandez who leads the classic “Fame” number and the movie’s other hit, “Out Here on My Own,” Cara may be the film’s most memorable face. But she really hit her musical high in 1983, when she penned “Flashdance…What a Feeling” for the movie of the same name (admit it, you still love that song). These days, Cara is still writing music and splitting her time between her many houses—when The Daily Beast caught up with her in Santa Fe, she said, “I got into real estate before the mortgage madness happened.” Cara put together an eight-woman girl band in 2002 called Hot Caramel, which she says is “radically different from the T&A and shallowism of modern pop music. My girls are about serious music.” She just produced Hot Caramel’s first double CD, and often appears on reality shows to sing “What a Feeling” one more time. When asked about the new version of Fame, Cara was reserved: “I know nothing about it, and I don’t want to discuss it. I barely keep in touch with former cast mates. But it was a very important film in terms of getting young people interested in the performing arts, or at least it was 30 years ago.”
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As the soft-spoken, insecure Montgomery MacNeil, a closeted gay teen who is neglected by his famous mother, McCrane gave voice to a community that previously hadn’t had one on the screen. The Pennsylvania-born actor moved to Manhattan and got bit parts on stage before getting his big brush with Fame. In the 30 years that have passed since McCrane couldn’t walk down a New York City street without someone recognizing his fiery afro, the actor ditched the hair and landed more silver-screen roles in RoboCop and The Shawshank Redemption, as well as appearing on TV shows like The X-Files and, more recently, Ugly Betty and 24. McCrane’s most notable non-Montgomery role, however, was certainly his six-season stint on ER as the cruel Dr. Robert “Rocket” Romano. Arguably the most successful Fame alum, McCrane lives with his wife and two children in L.A., where he continues to do some episodic TV acting, as well as directing. He’s working on the new ABC/Christian Slater drama The Forgotten.
Everett; AP Photo
Remembered as the non-Puerto Rican Puerto Rican from the South Bronx, Miller took on the role of Raul Garcia, who preferred his stage alias, Ralph Garcy. Miller was previously known as Bobby C., John Travolta’s unsharp tool in the shed of a friend in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever who tragically drunkenly tumbles off the Verrazano Bridge. In Fame, however, he took a happier turn with his character, an aspiring comedian following in the footsteps of Freddie Prinze. Though his life didn’t end tragically like Freddie’s or Bobby C.’s, Miller’s career has certainly fizzled out since his ’80s success with critically acclaimed film The Chosen and Tony Award-winning part in Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues. Although younger generations may best remember him as the disturbing bachelor with the foot fetish on Ally McBeal, Miller, a divorcé in L.A., may be returning to the place that brought him the most praise, recently hinting that he was considering moving to the East Coast to work on a play.
Everett Collection; Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
Unlike Hilary van Doren, the patronizing prima ballerina she played on screen, Franceschi moved from Michigan to New York at the age of 8 and was involved in more gang activity and violence than van Doren’s blond ambition could ever handle. Franceschi escaped her surprising street life through dance, sneaking to a weekly class on 14th Street. She later trained at the School of American Ballet and also took drama at the School of Performing Arts to enhance her acting. At 16, she appeared as one of 20 background performers in Grease and two years later, Franceschi landed the role in Fame after crying for the film’s director, Alan Parker, proving she was more than just a dancer. On the day the movie hit theaters, Franceschi became part of the New York City Ballet, where she remained for more than a decade. She lives with her husband and son in London, where the 49-year-old ballerina choreographs and continues to perform, including in her 2002 autobiographical West End production, Up From the Waste.
Everett; Michael Germana, Globe Photos / Newscom
Ray’s life imitated art almost exactly when the unknown Harlem-born boy was chosen to play the part of Leroy Johnson, whose head was as hot as his feet. Much like Leroy, Ray had no formal dance training, but had the raw talent to get into the High School of the Performing Arts. He wasn’t exactly a star student and was kicked out a year later, and then ditched his public high school for the Fame auditions. Ray quickly became a household name for his role as the illiterate bad boy, but soon after taking on the same role in the TV adaptation of the movie, reports of his family’s drug dealing took a toll. Fame got to the young star, who turned to drugs and alcohol himself and was sadly never able to recapture the buzz his first role received. Ray spent his career riding on the film’s coattails, starring in the series of the same name and touring in England’s The Kids From Fame concert series. It’s fitting that his final project was a BBC documentary, which reunited the movie’s original cast. Ray was diagnosed as HIV positive, and two months after the reunion taped, he suffered a stroke and died of related complications in 2003, at the age of 41.
MGM / Everett; Walter McBride / Retna
Doris Finsecker was a walking stereotype—the shy, awkward Jewish girl with the overbearing stage mom who deemed herself “about as flamboyant as a bagel” and struggled to fit in at the New York High School of Performing Arts. Brought to aptly uncomfortable life by Maureen Teefy, Doris eventually began questioning her faith and religious upbringing, changing her name to “Dominique DuPont.” The Julliard-educated Teefy passed on the opportunity to re-create her part in the Fame TV series and instead went on to appear as equally uptight Sharon in Grease 2. After that brief brush, however, Teefy bypassed fame in favor of smaller stage roles. Now a Buddhist and divorced single mother in Venice, California, Teffy acts, sings, and dances occasionally, and is about to make her directorial debut with Hedda Gabler at Venice’s Pacific Resident Theater in November.
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New York native Curreri was arranging music and playing with the Public Theater when a former high school teacher recommended he audition for the part of Bruno Martelli, a cabdriver’s son and prodigious classical keyboardist. Like Ray, Curreri reprised his Linus-like role for the Fame television series and also penned music and arrangements for the show. After his option wasn’t renewed, Curreri followed his instrumental interests full time, producing tracks for artists like Natalie Cole, and composing TV scores for Dangerous Minds and Chicago Hope. You can hear all of his work, including MSN and Honda commercials, as well as his full-length CD, Aquabox, on his (nerd alert!) Web site, where he also links to his own “ fanclub”. Curreri lives in Marina del Ray, California, with his wife, Sherry, the sister of his Fame co-star Laura Dean, and their two sons. Look…or rather, listen…out for him as the composer for Oprah’s new Dr. Oz show.
Everett; Zuma / Newscom
Fellow Juilliard alum Gaines was another unknown cast to play Michael Nolastname, the senior Doris admires for his both his acting talent (the William Morris Agency is allegedly interested in sending him on auditions) and his eye-candy quality. Michael winds up fulfilling the table-waiting actor cliché at the end of the film, but Gaines managed to evade that fate, working steadily over the past three decades. After starring in Porky’s and One Day at a Time, he became one of the most highly acclaimed American stage actors, winning four Tony Awards, the most recent of which was for the Gypsy revival. On the side, his melodious voice can be heard on many an audiobook, ranging from Danielle Steele novels to Benjamin Franklin biographies. You can next hear him on Stardust by Joseph Kanon in an old-school soccer mom’s minivan near you.
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Allen has been paying for the costs of Fame in sweat for the past 30 years. As the school’s hard-ass auditioner, Lydia Grant, the Houston-born dancer and actress first established herself as one of the greatest choreographers of our time. She’s designed steps for the stage at the three Oscars ceremonies, earned two Tony nominations, two Emmy Awards, and one Golden Globe, produced a spinoff, A Different World, of her sister, Phylicia Rashad’s alma mater, The Cosby Show, founded a Los Angeles-based self-titled dance academy, and is regularly seen uttering her signature sensual “Oooh child” as a guest judge on the reality TV series So You Think You Can Dance. Allen is married to former NBA player Norm Nixon, with whom she has two children who have followed closely in their parents’ footsteps—Vivian Nixon is a dancer and Norman Nixon Jr. a basketball player. Of the original cast members, Allen is the only actor to reprise her role in the 2009 Fame remake—in which Lydia (and thusly Allen) has been promoted to principal—as well as the two other forms the story took: the 1980 film and the TV series that followed. Perhaps that’s why most people do actually remember her name.
MGM / Everett; Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images
When the famed comedian-cum-detective won a role in Fame, he had already begun his career as a professional funnyman, appearing on Saturday Night Live and The Groove Tube, a sketch-comedy film. His bit part as M.C., the emcee who introduced aspiring comic Ralph at Catch a Rising Star, did not do much catapulting, but fear not, Belzer was donning his signature barely tinted sunglasses. Though he later garnered attention in 1985 when he filed a $5 million lawsuit after Hulk Hogan choked him unconscious during a live show on Lifetime, Belzer is best-known for his role as Detective John Munch initially on Homicide: Life on the Street and now on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Up next for the still shady Belzer, besides dryly discussing sex offenders on NBC, is the follow-up to last year’s I Am Not a Cop, I Am Not a Psychic, due out Oct. 6.
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