Didi Conn
Conn at Greenville Graffiti Car Show at Greenville, Illinois in 2018
Born	Edith Bernstein (1951-07-13) July 13, 1951 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Education	Midwood High School
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1973–present
Known for	Grease Benson Shining Time Station
Spouses	Frank Conn ​ ​ (m. 1975; div. 1978)​ David Shire ​ (m. 1984)​
Children	2
Relatives	Richard Bernstein (brother)

Edith "Didi" Conn (née Bernstein; born July 13, 1951) is an American actress. She is best known for her work as Frenchy in Grease, Denise Stevens Downey in Benson and Stacy Jones in Shining Time Station.

Early life

Edith Bernstein was born on July 13, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York.^[1] She had a Conservative "holiday Jewish" upbringing.^[2]

Career

Conn made her debut as an actress in the 1960s. Her notable characters since the 1970s, when she first became prominent, include Laurie Robinson in You Light Up My Life (1977; Kasey Cisyk provided the character's singing voice), Frenchy in the feature films Grease (1978) and Grease 2 (1982), Helen on The Practice (1976–77), Denise Stevens Downey on Benson (1981–84), and Stacy Jones on Shining Time Station (1989–95).^[3] She later reprised her role as Shining Time Station manager in Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000).

Conn provided the voice for Raggedy Ann in the animated feature Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977) directed by Richard Williams. She appeared as a celebrity guest on game shows like Match Game, The $20,000, $25,000, $50,000, and $100,000 Pyramids, Whew!, Chain Reaction, and Go.

As a theatre actress, she was involved with Broadway productions of Lost in Yonkers (1991), The Green Bird (2000), and Say Goodnight, Gracie (2002).^[4] In 2014 she performed in The Underpants in Hartford, Connecticut.^[3] She also starred in Dan Clancy's play Middletown from 2019 until 2021.^[2][5]

In January 2016, she had a cameo as Vi in the Grease: Live television special on Fox, thus being the only actress to appear in all three screen adaptations of the franchise. In addition, she has appeared in numerous other roles on television.^[6]

In 2019, Conn was a contestant on the eleventh series of the British television series Dancing on Ice. At 67, she was the oldest person ever to compete on the show.^[7] She, alongside her professional partner Łukasz Różycki, were eliminated in Week 4, after the judges saved Saara Aalto and Hamish Gaman in the skate-off.

Activism

Conn's adopted son Daniel is autistic.^[2][8] On November 13, 2008, she was named national celebrity spokesperson for Autism Speaks.^[9] Before that, she was a spokesperson for the National Alliance for Autism Research, now part of Autism Speaks. She has performed at benefits for Foundation for Educating Children with Autism (FECA).^[10]

On September 27, 2008, Conn performed with David Shire and Lynne Wintersteller at a benefit performance for Barack Obama in Nyack, New York.^[11]

Personal life

She married her first husband, Frank Conn, in 1975 and they divorced in 1978.^[6] She has been married to composer David Shire since 1984.^[3]

Filmography

References

External links

• Didi Conn at IMDb
• Didi Conn at Rotten Tomatoes
• Didi Conn at AllMovie
• Didi Conn at the Internet Off-Broadway Database