Annette Charles

 Annette Charles (March 5, 1948 – August 3, 2011)

Charles was best known for her role as Charlene "Cha-Cha" DiGregorio in the 1978 feature film Grease. Born Annette Cardona, she was raised in Southern California, broke into show business around 1968, and was seen in such television fare of the day as "The High Chapparral", "Mod Squad", "Banacek", "Gunsmoke", "The Flying Nun", "Barnaby Jones", "Emergency!", and "The Bionic Woman". Annette made her silver screen debut dancing with John Travolta in "Grease" and despite earning praise as "Cha-Cha" was only seen in one further movie, 1985's "Latino". She received her last television credit with a 1987 episode of "Magnum, P.I." and in 2001 earned a degree in social work from New York University. She later became a speech communication professor in the Chicano Studies department at California State University, Northridge. Charles died on August 3, 2011 in Los Angeles from lung cancer, age 63.