It has catchy songs, groovy dance routines and sizzling Summer Loving – movies don’t come much more feelgood than Grease.

But while Sandy and Danny’s love story has a fairytale ending, what befell the film’s stars has been far from happy ever after.

In fact, there has been so much turmoil, heartache and tragedy for many of those involved in the making of the 1978 musical, Grease is said to be cursed. And the latest victim is Jeff Conaway, better known as T-Birds leader Kenickie. He is fighting for his life after mysteriously tumbling down a flight of stairs at his Los Angeles home.

The “curse” has also hit the film’s leads, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. And it even extends to stage productions. In a 2007 theatre version, Jim Bakkum and Bettina Holwerda were injured in a freak accident.

During a scene at a drive-in the convertible they were sat in suddenly plunged into the orchestra pit. Jim was concussed while Bettina broke her arm.

So is Grease cursed? Here’s the compelling evidence...

Jeff Conaway

Playing Kenickie made Jeff a household name. But it was also the start of a downward spiral which may yet end in tragedy.

His marriage to Olivia Newton-John’s sister Rona ended after five years as he struggled with drug addiction.

In 2008, on US reality show Celebrity Fit Club, Jeff revealed he was addicted to cocaine, alcohol and painkillers, and in a co-dependent relationship with Vikki Lizzi, also a user of prescription opiates.

Then on Monday, Jeff, 59, suffered a brain haemorrhage, a broken hip and a fractured neck in a freak fall at his home. According to his girlfriend Vikki, Jeff has told his family to get his affairs in order.

She told US gossip website E! News: “Jeff thinks these are his final days.”

Olivia Newton John

Landing the part of sweet Sandy transformed Olivia Newton John’s career overnight. It also put her on top of the charts with songs from the film’s soundtrack, including her duet with John Travolta, You’re The One That I Want.

But her good fortune didn’t last long.. There followed a string of film and record flops, a company that went bust, a marital break-up and a devastating battle against breast cancer.

In 1992, two weeks after her father died of cancer, Olivia was diagnosed with the killer disease and needed to have a partial mastectomy.

Her 11-year marriage to Matt Lattanzi ended in divorce. Then, in June 2005, her long-term partner Patrick McDermott mysteriously vanished on an overnight fishing trip out of San Pedro, California.

Friends say Olivia cried every day for almost two years.

Then in April 2009, investigators reported Patrick was alive and well and living in Mexico, where he had fled to avoid debts, including $8,000 in child support.

John Travolta

Grease turned John into one of the planet’s biggest stars, coming on the back of his Oscar-nominated performance in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever.

But within months of landing the role of heartthrob Danny, John’s girlfriend Diana Hyland died of breast cancer, aged 41.

Sadly, that wasn’t the only personal tragedy to rock his life. In January last year, John and wife Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son Jett was found dead in a bathtub at the family’s holiday home in the Bahamas. Jett, pictured right, is believed to have suffered a seizure and hit his head.

Paying tribute to his son following the tragic accident John, 55, said: “We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief.

“We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives.”

Joan Blondell (Vi)

Joan had already starred in more than 100 films in the 30s and 40s – including The Public Enemy with James Cagney – when she was cast in the role of warmhearted waitress Vi in Grease.

But the former beauty queen turned actress, who was best known for playing brassy blondes, died of leukaemia at the age of 73 on Christmas Day 1979 – just a year after the film was released.

Dennis Stewart (Craterface)

Dennis’ career looked to be on the up when, after playing a dancer in the 1978 Beatles-inspired film Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, he landed the role of Leo, aka “Craterface”, leader of rival gang The Scorpions in Grease. But 15 years later the gay actor and dancer contracted HIV. Dennis eventually died of complications from Aids in April 1994.

Allan Carr (Producer)

Grease was producer Allan’s greatest triumph. It became the highest-grossing film of all time.

But the magic had gone by the time he tried to repeat the success in 1982 with Grease 2, the widely-panned sequel starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield.

Allan was struck down by liver cancer and died in June 1999 at the age of 62.

Warren Casey (Creator)

In the mid 60s, Warren Casey met Jim Jacobs at the Chicago Stage Guild. They began collaborating on a play about high school life during the golden age of rock ’n’ roll in the 50s. Grease premiered in 1971 at the Kingston Mines Theater in Chicago, then went on to become a West End hit.

But the brains behind the story that became a worldwide sensation only enjoyed his success for 10 years. He died of Aids-related complications in 1988, aged 53.

Bronte Woodard (Writer)

The man who penned the screenplay was the first to be hit by the “curse”. Two years after Grease was released, he died aged 39, halfway through the filming of Can’t Stop The Music – it won Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay in the first ever Golden Raspberrys.