* Full name: John Pasquale Contardo
* Born: December 23, 1951
* Vitals: Height - 5'8"; Hair - Black; Eyes - Brown
* Grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, in the Boston area.
* Family: Parents John and Camille; older sisters Roseann and Angela.
* Attended the Boston Conservatory of Music for a semester.
* Appeared in 400 performances of "Hair" in Boston, and was about to go
on the road with the touring company when he auditioned for Sha Na
Na.
* Had his own fan club for a while in the early '80s.
* Joined Sha Na Na in 1971; departed in 1983.
* Released two solo albums: Changeover
on Becket Records in 1980 (from which he released the single "Are You
Happy Baby"/"You Never Get Over Heartbreak"), and a privately-pressed
album circa 1983 entitled Ballads for
Lovers, sold mainly through his fan club and at concert dates.
* Had a very brief walk-on role in the film "Scarface." Early in the
film, at the nightclub, when Al Pacino and some other people are at a
table, watch carefully and you'll see Johnny and another actor walk by
their table and nod. Robert Loggia tells Pacino that they were the
Echevierra brothers (Johnny plays Miguel, and is wearing a white jacket
with sunglasses hanging out of his pocket). You can also see him later
on in that scene on the dance floor.
* Other movies: If you look very closely, you can also see a quick
glimpse of Johnny with some of the other Sha Na Na guys in the final
all-star scene in the film "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
And of course, he and the group are in "Grease" as Johnny Casino and
the Gamblers, the band that plays the big high school dance. He sings
lead on "Those Magic Changes."
* Some of Johnny's other credits include stage roles in Guys And
Dolls, Brigadoon and After The Fall, and a brief
appearance on an episode of the '84-'86 crime comedy series Crazy
Like A Fox.
* Johnny is currently living in the Los Angeles area and giving voice
lessons, and also recently performed at a festival in
Florida.
(Thanks to Wendy for letting me know where to find him!)
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