Handsome 'Grease' Actor Changed Careers Later In Life & Selflessly Helps Those In Need

Sep 25, 2023 by apost team

Lorenzo Lamas is an American actor and pilot who is best known for playing the role of Lance Cumson on the hit soap opera "Falcon Crest." For his performance, Lamas was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film. The show ran from 1981 to 1990. Lamas is also known for portraying Reno Raines on the series "Renegade" from 1992 to 1997. 

The star was featured on the soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful" from 2004 to 2006. He also appeared on the kids series "Big Time Rush" and voiced a character on "Phineas and Ferb." Beginning in 2009, a reality TV show about the actor's life and family aired on the E! Network called "Leave It to Lamas."

As the son of actor Fernando Lamas and actress Arlene Dahl, it seemed that Lorenzo was destined for a career in entertainment. He studied acting at Tony Barr's Film Actors Workshop and appeared in his first film in 1976. In 1978, Lamas secured a role in the film "Grease" as a jock. He dyed his hair blonde for the part but said he did not mind and was just thrilled to meet Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. 

In his personal life, Lamas has been married five times and has six children. He is currently engaged to be married to former model Kenna Scott. Although he hasn't officially retired from acting, Lamas works primarily as a pilot for the company IEX Helicopters. Read on to learn more about Lamas, his past and what he has been doing in his mid-60s. 

Growing up with parents who worked in the film industry was not always easy for Lamas. 

"I idolized my father, especially as a young boy. He was bigger than life. He commanded the room. He'd done everything, seen everything, been with every woman. It's pretty heady stuff to grow up with,” he shared with Fox. 

Part of what made his childhood so difficult was that his father was not always a pleasant man to be around. 

"He was very judgmental. He thought a woman's place was in the kitchen. He just happened to marry a woman who was a top ten box office star of the '50s and she retired to serve him," Lamas explained. 

One story that stands out from his childhood is that when his father married Esther Williams, he wouldn't let his own son in the house. 

"He was many things but he was also fair so if he wasn't going to allow another man's children in his house then he couldn't allow me in the house. So my roommate was a Rolls Royce. I had a key that let me in the backdoor where there was a guest bathroom,” Lamas said. 

The actor added that this treatment is not normal for a child. 

"But I came from military school so living in a garage in Beverly Hills was plush to me. I had shared a urinal with 30 guys for the last 4 years. Looking back I know that's not normal. I know that I would never do that to my kids. I run my three teenage daughters around like a chauffeur,” Lamas shared. 

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In 2014, Lamas released a book about his life called "Renegade at Heart: An Autobiography." 

The star said that he wanted to wait to write the book until he was ready. 

"I felt like I was old enough to have some perspective on my life. I've been asked to write a book for years but I never thought I was mature enough to be able to look back at my life with a real perspective on the decisions I've made and the choices I've made,” he told Fox. 

On the topic of his five marriages, Lamas admitted he has some regrets. 

"I wish I'd done so many things differently. I just never asked anyone for a prenup because I figured if you're asking it's like you're almost professing failure at the outset. I just never could. Yeah, it was devastating," he said.

In 2021, the star became engaged to Kenna Scott.

"It is a love like no other and we look forward to the day we become husband and wife," Lamas told People Magazine at the time. "Sometimes love waits for the stars to align and two soul paths to intersect. We are ecstatic!"

However, in the same year, Lamas suffered grief and loss as his mother, the late actress, Dahl, passed away at the age of 96. 

“She was the most positive influence on my life. I will remember her laughter, her joy, her dignity as she navigated the challenges that she faced. She truly was a force of nature and as we got closer in my adult life, I leaned on her more and more as my life counselor and the person I knew that lived and loved to the fullest,” Lamas said in a statement on Facebook. 

At 65, Lamas’s talent and brilliance on-screen has not faltered. Crediting the start of his acting career on a no-talking role on “Grease,” Lamas was thrilled at the time to work with Newton-John, who he called a “goddess.” After that his career took off. He even worked on two movies and a television series in 2022. 

In 2022, he played the role of Elmer Paxton on “Bleach,” and Marc Valentine Sr. on “Team of Two.” He also starred on 6 episodes of the “Sons of Thunder.” 

Although he treasured his life being an actor, Lamas has changed gears and switched to flying planes. After finding a love for flying around when his children were teenagers, Lamas decided to get his pilot license so that he could fly his kids from Arizona to California easily. But more than flying his children from one place to another, Lamas found a deeper and more important connection in flying aircraft, specifically helicopters. 

“Pilots like myself donate our planes and time to get people around the country for medical treatment,” he told Soap Opera Digest. “I would fly people from their hometowns to the cities where their hospitals were located. I’ve also flown disabled kids to camp because riding in a car would be too uncomfortable for them, but the parents just couldn’t afford the (commercial) airfare.” 

Lamas is a proud pilot at IEX Helicopters, and he has transported people on the West Coast to various parts of the country. 

He also added that there is “no way that you can avoid getting emotionally involved” with the people you are flying, as he added: “There’s plenty of travel time for conversation, so you get interested in their lives and you want to know all about them.”

Do you remember Lorenzo Lamas? What is your favorite performance of his? What can you say about his career change later in life? Let us know, and pass this on to your family, friends and other loved ones!