Leif Garrett

All of these hits were covers of late 1950s and early 1960s hits such as the Dion covers "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer".

Leif Garrett (born Leif Per Nervik; November 8, 1961) is an American actor, singer, and television personality.

Garrett's more notable performances include the breakthrough role of Jimmy Henderson in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969); the protagonist's son Mike Pusser from the Walking Tall movies (1973, 1975, 1977) and the recurring role of Zack Russell on the ABC TV series Family.

He also played the role of Leonard Unger, the son of Felix Unger (Tony Randall), on the ABC series The Odd Couple, a part that had been previously played by Willie Aames.

He worked as a child actor, then in the 1970s became famous as a teen idol in music.

He later received much publicity for his drug abuse and legal troubles.

Garrett was born in Hollywood, California, to Rik Nervik and actress Carolyn Stellar, and started his entertainment career at age five.

His father was absent for most of his life.

He graduated from high school aged 15.

Garrett and his sister Dawn Lyn worked a variety of acting jobs.

They co-starred in the horror movie Devil Times Five as juvenile mental patients who go on a murder spree at an isolated ski resort.

Dawn and Leif also guest-starred in an episode of Gunsmoke as well as Wonder Woman.

In late 1975, Garrett appeared in the role of Endy Karras in a 12-week CBS drama series Three for the Road, with Alex Rocco as his father, Peter Karras, and Vincent Van Patten as his older brother, John Karras.

Garrett's appearance in the program triggered a response from teenage girls and led to his first appearances in teenage magazines, such as Tiger Beat.

Garrett also played alongside Lee Van Cleef in two Spaghetti Westerns shot mainly in Israel: and God's Gun.

He played the title role in the television film Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion and also starred in the film Skateboard.

In late 1976, Garrett signed a five-album recording contract with Atlantic Records.

In early 1977, he released a single called "Come Back When You Grow Up", and recorded his first album, Leif Garrett.

The album was released in July 1977, and his first four singles charted modestly on the US Billboard Hot 100.

In mid-1978, he signed with Scotti Brothers Records and recorded his second album, Feel the Need.

Its first single, "I Was Made for Dancin'", reached number 10 on the US Hot 100 and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart early in 1979.

It became his greatest hit in the US and the UK.

Subsequent singles failed to crack the Top 20 in either country, but he continued to record, releasing the albums Same Goes For You (1979), Can't Explain (1980) and My Movie of You (1981) in quick succession.

In May 1979, he hosted a TV special, Leif, with guest stars Brooke Shields, Marie Osmond, Bob Hope and Flip Wilson.

In the early 1980s, Garrett returned to acting, appearing in a small role as Bob Sheldon in the 1983 Francis Ford Coppola film The Outsiders.

He mostly stopped recording music in the early 1980s and concentrated on acting for the rest of the decade.

He later claimed the producers would not allow him to make music aimed at an adult audience when he reached his early twenties.

In 1981, Garrett recorded "I Am a Rebel", words and music expressly composed for him by Victorio Pezzolla and produced by Richard Finch of KC and the Sunshine Band which became the theme song for an Italian TV program entitled Il Barattolo.

In 1985, he starred in Thunder Alley as the lead singer of a pop band that is torn apart by drugs, and in Shaker Run as a mechanic.

Other notable Garrett movies from the decade include Delta Fever and the horror film Cheerleader Camp.

He played a deranged murderer who was in love with his sister in Party Line.

In 1986, he provided lead vocals to the song "The Way to Happiness", and backing vocals to the title track of the L. Ron Hubbard album The Road to Freedom.

In the mid-1990s, Garrett returned to acting and singing, appearing in the 1995 low-budget horror film Dominion, touring with the Melvins and recording vocals for their cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on The Crybaby (2000).

In the late 1990s, Garrett hosted the series 8-Track Flashback on the cable music channel VH-1, replacing fellow teen idol David Cassidy.

In 1998, a greatest hits compilation, The Leif Garrett Collection, was released.

Garrett, however, has stated: "My former record label was bought out. The label was started by me … meaning my music started it, funded it. And then it was bought out by some company that released the Greatest Hits Collection. Not only have I not seen any royalties from that, but they wanted me to promote it—the compensation being a couple of CDs."

VH-1 went on to feature Garrett in a 1999 episode of its Behind the Music series.

In 1999, he formed the band Godspeed with Christopher Wade Damerst and Michael Scott (the Distortions, Deadtime Stories).

They recorded a three-song EP on Garrett's own label, Tongue and Groove Records.

Garrett's stage work includes playing the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and, in late 2000, appearing in the National Theatre of the Deaf's production of A Child's Christmas in Wales.