Leonard Daniels is a guest character and a secondary antagonist in the Paramount+ original series, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. He is portrayed by Chris McNally.
Mr. Daniels is a teacher at Rydell High School who had an affair with Olivia Valdovinos the previous year. Determined to protect his job, Mr. Daniels blamed the incident on Olivia, which ruined her reputation.
Biography[]
During the 1952 school year at Rydell High School, Leonard began a friendship with his English student Olivia Valdovinos . It started with her staying after class as she looked for a quiet place to read, but he was easy to talk to. They talked about books, poetry, and life. One day, they kissed and were crazy for each other until McGee caught them in his office and he blamed her for everything. The school took action and forbade Olivia from taking AP English since it was taught by Mr. Daniels.
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies[]
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In "We're Gonna Rule the School", Oliva walked the quad when she spotted Mr. Daniels with some teachers but, after a moment, continued on her way. When she got in trouble, Miss. McGee gave Olivia a lecture in the VP's office. McGee believed in second chances and cited the Mr. Daniels incident, but warned that she didn't believe in thirds.
During the pep rally, Jane spoke with Olivia to properly thank her for what happened earlier. She made it clear she thought the rumors about Olivia and Mr. Daniels were all wrong. After Jane left, Olivia looked at a bookmark signed by Mr. Daniels.
In "Too Pure to Be Pink", Olivia broke into the student records and went through her file. She found Mr. Daniels' comments regarding the incident between them, and that he framed her and claimed she misconstrued his attempts to help her as a romantic interest.
Olivia stormed into Mr. Daniels' office to confront him. He tried to justify his actions then said he didn't lie, and that some students misconstrue teachers' attempts to help them. She knew she didn't because he held her after class, and gave her books, and poetry, but he denied all of it and asked her to leave.
When the Pink Ladies debuted their new jackets to the school, Mr. Daniels stared at Olivia. She didn't return his glances.
In "If You Can't Be an Athlete, Be an Athletic Supporter", the Pink Ladies asked Olivia about her relationship with Mr. Daniels. Olivia told them how they fell in love before he turned on her. The girls knew he didn't deserve her.
Olivia stormed into The Rydell Review to complain to Mr. Daniels about being kicked out of class for her outfit. She blamed their biased reports, though he refused to print a retraction as they were too busy. She wanted to write a response at least, and a student in the back shouted that she was in as they needed the help. Another needed 400 words in 20 minutes, so Oliva took her seat and began to write.
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Later, Olivia walked in on Miss. McGee's argument with Mr. Daniels. She was ready to write a new piece but he refused, as the paper wasn't her bullhorn. He gave her a new assignment on why Rydell would beat the Titans at the game tonight. She didn't want to quit the club, so she took a seat at a typewriter. She struggled to write and found the bookmark Mr. Daniels wrote to her in her purse. She was inspired to write a different piece, this one titled “The Rydell Blame Game.” She submitted her article with Mr. Daniels' forged signature on the bottom.
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During the football game, Olivia learned from two students that her piece was thrown out when Mr. Daniels saw his forged signature. The whole paper had to be thrown out to protect the sanctity of the paper. She confronted him about it and got angry when he claimed to be her teacher. They were more than that, and he pulled her aside to agree. Though it can't happen again, and his fiancée Barbara arrived a few moments later to hang on his arm. She asked if Leonard was the most handsome teacher at Rydell, and Olivia forced a smile.
In "You Can't Just Walk Out of a Drive-In", Olivia worked on The Rydell Review and eavesdropped on Mr. Daniels conversation with Hilda about the house he bought on Sparrow Lane. When she left, Olivia handed over her opinion piece on the lack of women authors in Rydell's English curriculum. Gil skipped over, called her beautiful, and offered to carry her heavy books since he had two hands hanging uselessly off the ends of his arms. She smirked and handed over the books, and they left together while Mr. Daniels watched.
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On Halloween, Olivia and her friends drove down Sparrow Lane to a party when she saw the house Hilda described as having belonged to Mr. Daniels. While the rest of her friends snuck into the Socs party, Olivia went to the house and snuck inside. She bumped into him in the hallway. She lied that she didn't know it was his. He had begun to paint the house as Barb didn't like the turquoise, though Olivia and Mr. Daniels liked it. He didn't mind the beige colors Barb picked out. He offered Olivia a tour. As they stood in the living room, a flash of light and the sound of explosions made them both duck, afraid it was the atomic bomb. Olivia crouched down on the floor as Mr. Daniels held her close. They saw it was fireworks and rested their foreheads together for a moment before he walked away.
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