Vanessa Hudgens’ childhood was filled with tough times. There was debt. There were second-hand clothes. There were long rides on hot freeways in Southern California with the fuel gauge closing in on “E.” And her father, firefighter Greg Hudgens, was always there for her — commuting back and forth to his job in San Diego even as his family lived near Los Angeles so his daughter could go to auditions.
“My parents gave up so much,” Hudgens said in 2013. “ ... He would keep driving back to the same place that he worked every time we moved. By the end, the commute was not fun.”
But now, Hudgens’ father is gone.
Greg Hudgens died after a months-long battle with cancer — and his daughter announced the terrible news to the world as she prepared to make America laugh Sunday night as Rizzo in Grease: Live, one of her highest-profile roles to date.
“I am so sad to say that last night my daddy, Greg passed away from stage 4 cancer,” Hudgens announced. “Thank you to everyone who kept him in your prayers. ... Tonight, I do the show in his honour.”
The tragic moment only seemed to fuel Hudgens’ performance, which earned raves. Hollywood Life: “Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo stole the show — she literally embodied her.” The Wrap: “Vanessa Hudgens Crushes Grease.” The New York Times: “Vanessa Hudgens, whose father had died the night before, deserves some kind of prize for gutting through Rizzo.”
It was a breakthrough moment for a young star who, having already conquered network TV, Broadway and the Billboard chart, didn’t really need one. And her success was partly the result of the man she performed for Sunday evening — one who, after some scepticism, was won over by his daughter’s commitment to her art.
“I was leery from the beginning,” Greg Hudgens told The Washington Post last year. “As she got more immersed, we made a pact. As long as she still applied herself to school and kept her head out of the clouds, we would continue to help her.”
That help began early — after Hudgens’ parents thought she made a great Mary during a preschool Christmas pageant. Dance classes started at age four, though money wasn’t always abundant, and nothing could interfere with mass on Sundays.
“Money was a big thing,” Hudgens said. “My parents drove me up to LA, which cost a lot because of gas, and took out loans so that we could move from location to location to be close to LA. The family definitely struggled.” She added: “They were very supportive of me. They gave up a lot so that I could get to where I am.”
For an up-and-coming actress who refused to lose, however, there was no choice.
“It’s tough,” Hudgens said. “You don’t want to see your child get hurt or hear someone tell your child she’s not good enough. But I would say, ‘If this role doesn’t happen, the next thing that comes along will be even bigger and better.’ You have to have that mentality.”
That mentality led to a steady rise to fame: TV appearances, the acclaimed drama Thirteen in 2003, High School Musical in 2007. Her dad was with her every step of the way.
“I love my poppa bear so much,” she wrote on Instagram to mark Father’s Day in June. “I will never be able to repay him with all the time he spent helping me reach my goals. I will be forever grateful. God is so good.”
But in August of last year, Hudgens announced that there was trouble on the horizon.
“Last year, my boyfriend, Austin [Butler], lost his mum, Lori, to cancer, and my dad has just been recently diagnosed with stage four cancer,” she said while accepting an award for breakthrough performer at the 2015 Industry Dance Awards. “Let me tell you, I hate cancer. I hate cancer with every cell of my being. ... This award, it means a lot to me but I dedicate it to my boyfriend’s mum, Lori, my dad, and to all the families out there who are struggling with this, because it really takes a strong person and a strong family to be able to help those out who are going through this.”
In September, however, there was hope. Greg Hudgens had made it through the initial rounds of treatment. “My daddy made it to the moon,” Hudgens wrote on Instagram. “Done with chemo and almost done with radiation. Thanks for the prayers.”
Sadly, for Hudgens’ father, the end was near, and came over the weekend. Though it was little consolation, ironic detachment — the default mode for “hate-watching” high-profile national broadcasts of live musicals such as The Sound of Music, Peter Pan and The Wiz — was, for once, suspended. “As Grease: Live approached, an emotion not always familiar on social media flittered across countless screens: kindness.
“So sorry for your loss,” one Hudgens supporter wrote on Twitter. “We’re rooting for you! Go get ‘em!!”
She did.
