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John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor, dancer, and singer, best known for his leading roles in films such as Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Pulp Fiction, Hairspray, and Battlefield Earth. The tempestuous career of formidable Hollywood star John Travolta decisively discredits the old adage that there are no second acts. The New Jersey native first gained fame as a suave, dim-witted, Brooklyn high school student on the sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" (ABC, 1975-79). Being in the right place in the right era, he became inextricably linked to pop culture trends, thanks to sensational starring roles in the disco drama “Saturday Night Fever” (1977) and the 1950s retro musical, “Grease” (1978). Travolta also had a hand in the country music revival of the early 1980’s with his popular portrayal of a mechanical bull-riding Texas oil rigger in “Urban Cowboy” (1980). Then for some indiscernible. reason the biggest male movie star of the 1970s languished throughout the next decade and beyond, his engaging talent essentially untapped and virtually forgotten until a bold decision by independent filmmaker Quentin Tarantino to cast him in a leading role in the graphic cult mainstay, “Pulp Fiction” (2004). Following the rousing response to Travolta’s gritty, darkly funny performance as a junkie hit man, he was overnight commanding tens of millions of dollars for macho actioners like “Get Shorty” (1995), “The Thin Red Line” (1998) and “Ladder 49” (2004). Audiences cheered and critics raved when Travolta made a belated return to his musical roots in 2007, earning a Golden Globe nomination for busting a move as a tubby Baltimore stage mom in the box office smash “Hairspray.” In fact, Travolta defined more than any other celebrity – save perhaps Cher and Frank Sinatra – the very idea that a so-called “has been” could revive a career deemed long dead; even coming back stronger than ever. Travolta, the youngest of six children, was born in Englewood, New Jersey. His father, Salvatore Travolta, was a semi-professional football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke), who was 42 when Travolta was born, was an actress and singer who had appeared in The Sunshine Sisters, a radio vocal group, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama and English teacher. Travolta's father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American; Travolta grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. His family was Catholic. The youngest of six kids, John Joseph Travolta was born on Feb. 18, 1954, and raised in Englewood, NJ. In contrast to the round robin dinner table slapping of the “Saturday Night Fever” Manero family, Travolta’s home was a liberal, artistic haven, with his older siblings involved in local theater and his mother Helen’s solid background as a singer, actress, and drama teacher. Travolta wanted to be onstage from the start, and was fortunate to gain early exposure to theater, dance, and art films at home. His father Salvatore – co-owner of the family business Travolta Tire Exchange – had built a stage in the basement, but Travolta, nicknamed “Bone” because he was so skinny, hardly needed it, as he would perform for anyone, anywhere, at the drop of a hat. His parents enrolled him in drama school in New York, where he learned the holy trinity of old-school entertainment: singing, acting and dancing. By the age of 12, he was appearing in local productions. At 16, Travolta landed his first professional role in a summer stock production of “Bye Bye Birdie.” Following his junior year of high school, he dropped out to pursue entertainment, moving in with his sister Ann in Manhattan. He began building a resume with off-Broadway dramas and musicals, TV commercials, and even recorded a few pop singles for local record labels. In Hollywood, Travolta spent a couple of years trying to break into the business, but after a few guest spots on medical and cop dramas, returned to New York where he debuted on Broadway in “Grease.” He wasn’t Danny Zuko material yet, but while touring for nearly a year as a supporting player, he was determined that he would one day take the lead. Travolta landed on Broadway’s boards again in 1974 in the Tony-nominated musical, “Over Here.” The same year, the budding pilot who had been squirreling away his acting money for flying lessons, finally earned his wings. Having grown up in the flight path of LaGuardia airport, he was about the join the ranks of jet setters that used to pass overhead – in more ways than one. After dropping out of Dwight Morrow High School after his junior year, Travolta moved to New York City to get a job as a performer. He landed a role in the touring company of Grease (musical) and on Broadway in Over Here! singing the Sherman Brothers' song "Dream Drummin'". Travolta also cut singles for a local record company, but the songs were quickly forgotten. But eventually, he moved to Los Angeles to further his career in show business. Travolta played a messenger on the CBS soap opera The Edge of Night. He also appeared on another CBS serial The Secret Storm. Travolta's first California-filmed television role was as a fall victim in Emergency! (S2E2) in September 1972, but his first major movie role as Billy Nolan, a bully who played a prank on Sissy Spacek's Carrie White in the horror film Carrie (1976). Around the same time he landed his star-making role as Vinnie Barbarino in the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979) in which his sister, Ellen, also occasionally appeared (as Arnold Horshack's mother). (Travolta also had appeared in various TV commercials during this time span, appearing in ads for Band-Aid, Haggar Slacks and Mony Insurance among others.) Travolta flew to New Mexico to play a small part in the film “Devil’s Rain” (1975), and upon his return was met with a casting call for an ABC sitcom called “Welcome Back Kotter.” He proved to be a perfect choice to play Vinnie Barbarino, an inner-city remedial high school student, resident stud and head of a clique of wiseass underachievers called The Sweathogs. His feathered-haired sex appeal – combined with his faux naiveté and occasionally outrageous physical comedy – made him the breakout star of the ensemble cast, his likeness appearing on an avalanche of merchandising tie-ins. The music industry smelled a pop star in the making, handing the actor a series of bland ballads including “Let Her In,” which reached number 20 on the Billboard charts. The well-rounded entertainer continued to explore his range, first as a taunting bully to wide-eyed Sissy Spacek in Brian DePalma’s teen telekinesis classic “Carrie” (1976). The same year he was beloved as an immune deficient teen in ABC’s legendary telefilm, “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” (1976). While filming the classic melodrama, Travolta began a romantic relationship with his onscreen mother, Diana Hyland, who was 18 years his senior and an unexpected choice for a young heartthrob who likely had his pick of young, nubile romantic partners. Around this time he also had a hit single entitled "Let Her In" peaking at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the next few years, he appeared in some of his most memorable screen roles: Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and as Danny Zuko in Grease (1978). These two films were among the most commercially successful pictures of the decade and catapulted Travolta to international stardom. His mother and his sister Ann appeared as extras in Saturday Night Fever and his sister Ellen appeared as a waitress in Grease. Travolta performed several of the songs on the Grease soundtrack album, that eventually went on to sell more than 10 million copies. In 1980, Travolta inspired a nationwide country music craze that followed on the heels of his hit film, Urban Cowboy, in which he starred with Debra Winger. After Urban Cowboy came a string of flops that sidelined his acting career. Staying Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever, Perfect, co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis, and Two of a Kind, a romantic comedy reteaming him with Olivia Newton-John, were all commercial disasters severely beaten up by critics. Some suggest that he was typecast as a disco stud or 1970s icon, which could be the reason his agent intervened on several occasions to turn down acting roles. During that time he was offered, but turned down, lead roles in what would become box office hits, including American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, Splash and Fatal Attraction. Disenchanted, Travolta pursued flying and eventually earned his license to command aircraft. His only hit film was Look Who's Talking with Kirstie Alley and a baby voiced by Bruce Willis. With "Saturday Night Fever" (1977), John Travolta transitioned from TV and pop music personality to full-fledged movie star. The choice Bee Gees soundtrack and flashy dance sequences were enough to bring in audiences seeking a peek into the high-energy, indulgent world of a New York City disco. But it was Travolta’s flawless – and Oscar-nominated – portrayal of a 20-year-old paint store clerk beginning to outgrow his roots that resonated so universally and provided the film’s depth. Tony Manero was the king of his local Brooklyn disco, but an emerging understanding of his dead-end life began to crumble his foundation, his desire for something better embodied by a love interest who knew firsthand of the promised land just across the river in Manhattan. The film worked on every level and quickly became a favorite of audiences and critics alike, not to mention how it fueled the dying embers of the fading disco trend with a best-selling soundtrack. During shooting of “Fever,” Travolta was dealt a heavy card when the love of his life, Diana Hyland, now a cast member of “Eight is Enough” (ABC, 1977-81), cast as mother of the large clan, died of cancer, reportedly in Travolta’s arms. Despite knowing she was fatally ill, she had been the one person who had insisted he take on the role of Manero. He suffered an equal blow in 1978 with the loss of his influential and supportive mother. Coming off such an intense double-dose of grief, the 22-year-old soldiered ahead with another career-defining role in the 1950s high school musical, “Grease" (1978). The production was a bold undertaking for all involved, as American cinema was just coming off a run of character-based dramas and had not seen a big screen musical in a decade. Travolta took the risk, finally realizing his early dream of playing greaser bad boy Danny Zuko, and wooing the proper Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John). The film was admittedly less substantive than “Saturday Night Fever,” but Travolta’s singing, dancing, and dimpled charm sparkled, cementing his role as a bona fide movie star. “Grease” received five Golden Globe nominations and became Hollywood's highest grossing film musical of all time, with Travolta scoring his first major hit single with the film’s best-selling soundtrack – his duet with Newton-John, “You’re the One that I Want.” It was not until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino's hit Pulp Fiction (1994), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, that his career was revived. The movie shifted him back onto the A-list, and he was inundated with offers. Coincidentally, before Travolta took the role he visited Tarantino, who was living in the same ramshackle apartment in Los Angeles that Travolta had inhabited when he got his start. Notable roles following Pulp Fiction include a movie-buff loan shark in Get Shorty (1995), an FBI agent in Face/Off (1997), a desperate attorney in A Civil Action (1998), a Bill Clinton-esque presidential candidate in Primary Colors (1998) and a military detective in The General's Daughter (1999). Older and wiser than his first time on the A-list, Travolta was able to parlay his "Pulp Fiction" success into even greater stardom than he had known in the 1970s or early 1980s. He worked non-stop, taking advantage of film opportunities like Barry Sonnenfeld's popular adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "Get Shorty" (1995), in which he garnered acclaim for his portrayal of Chili Palmer, the ultra-cool hit man who becomes entranced by Hollywood. In "White Man's Burden" (1995), Travolta starred with Harry Belafonte in an ambitious film about discrimination that won mixed critical notices and little audience support. He followed with John Woo's action-adventure thriller, "Broken Arrow" (1996), in which he played a pilot who masterminds an extortion plot against the US government. Off-screen, Travolta was by now a licensed pilot for a variety of classes of aircraft and kept a personal fleet of planes at his home in Florida. In 1996, he reportedly received an $8 million fee for "Phenomenon,” in which he played a man who develops superior abilities after being struck by a white light. The press virtually overlooked this indiscretion, and studios continued to line up for his services. In his spare time, Travolta continued to fly the friendly skies, eventually earning his shot at flying jumbo jets. That $8 million fee was a bargain compared to what Travolta was soon earning (but significantly more than the $140,000 he earned for his comeback film). He finished 1996 as a fallen angel in Nora Ephron's "Michael," before unleashing a juggernaut line-up in 1997-98. It was almost as if he wanted to make as many films as possible before his luck ran out again. He was again paired with John Woo for "Face/Off," a lyrical thriller about identity exchange that wove together sadistic cruelty and grotesque sentimentality with breathtaking assurance. Although most critics despaired over Costa-Gavras' "Mad City" (1997) and panned Travolta's singularly stupid character, he found himself on surer ground in Nick Cassavetes' romantic drama, "She's So Lovely" (1997), which matched him with far better results opposite Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn and afforded him a role of some nuance. He received $20 million (or more) to portray Governor Jack Stanton, a thinly veiled adaptation of then-President Bill Clinton, in Mike Nichols' "Primary Colors" (1998). He also squeezed in performances as an attorney battling powerful corporations on behalf of toxic poisoning victims in "A Civil Action" and was part of a star-studded cast including Sean Penn, John Cusack, Gary Oldman and George Clooney in Terrence Malick's war pix, "The Thin Red Line" (1998). After appearing in the unsuccessful and highly ridiculed apocalyptic alien movie written by Ron L. Hubbard, "Battlefield Earth" (2000) which he also produced – and which many perceived as a vanity project and payback to Scientology – Travolta and Preston gave birth to a daughter Ella and redeemed papa’s film career as another top-notch bad guy in the otherwise routine action thriller, "Swordfish" (2001). Unfortunately, the forgettable film was more notable for Halle Berry's nude scene than for anything else. With the routine thriller "Basic" (2003), Travolta played a DEA agent investigating a mysterious disappearance – which suggested that the actor was formally stuck in one of his career ruts. His subsequent role, as the villainous money-launder Howard Saint in the comic book superhero adaptation "The Punisher" (2004) was a step in the right direction performance-wise, walking a fine line between a realistic performance and moments of high camp, but the film itself was not overwhelming. Travolta delivered a strong performance in his follow-up, "Ladder 49" (2004), playing a veteran firefighter who tries to impart practical wisdom to a promising up-and-comer (Joaquin Phoenix). Although the part was not entirely suited to Travolta's strengths, the actor made the most of the supporting role. He easily slipped back into character as Chili Palmer for the entertaining sequel "Be Cool" (2005), in which Chili segues from the movie biz into the music industry. After an unusual two-year hiatus from the big screen – he had been working incessantly since “Pulp Fiction” – Travolta emerged in “Wild Hogs” (2007), a big, dumb and wildly successful road comedy about four middle-aged men (Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy) who set out to prove their manhood with a freewheeling, cross-country motorcycle trip. Despite a bevy of bad reviews, “Wild Hogs” reaped a box office whirlwind, but with the musical “Hairspray” (2007), critics and audiences alike were in agreement that Travolta was still the real deal – a genuine star. Playing a role originated by famed drag queen Divine in the original John Waters film, Travolta was outrageously entertaining as Edna Turnblad, the 1960s working class Baltimore mom of wannabe TV dance star Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Bosky). The role necessitated an agonizing amount of prosthetics and makeup to transform Travolta into a Hefty Hideaway spokes model, but the veteran stage star still danced his way into a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The summer blockbuster went on to become the third top grossing musical of all time, with “Grease” still holding strong in first position. Travolta also starred in Battlefield Earth (2000) based on a work of science fiction by L. Ron Hubbard, in which he played the leader of a group of aliens that enslaves humanity on a bleak future Earth. The film received almost universally negative reviews and did very poorly at the box office. The film won a Razzie Award for Worst Film of the Year at the 2000 awards. Travolta, who joined Scientology in 1975 and endorses Hubbard's teachings, had hoped that the film would be well received and be the first in a series of Hubbard film adaptations. In 2004, Travolta played Deputy Chief Mike Kennedy in the Ladder 49. This film was notable for being the first post-9/11 film that focused on the life of a crew of firefighters. Travolta starred as a successful businessman gone broke/biker in 2007's Wild Hogs. Travolta plays Edna Turnblad in the remake of Hairspray, his first musical since Grease. Travolta married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. They have a son named Jett, and a daughter named Ella Bleu. Travolta is a certified pilot and owns five airplanes, including an ex-Australian Boeing 707-138 airliner. The plane bears the name Jett Clipper Ella in honour of his son Jett and his daughter Ella. Pan American World Airways was a large operator of the Boeing 707 and used Clipper in its names. The 707 aircraft bears the marks of Qantas, as Travolta acts as an official goodwill ambassador for the airline wherever he flies. His US$4.9 million estate in the Jumbolair subdivision in Ocala, Florida is situated on Greystone Airport with its own runway and taxiway right to the door. In 1992, he wrote and illustrated a short children's book entitled Propeller One-Way Night Coach about the fictional journey of an 8-year-old boy named Jeff across the USA in the 1950s. Travolta was previously involved with actress Diana Hyland, who died of breast cancer in 1977. Travolta has been a practitioner of Scientology since 1975 when he was given the book Dianetics while filming a movie in Durango, Mexico. In 1998, he was cited in a court case as an example, along with Tom Cruise, claimed by the Church of Scientology of the Church's ability to "cure" homosexuals. |
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