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John Travolta
Travolta at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival
Born	John Joseph Travolta (1954-02-18) February 18, 1954 (age 70) Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupations	Actor singer dancer pilot
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Kelly Preston ​ ​(m. 1991; died 2020)​
Children	3
Relatives	Margaret Travolta (sister) Ellen Travolta (sister) Joey Travolta (brother)
Awards	Full list
Website	travolta.com

John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, singer, dancer, and pilot. Travolta rose to fame during the 1970s, appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978). His acting career declined through the 1980s, but enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction (1994), and he has since starred in films such as Get Shorty (1995), Broken Arrow (1996), Face/Off (1997), Swordfish (2001),The Punisher (2004), Bolt (2008), and The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009).

Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for performances in Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty and has received a total of six nominations, the most recent being in 2011. In 2010, he received the IIFA Award for Outstanding Achievement in International Cinema. In 2016, Travolta received his first Primetime Emmy Award, as a producer of the first season of the anthology series American Crime Story, subtitled The People v. O. J. Simpson. He also received an additional Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of lawyer Robert Shapiro in the series.

Early life

The youngest of six children, Travolta was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, an inner-ring suburb of Bergen County, New Jersey. His father, Salvatore "Sam" Travolta (November 1912 – May 1995), was a semiprofessional American football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company, Travolta Tyre Exchange. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke; January 18, 1912 – December 1978), 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. His siblings Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam Travolta were all inspired by their mother's love of theatre and drama and became actors. His father was a second-generation Italian American with roots in Godrano, Sicily, and his mother was Irish American. He grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. He was raised Roman Catholic, but converted to Scientology in 1975. Travolta attended Dwight Morrow High School, but dropped out as a junior at age 17 in 1971.

Career

Early career

After dropping out of school, Travolta moved across the Hudson River to New York City and landed a role in the touring company of the musical Grease and on Broadway in Over Here!, singing the Sherman Brothers' song "Dream Drummin'." He then moved to Los Angeles for professional reasons.

Travolta's first screen role in California was as a fall victim in Emergency! (S2E2), in September 1972, but his first significant movie role was as Billy Nolan, a bully who was goaded into playing a prank on Sissy Spacek's character in the horror film Carrie (1976). Around the same time, he landed his star-making role as Vinnie Barbarino in the ABC TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–79), in which his sister, Ellen, also occasionally appeared (as Arnold Horshack's mother).

1970s stardom

Travolta had a hit single titled "Let Her In," peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in July 1976. In the next few years, he starred in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble and two of his most noted screen roles: Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Danny Zuko in Grease (1978). The films were among the most commercially successful pictures of the decade and catapulted Travolta to international stardom. Saturday Night Fever earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, making him, at age 24, one of the youngest performers ever nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. His mother and his sister Ann appeared very briefly in Saturday Night Fever and his sister Ellen played a waitress in Grease. Travolta performed several of the songs on the Grease soundtrack album. 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.

Downturn

After Urban Cowboy, Travolta starred in a series of commercial and critical failures that sidelined his acting career. These included Two of a Kind (1983), a romantic comedy reteaming him with Olivia Newton-John, and Perfect (1985), co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis. He also starred in Staying Alive, the 1983 sequel to Saturday Night Fever, for which he trained rigorously and lost 20 pounds; the film was a financial success, grossing over $65 million, though it, too, was scorned by critics.

During that time, Travolta was offered, but declined, lead roles in what would become box-office hits, including American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman, both of which went to Richard Gere.

Resurgence

In 1989, Travolta starred with Kirstie Alley in Look Who's Talking, which grossed $297 million, making it his most successful film since Grease. Next came Look Who's Talking Too (1990) and Look Who's Talking Now (1993), but it was not until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino's hit Pulp Fiction (1994), with Samuel L. Jackson, for which he received an Academy Award nomination, that his career revived. The movie shifted him back onto the A-list and he was inundated with offers. Notable roles following Pulp Fiction include a movie-buff loan shark in Get Shorty (1995), a corrupt U.S. Air Force pilot in Broken Arrow, an FBI agent and terrorist 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 investigator in The General's Daughter (1999).

2000–present

In 2000, Travolta starred in and co-produced the science fiction film Battlefield Earth, based on the novel of the same name 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 had been a dream project for Travolta since the book's release in 1982, when Hubbard had written to him to try to help make a film adaptation. The film received almost universally negative reviews and did very poorly at the box office. Travolta's performance in Battlefield Earth also earned him two Razzie Awards.

Throughout the 2000s, Travolta remained busy as an actor, starring in many films, including Swordfish (2001); Ladder 49 (2004); Be Cool (2005); Lonely Hearts (2006); Wild Hogs (2007); the animated film Bolt (2008), in which Travolta voiced the title character; The Taking of Pelham 123; and Old Dogs (both 2009).

In 2007, Travolta played Edna Turnblad in the remake of Hairspray, his first musical since Grease.

Since 2010, Travolta has starred mostly in action films and thrillers. In 2016, he returned to TV in the first season of the anthology series American Crime Story, titled The People v. O. J. Simpson, in which he played lawyer Robert Shapiro.

Personal life

Family

Travolta was in a relationship with actress Diana Hyland, whom he met while filming The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976). They remained together until Hyland's death from breast cancer on March 27, 1977. In 1980, Travolta dated French actress Catherine Deneuve. Travolta also had an on-again/off-again relationship with actress Marilu Henner, which ended permanently in 1985. He married actress Kelly Preston in 1991, and they bought a house in Islesboro, Maine. They had three children: Jett (1992–2009), Ella Bleu (born 2000), and Benjamin (born 2010). They have regularly attended marriage counseling, and Travolta has stated that therapy has helped the marriage. They resided in Ocala, Florida. On July 12, 2020 Kelly Preston lost her 2-year private battle with breast cancer. She was 57.

On January 2, 2009, Jett died at age 16 while on a Christmas vacation in the Bahamas. A Bahamian death certificate was issued, attributing the cause of death to a seizure. Jett, who had a history of seizures, reportedly suffered from Kawasaki disease since the age of two. Travolta confirmed that Jett had autism and suffered regular seizures, and immediately made his public statements while giving testimony after a multimillion-dollar extortion plot against him in connection with Jett's death. After a mistrial, Travolta dropped the charges and has credited his immediate family and Scientology with helping him to cope with Jett's death and move forward with his career. In memory of Jett, Travolta created the Jett Travolta Foundation, a nonprofit organization to help children with special needs. It has contributed to organizations such as the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, and Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Religion

Travolta has been a practitioner of Scientology since 1975, when he was given the book Dianetics while filming the movie The Devil's Rain in Durango, Mexico.

In May 1991, Time magazine published a cover story titled "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power". In the article, former Scientology executive director William Franks alleged that Travolta was wary of leaving Scientology because he feared its leaders would publish revelations of his private life, primarily a history of homosexual behavior. The claims were reiterated by Franks and other Scientology defectors in the 2013 book Going Clear, and former Scientology official Marty Rathbun claimed that he had worked with Travolta's attorneys several times to keep allegations about Travolta's homosexuality out of the press and resolve lawsuits against him.

After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, joining other celebrities in helping with the relief efforts, Travolta reportedly flew his Boeing 707 full of supplies, doctors, and Scientologist Volunteer Ministers into the disaster area.

Flying

Travolta is a private pilot and owns four aircraft. This excludes the ex-Qantas Boeing 707-138B (Ex-VH-EBM) that he owned. In 2017, the plane was donated to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) near Wollongong, Australia, and is expected to be flown to Australia in November 2019. Travolta plans to be on board when the aircraft is flown to Illawarra Regional Airport, where HARS is based, however will not be allowed to fly it, because it will be registered as an Australian aircraft. The 707 aircraft bears an old livery of Qantas, and Travolta acted as an official goodwill ambassador for the airline wherever he flew. Travolta named his 707 "Jett Clipper Ella," in honor of his children. The "Clipper" in the name represents that Pan Am used that word in the names of their aircraft.

His estate in Ocala, Florida, is situated at Jumbolair Airport with its own runway and taxiway right to his house, with two outbuildings for covered access to planes.

On November 24, 1992, Travolta was piloting his Gulfstream N728T at night above a solid undercast when he experienced a total electrical system failure while flying under instrument flight rules into Washington National Airport. During the emergency landing, he almost had a mid-air collision with a USAir Boeing 727, an event attributed to a risky decision by an air traffic controller.

Travolta was inducted into the Living Legends of Aviation in 2007 and acts as the award show's official ambassador.

On September 13, 2010, during the first episode of the final season of her talk show, Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be taking her entire studio audience on an eight-day, all-expenses-paid trip to Australia, with Travolta serving as pilot for the trip. He had helped Winfrey plan the trip for more than a year.

He is the author of the book Propeller One-Way Night Coach, the story of a young boy's first flight.

Other

Travolta endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In January 2019, after years of wearing wigs, Travolta began sporting a bald head.

Sexual assault allegations

In May 2012, an anonymous masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta, citing claims of sexual assault and battery. A lawyer for Travolta said that the allegations were "complete fiction and fabrication". Travolta's counsel also stated that his client would be able to prove that he was not in California on the day in question and asserted that Travolta would "sue the attorney and Plaintiff for malicious prosecution" after getting the case thrown out. A second masseur later joined the lawsuit making similar claims. Both lawsuits were subsequently dropped by the complainants and dismissed without prejudice.

On September 27, 2012, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Travolta and his attorney Marty Singer by writer Robert Randolph because he found that a letter, written by Singer in response to allegations in a book by Randolph, was protected by free speech.

In September 2014, Travolta denied claims made in January 2014 by his former pilot, Douglas Gotterba, that the two had shared a sexual relationship during the six-year period in which Gotterba worked for Travolta's aircraft company, Alto.

Filmography

Discography

Albums

Singles

Awards and nominations

See also

• List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees – Youngest Nominees for Best Actor

References

1. ^ "John Travolta Biography (1954–)". FilmReference.com. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
2. "Monitor". Entertainment Weekly. No. 1247. February 22, 2013. p. 32.
3. "IIFA 2014: John Travolta, Kevin Spacey star in 'Bollywood Oscars' – NDTV Movies". April 28, 2014.
4. Pearce, Garth (July 15, 2007). "On the move: John Travolta". Times Online. London. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
5. ^ "Social Security Death Index". Ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved May 14, 2011.
6. Kashner, Sam (August 15, 2013). "Fever Pitch: The Making of Saturday Night Fever: John Travolta and the Cast's Retelling". Vanity Fair. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
7. ^ Stated on Inside the Actors Studio, 2003
8. "Begorrah!! Travolta's Irish..." Showbiz Ireland. January 7, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
9. ^ Flynn, Gaynor (February 28, 2010). "The resurrection man". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
10. "Celebetty: John Travolta". BeatBoxBetty.com. 2000. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
11. Grant, Meg (February 2005). "Night Moves". Reader's Digest. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
12. "The Big Question: John Travolta". "THE BIG QUESTION" BBC1. January 28, 2004. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
13. Reeves, Michael. "Travolta recalls lonely high schooldays", The StarPhoenix, September 28, 1978. Accessed June 12, 2011. "As far as academics were concerned, John was not the best student at Dwight Morrow High School. He confesses that 'I was only an average student.'"
14. "Masterworks & Playbill Debut 2 Editors' Choice Compilations". Baltimore.broadwayworld.com. March 11, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
15. Collins, Nancy (August 18, 1983). "Sex and the Single Star: John Travolta". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
16. "The Quintessential Tarot Tina: What's on the Cards for Star John Travolta". The People (London, England). Questia Online Library. July 3, 2005. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
17. Mcelroy, Steven (July 8, 2006). "What's on Tonight". New York Times. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
18. "A Sister's Inspiration – John Travolta Followed Ellen's Lead into Acting". The Spokesman-Review. July 7, 1996. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
19. Let Her In – John Travolta Billboard.com. retrieved: 2012-08-24.
20. Blank, Ed (March 28, 2003). "John Travolta talks about his past, his present and his destiny in Hollywood". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
21. "Then & Now: 10 Best Teen Idols of All Time". FOXNews.com. January 1, 2009. Archived from the original on April 29, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
22. White, Jim (October 17, 1994). "Look who's acting: Staying Alive was dire. Perfect was anything but. Now, courtesy of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Travolta is back". The Independent. London. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
23. DiOrio, Carl (December 14, 1977). "Saturday Night Fever". Variety. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
24. Karger, Dave (April 27, 2007). "Spotlight on Ryan Gosling". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
25. "Travolta, R.E.M., Moby, Danzig Make Movie/Music Crossovers". Mtv.com. July 17, 1997. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
26. "John Travolta". MTV. February 18, 1954. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
27. Farber, Stephan (July 10, 1983). "'Staying Alive' Revives Travolta". The New York Times. The New York Times.
28. Jackson, Kevin (February 6, 1996). "High-concept high roller". The Independent. London. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
29. "John Travolta goes the whole Hog with his new hit movie". The Independent. London. April 6, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
30. Lasalle, Mick (October 15, 1995). "Making Movies With the Mob / John Travolta stars as gangster producer in Elmore Leonard's 'Get Shorty'". Sfgate.com. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
31. James, Caryn (December 2, 2004). "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; As Praise Flows, Travolta Awaits His 3rd Comeback". New York Times. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
32. Staff (April 12, 2006). "Science Friction". Herald Sun. Australia.
33. John Travolta at Rotten Tomatoes
34. "Travolta on becoming a woman, interview with stv/movies, June 2007". Archived from the original on December 19, 2007. Retrieved April 26, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) stv.tv
35. Ryan, Maureen (February 10, 2016). "In His High-Profile Return to TV, John Travolta Gets Noticed". Retrieved April 8, 2016.
36. Shirley Eder (October 23, 1980). "Travolta, Deneuve are romantic item". The Dispatch.
37. "Companions for John Travolta". Turner Classic Movies.
38. Tour John Travolta and Kelly Preston's Shingle Style Home in Maine | Architectural Digest Retrieved 2017-04-27.
39. "John Travolta and Kelly Preston Welcome Son Benjamin". People.com. November 24, 2010. Archived from the original on November 29, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2010.
40. Linton, Marilyn (February 10, 2009). "Therapy can keep it real when the honeymoon is over". London Free Press. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
41. "Jett Travolta, son of actors, dies at 16". CNN. January 2, 2009. Retrieved January 2, 2009.
42. "John Travolta's teenage son dies". BBC News Online. BBC. January 2, 2009. Retrieved January 2, 2009.
43. "Death Certificate: John Travolta's Son Died of a Seizure". ABC News. January 5, 2009. Retrieved January 5, 2009.
44. "John Travolta's 16-Year-Old Son Dies". People. January 2, 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
45. Errico, Marcus (January 2, 2009). "John Travolta's Son Jett Dead at 16". E! Online. Retrieved January 2, 2009.
46. Abraham, Mary Rose (September 23, 2009). "From John Travolta: I Ran Down the Stairs To Help My Son". ABC News. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
47. Usborne, David (October 23, 2009). "Judge declares mistrial in Travolta extortion case". The Independent. London. Retrieved June 28, 2011.
48. Allen, Nick (September 6, 2010). "John Travolta to drop charges in extortion case". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved June 28, 2011.
49. "John Travolta: Scientology Helped Me Heal". huffingtonpost.com. January 28, 2010. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
50. "The Jett Travolta Foundation". jett-travolta-foundation.org. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
51. "The Jett Travolta Foundation Donated". jett-travolta-foundation.org.
52. "Successes of Scientology". Church of Scientology International. May 2007. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
53. Behar, Richard (May 6, 1991). "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power". Time. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
54. Wright, Lawrence (2013). Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief. Vintage Books, A Division of Random House. pp. 199, 383. ISBN 978-0307745309.
55. Yahr, Emily (March 30, 2015). "How Scientology controls John Travolta and Tom Cruise, according to 'Going Clear'". Washington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
56. "John Travolta's mercy flight to Haiti". Douglas Hyde – CNN Entertainment Producer. January 25, 2010. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
57. ^ Stibbe, Matthew (September 26, 2011). "John Travolta's Florida Fly-in Home". Forbes.
58. FAA Airmen Certification Database of September 1, 2014, lists Travolta as ID A1927078, with private pilot licence ratings P/ASEL (Private Airplane Single Engine Land), P/AMEL (Private Airplane Multi-Engine Land), P/INSTA (Private Instrument Airplane), and eight aircraft: P/B-707 (Boeing 707), P/B-720 (Boeing 720), P/CE-500 (Cessna 500), P/CL-600 (Bombardier Challenger 600), P/EA-500S (Eclipse 500), P/G-1159 (Gulfstream II), P/HS-125 (British Aerospace 125), P/LR-JET (Learjet).
59. ^ Justin Huntsdale (June 27, 2019). "John Travolta's luxury Boeing 707 cleared for November relocation to Wollongong". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
60. "John Travolta Qantas Ambassador-at-large". Qantas – Ambassadors. Qantas airlines official website. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
61. "John Travolta's Boeing 707 at Flightstory.net – Aviation Blog". blog.flightstory.net. Retrieved May 27, 2017.
62. Kelly Preston showed a picture of this on the August 29, 2007, episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
63. "Travolta Lucky To Live Through Incident – Orlando Sentinel". Articles.orlandosentinel.com. March 27, 1995. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
64. Forgione, Mary (January 15, 2015). "John Travolta to host show honoring 'Living Legends' of flight". LA Times. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
65. Clark, Ally (September 13, 2010). "Oprah Taking Audience Down Under, with Travolta at Controls". NBC Chicago. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
66. Travolta, John (October 1997). Propeller One-Way Night Coach. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0446522571.
67. Emery, D. The Wrap August 6, 2015.
68. https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/27/john-travolta-unapologetic-debuts-bald-head-red-carpet-years-wearing-wigs-8397739/
69. "John Travolta Sued for Assault and Sexual Battery by Masseur, Actor's Rep Calls Claim a "Baseless Lie"". E! Online. May 7, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
70. "John Travolta fights back as two masseurs allege sexual harassment – Chicago Sun-Times". Suntimes.com. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
71. "BBC News – John Travolta faces more masseur abuse claims". Bbc.co.uk. May 9, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
72. "Second masseur drops John Travolta lawsuit". The Daily Telegraph. London. May 17, 2012.
73. Matthews, KJ. "Lawsuit against John Travolta dismissed, again". CNN. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
74. Selby, Jenn (September 16, 2014). "John Travolta addresses former pilot's gay romance allegations publicly for the first time". The Independent. London.

Further reading

• Tast, Brigitte (ed.). John Travolta. (Hildesheim/Germany 1978.) ISBN 3-88842-103-9.

External links

External images
Fly-in home in Jumbolair, aerial view, Celebrity Homes
Fly-in home in Jumbolair, aerial view
Ground-level view of port, Architectural Digest > Celebrity Style: John Travolta, slide 2

• Official website
• John Travolta at IMDb
• John Travolta on Charlie Rose
• John Travolta at the Internet Broadway Database
• John Travolta collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• John Travolta at Hollywood Walk of Fame
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