John Travolta

Biography

Early life
Travolta, the youngest of six children,[1] was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, an inner-ring suburb of New York City. His father, Salvatore Travolta, was a semi-professional football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company.[2] 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. His father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American;[3][4] He grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood[5] and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. His family was Roman Catholic.[6]

Early career
After attending Dwight Morrow High School, Travolta moved across the Hudson River to New York City and landed a role in the touring company of Grease (the musical) and on Broadway in Over Here! singing the Sherman Brothers' song "Dream Drummin'". He then 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 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 TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979), in which his sister, Ellen, also occasionally appeared (as Arnold Horshack's mother).

'70s stardom

Travolta in one of his earliest roles, in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976)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. Saturday Night Fever earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. At age 24, Travolta became one of the youngest performers ever nominated for the Best Actor Oscar though he lost to Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl. 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.

Downturn
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, Flashdance, 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.

Resurgence
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/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 detective in The General's Daughter (1999).

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.[7] 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.[8]

His most recent film is the lead voice role of the Disney film Bolt (2008), where he plays a lost canine actor trying to get home and also sung "I Thought I Lost You,' the duet for the ending credits of the film with co-star Miley Cyrus. In 2009 he will appear in Old Dogs, a live-action comedy, co-starring with Robin Williams and Bernie Mac.

Personal life
Travolta married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. Their son, Jett, who was born on April 13, 1992, died on January 2, 2009 while the family was on holiday in The Bahamas.[9][10] A Bahamian death certificate was issued, attributing the cause of death to a seizure.[11] Jett, who had a history of seizures,[12] reportedly suffered from Kawasaki disease in early childhood.[13]

Travolta and Preston also have a daughter, Ella Bleu, born in 2000.

Travolta is a certified pilot and owns five aircraft, including an ex-Australian Boeing 707-138 airliner. The plane bears the name Jett Clipper Ella in honor of his children. 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 $4.9 million estate in the Jumbolair subdivision in Ocala, Florida, is situated on Greystone Airport with its own runway and taxiway right to his front door.[14]

He was previously involved with actress Diana Hyland, who died of breast cancer in 1977.[15]

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.[16]

Filmography
Year Film Role Other notes
1975 The Tenth Level John TV-Movie
The Devil's Rain Danny
1976 The Boy in the Plastic Bubble Tod Lubitch TV-Movie
Nominated - TV Land Award
Carrie Billy Nolan
1977 Saturday Night Fever Tony Manero National Board of Review Award for Best Actor
Nomination - Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1978 Moment by Moment Strip Harrison
Grease Daniel "Danny" Zuko Henrietta Award - World Film Favorite Actor
Nomination - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1980 Urban Cowboy Buford 'Bud' Uan Davis
1981 Blow Out Jack Terry
1983 Staying Alive Tony Manero
Two of a Kind Zack Melon
1985 Perfect Adam Lawrence
1987 Basements Ben TV segment "The Dumb Waiter"
1989 Look Who's Talking James Ubriacco
The Experts Travis
1990 Look Who's Talking Too James Ubriacco
1991 Shout Jack Cabe
Eyes Of An Angel Bobby aka The Tender
Chains of Gold Scott Barnes TV-Movie; also writer
1992 Boris and Natasha: The Movie Himself (cameo)
1993 Look Who's Talking Now James Ubriacco
1994 Pulp Fiction Vincent Vega Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1995 Get Shorty Chili Palmer American Comedy Award
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
White Man's Burden Louis Pinnock
1996 Michael Michael
Phenomenon George Malley
Orientation: A Scientology Information Film Himself (short subject)
Broken Arrow Maj. Vic 'Deak' Deakins
1997 Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's Himself (documentary)
Mad City Sam Baily
Face/Off Sean Archer/Castor Troy Nomination - Saturn Award for Best Actor
She's So Lovely Joey Giamonti also executive producer
1998 A Civil Action Jan Schlichtmann
The Thin Red Line Brigadier General Quintard
Junket Whore Himself (documentary)
Primary Colors Governor Jack Stanton Nomination - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1999 The General's Daughter Warr. Off. Paul Brenner/Sgt. Frank White
Our Friend, Martin Kyle's dad (animated educational film, voice only)
2000 Welcome to Hollywood Himself (mockumentary; cameo)
Lucky Numbers Russ Richards
Battlefield Earth Terl also producer. Winner - Golden Raspberry Award - Worst Actor
2001 Domestic Disturbance Frank Morrison
Swordfish Gabriel Shear
2002 Austin Powers in Goldmember "Austinpussy" Johann van der Smut / Goldmember
2003 Basic Tom Hardy
2004 Ladder 49 Captain Mike Kennedy
A Love Song for Bobby Long Bobby Long
The Punisher Howard Saint
2005 Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D James Benson "Jim" Irwin (narrator; documentary)
Be Cool Chili Palmer
2006 Lonely Hearts Elmer C. Robinson
2007 Wild Hogs Woody Stevens
Hairspray Edna Turnblad Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2008 Bolt Bolt the Dog voice
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
2009 Old Dogs Lead role awaiting release
Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey Dave voice only; post-production
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Benard Ryder post-production
From Paris with Love Lead role filming