American actor, singer and producer John Joseph Travolta was born 71 years ago in, Englewood, New Jersey, is a widower and has 3 children. He was married to Kelly Preston who was also an actress.
John and his 5 siblings were highly influenced by their mother who was a high school English and drama teacher and as a matter of fact, they all become actors and actresses. At the age of 17, John left high school and travelled to New York to perform in 2 musicals and afterwards moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
His acting debut was in a TV series called ‘Emergency!’ in 1972, but it was 4 years later i.e. in 1976 when he got a more important role in the supernatural horror movie ‘Carrie’. In addition, he was cast in the sitcom ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ interpreting the character of Vinnie Barbarino for 4 years in a total of 79 episodes, rendering him a star. Towards the end of the 70s, Travolta starred in 2 famous movies: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Grease’, alongside actresses Karen Gorney and Olivia Newton-John respectively.
During the 80s, John acted in 7 films, a TV movie and a one-off charity event TV special. These include ‘Staying Alive’, ‘Perfect’ and ‘Look Who’s Talking’. From the end of that decade to date, he proceeded with his career and appeared in over 55 movies of different genres and 8 TV programmes. Some of the most popular films he starred in during these years include ‘Look Who’s Talking Now’, ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Get Shorty’, ‘Broken Arrow’, ‘Face/Off’, ‘The General’s Daughter’, ‘Swordfish’, ‘Be Cool’ and ‘Savages’. This year, Travolta is expected to star in 3 movies, namely ‘High Rollers’ (to be released in mid March), ‘That’s Amore!’ and ‘November 1963’.
Apart from acting, John is also a singer and has released 11 albums and 28 singles, most of which are related to some of his movies. In 1978, he had the US and UK number one hit ‘You’re the One that I Want’ and the UK number one hit ‘Summer Nights’, both sung in duet with Olivia Newton-John. Travolta is also a certified pilot and owns 4 aircrafts.
John is an active philanthropist and has founded the Jett Travolta Foundation, following his son’s demise, which is an organisation that helps kids with special needs.
During his career so far, Travolta won 43 awards out of 90 nominations. These include 3 Golden Globe, a Primetime Emmy, 2 MTV Movie & TV and 3 Hollywood Film.
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