John Travolta

Travolta was married to actress Kelly Preston from 1991 until her death in 2020. They had three children: Jett, Ella Bleu, and Benjamin. Jett died in 2009 at age 16 after suffering a seizure during a family vacation in the Bahamas.

Travolta and Preston established the Jett Travolta Foundation in memory of their son. The nonprofit supports children with special needs and has contributed to organizations including the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

John Joseph Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey, and was the youngest of six children. His mother, Helen Cecilia Travolta, was an actress and singer who later became a high school drama and English teacher, while his father, Salvatore "Sam" Travolta, was a semiprofessional football player and tire-company partner. His siblings Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam also became actors.

Travolta left high school at 16 to pursue acting. He appeared in commercials and small television roles before making his Off-Broadway debut in Rain in 1972. He later toured with Grease, joined the Broadway production, and appeared in Over Here! with the Andrews Sisters.

Travolta became a teen idol as Vinnie Barbarino in the ABC sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, which ran from 1975 to 1979. His sister Ellen occasionally appeared in the series. He also starred in the television movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble and had a chart success with the 1976 single "Let Her In."

His breakthrough film role came as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977). Travolta spent months mastering the film's intricate disco choreography and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. The film helped bring disco into mainstream popular culture, while its Bee Gees soundtrack became a major commercial success.

Travolta followed Saturday Night Fever with Grease (1978), playing Danny Zuko opposite Olivia Newton-John as Sandy. The film became a landmark musical, and Travolta and Newton-John performed together on songs including "You're the One That I Want" and "Summer Nights." Travolta also appeared in Urban Cowboy (1980), which helped fuel renewed interest in country music and western fashion.

He then starred in Brian De Palma's thriller Blow Out (1981) and in Staying Alive (1983), the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. A series of less successful films, including Two of a Kind and Perfect, weakened his box-office standing during the 1980s. His position improved temporarily with the Look Who's Talking films, which featured Kirstie Alley.

Travolta's career was substantially revived by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), in which he played the hit man Vincent Vega. The performance earned him his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and returned him to leading-man status. His dance sequence with Uma Thurman became one of the film's most recognized scenes.

He followed the comeback with roles in Get Shorty (1995), Broken Arrow (1996), Phenomenon (1996), Face/Off (1997), Primary Colors (1998), and The General's Daughter (1999). For Get Shorty, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. He also starred opposite Nicolas Cage in Face/Off.

Travolta's later credits include Swordfish, A Love Song for Bobby Long, Ladder 49, Be Cool, Wild Hogs, Hairspray, Bolt, The Taking of Pelham 123, Old Dogs, and Savages. In Hairspray (2007), he played Edna Turnblad, returning to the musical genre associated with Grease. He voiced the title character in Disney's animated film Bolt and performed the song "I Thought I Lost You" with Miley Cyrus.

In 2016, Travolta played defense attorney Robert Shapiro in the television miniseries The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, for which he also served as a producer. The production won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series, and Travolta received an acting nomination. He later appeared in Gotti (2018), The Fanatic (2019), and the comedy series Die Hart, earning another Primetime Emmy nomination for his role as Ron Wilcox.

Travolta released several pop albums, including John Travolta (1976), Can't Let You Go (1977), and This Christmas (2012). His soundtrack work with Olivia Newton-John on Grease produced the hit singles "You're the One That I Want" and "Summer Nights," while the Grease soundtrack topped the Billboard 200. He has also performed songs connected with films including Hairspray and Bolt.

Travolta is a private pilot with ratings for aircraft including the Boeing 707 and Boeing 747. He served as a Qantas goodwill ambassador and piloted a Qantas 707 during the airline's 2002 Spirit of Friendship global tour. He donated that aircraft to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society in 2017 and has received aviation honors including induction into the Living Legends of Aviation.