John Travolta Biography
John Travolta is an American actor best known for Saturday Night Fever (1977), Wild Hogs (2007), Hairspray (2007), Bolt (2008), and Savages (2012). He rose to fame after starring in the American Film Grease (1978).
John Travolta Career
Travolta moved across the Hudson River to New York City after dropping out of school. He got a role in the touring company of the show Grease and sang the Sherman Brothers’ song “Dream Drummin'” on Broadway in Over Here! After that, he went to Los Angeles for work reasons. Travolta’s first role on TV in California was as a fall victim in Emergency! (Season 2, Episode 2) in September 1972.
However, his first major movie role was as Billy Nolan, a bully who was tricked into pulling a prank on Sissy Spacek’s character in Brian de Palma’s horror movie Carrie (1976). Around that time, he got the part that made him famous as Vinnie Barbarino in the ABC comedy Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979). His sister Ellen also had a small part in the show as Arnold Horshack’s mother.
The song “Let Her In” by Travolta was a big hit. It got to number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in July 1976. He played Tony Manero in the 1977 dance thriller Saturday Night Fever and Danny Zuko in the 1978 musical Grease over the next few years. The previous year’s movies were The Boy in the Plastic Bubble and Grease. These movies were some of the biggest hits of the decade and made Travolta a famous star all over the world.
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Saturday Night Fever. At age 24, he was one of the youngest actors to ever be nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. His mother and sister Ann had small roles in Saturday Night Fever. In Grease, his sister Ellen played a waitress. Travolta sang on the record of music from Grease. Travolta came back strong in 1980, riding a national country music craze that came after his hit movie Urban Cowboy with Debra Winger. This was after the failure of the romance Moment by Moment (1978), in which he starred with Lily Tomlin.
After Urban Cowboy, Travolta played the lead part in Brian de Palma’s 1981 movie Blow Out, which got good reviews but didn’t do well at the box office, probably because of its sad ending. After Blow Out, Travolta’s acting career was put on hold by a string of box office and critical flops. Two of a Kind (1983), a love comedy starring him and Olivia Newton-John again, and Perfect (1985), a comedy starring him and Jamie Lee Curtis, were two of these.
He also played a professional dancer in Staying Alive, the 1983 follow-up to Saturday Night Fever. He trained hard and lost 20 pounds for the role. The movie did well at the box office, earning over $65 million, but reviews didn’t like it. However, at that time, Travolta was offered lead parts in movies that would become big hits, but he turned them down. For example, American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Splash all went to Richard Gere instead of Travolta.
It was Travolta’s most popular movie since Grease, and it came out in 1989. It starred Kirstie Alley and made $297 million at the box office. After that, he was in Look Who’s Talking Too (1990) and Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), but it wasn’t until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s hit movie Pulp Fiction (1994), with Samuel L. Jackson, that his career took off again. For this role, he was nominated for an Academy Award. It was Travolta’s third movie with Bruce Willis.
However, after the movie, he was back on the A-list, and he got a lot of different offers. After Pulp Fiction, he played a movie-lover loan shark in Get Shorty (1995), a factory worker in White Man’s Burden (1995), a crooked U.S. Air Force pilot in Broken Arrow (1996), a normal guy with superpowers in Phenomenon (1996), an angel in Michael (1996), an FBI agent and terrorist in Face/Off (1997), a desperate lawyer in A Civil Action (1998), a presidential candidate like Bill Clinton in Primary Colors (1998), and a military investigator in
In 2000, Travolta appeared in and co-produced the science fiction movie Battlefield Earth, which was based on the same-named book by L. Ron Hubbard. He played the bad guy, the leader of a group of aliens who hold humans as slaves on a dark future Earth. When Hubbard wrote to Travolta after the book came out in 1982 to ask for his help in making a movie based on it, it became his dream project. The movie did not do well at the box office and almost all critics gave it bad reviews. Two Razzie Awards were also given to Travolta for his role in Battlefield Earth.
The 2000s were busy years for Travolta as an actor. He was in a lot of movies, including Swordfish (2001), Domestic Disturbance (2001), Ladder 49 (2004), Be Cool (2005), Lonely Hearts (2006), Wild Hogs (2007), the Disney computer-animated movie Bolt (2008) (voiced the lead character), The Taking of Pelham 123, and Old Dogs (both 2009). Travolta’s first show since Grease was the remake of Hairspray in 2007. He played Edna Turnblad in it.
Travolta has mostly been in action and horror movies since 2010, like From Paris with Love (2010) and Savages (2012). When Travolta called Idina Menzel “Adele Dazeem” at the 86th Academy Awards in 2013, he made a famous mistake. The song “Let It Go” from the Disney cartoon movie Frozen was sung by Menzel. In 2016, he came back to TV in the first season of American Crime Story, which was called “The People v. O.J. Simpson.” He played lawyer Robert Shapiro in that show. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his role.
John Travolta Age
Travolta was born on February 18, 1954, in Englewood, New Jersey, United States. He is 69 years old as of 2023, and he celebrates his birthday on the 18th of February every year.
John Travolta Height and Weight
Travolta stands at a height of 6 feet 2 inches tall (1.87m) and weighs 74 kgs (165 lbs).
John Travolta Wife | Gay
Travolta was married to Kelly Preston, an actress in 1991. Kelly was two months pregnant with their son when they were tying the knot. Their union was officiated by a Scientology minister at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris. The two had met on the set of the film The Experts. They began dating in 1987. The couple were blessed with three children; Jett Travolta (born April 13, 1992), Ella Bleu Travolta (born April 3, 2000), an actress, and Benjamin Travolta (born 2010). Sadly, Jett Travolta died while they were on vacation with family on January 2, 2009.
Unfortunately, Kelly died in July 2020 at the age of 57 after a two-year battle with breast cancer. Travolta was so frustrated by the death of his wife and so he took a break from his career to be there for his children.
John Travolta Family
Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey, United States to Helen Cecilia Burke (mother), an American actress, and Salvatore Travolta (father) who was a semiprofessional American football player and later became a tire salesman and partner in a tire company named Travolta Tire Exchange. His parents separated in 1978. Unfortunately, his father died in 1995 at the age of 83 years. John has five siblings; Ellen Travolta, Sam Travolta, Joey Travolta, Ann Travolta, and Margaret Travolta.
John Travolta Net Worth
Travolta has an estimated net worth of about $100 Million – $300 Million which he has earned through his career as an actor.
John Travolta Salary
Travolta earns a salary of about $20 Million – $30 Million annually.
John Travolta Son
Travolta and his wife’s first son, Jett Travolta were born in Los Angeles, California on April 13, 1992. Unfortunately, a demise happened while he was on vacation with his family in the Bahamas. The teen hit his head in a bathtub after having a seizure at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel on Grand Bahama Island, where he was on vacation with his family at the time.
John Travolta Daughter
Travolta and his wife were blessed with one beautiful daughter named Ella Bleu Travolta who is an actress. She was born in California on April 3, 2000. Ella is known for several movies such as Old Dogs (2009), Eye for an Eye (2019), and Lost in Wonderland.
John Travolta House
In the 1990s, Travolta and his wife built the house on the exclusive home in Jumbolair Aviation Estates. The land has an airport, a runway, and parking for two of his jets right outside his house, so he can get on them in less than a minute after leaving the front door.
John and his late wife Kelly Preston were the first people in the country to buy and build a house on a private runway. The 550-acre estate now has a 3,600-foot runway, a 7,600-square-foot mansion that was once owned by horse breeder Muriel Vanderbilt, an 8,700-square-foot meeting center, and about seventeen estates that haven’t been sold yet but have access to the runway. John updated his midcentury home when he first moved in. It has five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, large, open-plan living rooms, and a beautiful pool in the backyard.
John’s house has a huge 16-car garage that he is lovingly turning into a parkour-style gym for his son Ben, whose acrobatic skills get better every week. The actor and pilot also think it’s important for kids and adults to have a cool place to hang out outside. It was one of his engineers who told Architectural Digest, “The pool cabana is a playroom for grown-ups.” Because John wanted to dance there, it has a large open area and a stone floor. Outside the house, there is a pool slide, a huge swimming area, and a golf course. It’s one big fun zone.
John Travolta Grease
Travolta plays the role of Danny Zuko in the musical romantic comedy film Grease. Danny meets Sandy at the beach while on summer break and falls deeply in love with her. Sandy is an Australian girl who is very pretty and nice. As she leaves for Australia, he hopes that their relationship is just the start and doesn’t think he’ll see her again.
Danny doesn’t know this, but Sandy’s parents decide to move to America when the new school year starts. Sandy starts at Rydell High School, where Frenchy becomes friends with her. Sandy tells the Pink Ladies that she met Danny at the beach while she was on summer break, and Rizzo makes plans for them to meet again.
Dan was shocked to see Sandy again, but his T-Bird friends told him to keep his cool. Sandy’s heart breaks when Danny is crude and rude. She called him “a fake and a phony” and cried as she left. Dan gets mad and pulls up to Frenchy’s house with the T-Birds in Kenickie’s new car. He gets out of the car and walks away. A few days later, Danny sees Sandy hanging out with one of the football players, Tom Chisum, who is very good-looking.
He tries to explain what happened with the T-Birds, saying things like “it was him, but it wasn’t him.” to show his remorse. Sandy calls Tom “a simple person.” Danny says he’s not jealous, and when he finds out Sandy likes athletes, he chooses to become one himself. He finally starts running because he wants to win her love and be with her again more than anything else. Danny trips and falls while trying to jump over a hurdle. Sandy tries to talk to him, and the two of them decide to get back together. They try to go on a date, but their friends show up and ruin it.
Sandy’s dad takes her to the school dance. Additionally, Sandy was with Danny, but Sonny grabbed her and took her away. Meanwhile, Cha Cha grabbed Danny’s arm and made him dance with her so they could win the dance contest. Sandy feels terrible and leaves. However, after a few days, Danny takes Sandy to a drive-in show to make up for what he did. He gives her his ring and then tries to get close to her. Sandy fights back. She gets out of the car, throws Danny’s ring in his face, and then runs away. Danny is very sad because he thinks that the two of them belong together.
The T-Birds and their foes race cars together. Dan drives the car after Kenickie hits his head on the door of his car. Sandy loved the race and was so happy when Danny won. She then tells Frenchy that she isn’t happy but that she thinks there is a way for her to be, and she asks Frenchy to help her.
Dan shows up to the school fair in a letterman sweater from track and tells his T-Bird friends how much he cares about them and Sandy. A “female greaser” Sandy shows up and shocks everyone, especially Danny. They promise to love each other and leave in a rusted Lightning Car.
John Travolta Saturday Night Fever
Travolta plays the role of Tony Manero in the American dance drama film Saturday Night Fever. Tony Manero is 19 years old and is Italian-American. He lives in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, New York. He works in a small paint shop but doesn’t get anywhere. Tony lives with his parents, grandmother, and younger sister. Tony gets away from his normal life by going to the local disco 2001 Odyssey. There, he is king of the dance floor and gets the respect and love he wants.
Nick has four close Italian-American friends in the area. Their names are Joey, Double J, Gus, and Bobby C. Annette is a girl from the neighborhood who is in love with Tony but not attracted to him. Furthermore, she is on the edge of his group of friends. Tony and his friends always stop and joke around on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. For Tony, the bridge is a special place because it represents running away to a better life.
Tony agrees to be Annette’s partner in a dance event, but Stephanie Mangano, a woman at the club whose dancing skills are better than Annette’s, has Tony’s attention. Annette’s happiness doesn’t last long. Stephanie turns down Tony’s approaches at first, but she finally agrees to dance with him in the competition as long as they stay professional.
However, when Tony’s parents and grandmother hear that Frank Jr. has quit being a priest, they are devastated. Frank Jr. is Tony’s bigger brother and the family’s pride. Frank Jr. and Tony get along well, and Tony is glad that he is no longer the “bad kid” in the family. Additionally, he told Tony that he didn’t really want to be a priest and only did it to make their parents happy. He also tells Tony that he should do something with his dance.
John Travolta Hairspray
Travolta plays the role of Edna Turnblad in the musical romantic comedy Hairspray. Edna Turnblad is Tracy’s mom and the owner of a laundry business. She is afraid of people speaking about her and feels bad about her weight. Travolta’s choice to play Edna continued the practice of having a man in drag play the role, going back to the original 1988 movie, where drag queen Divine played the part, and the Broadway production of Hairspray, where Harvey Fierstein played the part.
However, New Line Cinema executives thought the part would be played by an actor who was used to playing comedic roles. They mentioned names like Robin Williams, Steve Martin, and Tom Hanks. However, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron made a strong bid for Travolta for this part because he played Danny Zuko in Grease, which was the second most popular movie musical of all time, after Mamma Mia!
John Travolta Movies and TV Shows
- The General’s Daughter
- Wild Hogs
- Savages
- Bolt
- Primary Colors
- A Civil Action
- Face/Off
- Michael
- Broken Arrow
- Get Shorty
- Pulp Fiction
- Saturday Night Fever
John Travolta Social Media Platforms
Travolta is very active on his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages and he has 2.5k followers on Twitter 5.3M followers on Instagram, and 8.3M followers on Facebook.