Biography - John Travolta

Square-jawed actor and singer John Travolta has exhibited a remarkable versatility over his 30-year career, successfully dabbling in comedies, musicals, thrillers, and high-impact crime films including his memorable turn in 1994’s “Pulp Fiction”.

Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey on February 18, 1954, the youngest of six children. Seeing his talent early on, Travolta’s mother enrolled him in drama school in New York City, and by 16 he was beginning a professional career in musical theatre. He performed in a summer stock production of “Bye Bye Birdie” and in a Broadway tour of “Grease”. He soon moved to L.A. to begin a screen career, and rose to fame with the success of the sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter”, which he starred in from 1975-1979. Though he had a few bit parts in films before, his devilish role in the 1976 Stephen King adaptation “Carrie” put him on the A-list track, which was cemented by his Academy Award-nominated performance in 1977’s “Saturday Night Fever”. The hugely popular disco film (which spawned the Sylvester Stallone-directed sequel “Staying Alive” in 1983) led to his role as Danny Zuko in 1978’s “Grease” film adaptation, which proved to be another smash success for the actor. After the hit drama “Urban Cowboy” and the thematically interesting but shallow 1981 Brian De Palma thriller “Blow Out”, Travolta experienced a major dry spell in the 80s.

The actor didn’t have a hit for nearly a decade, until 1989’s “Look Who’s Talking” was a surprise smash and quietly started his comeback. Two sequels to the family comedy failed to live up to the original’s success, but his Oscar-nominated role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” put him back on top. The talky crime drama, which ushered in a generation of young filmmakers famous for stealing cinematic moments of the 60s and 70s, once again made Travolta a major leading man. His career skyrocketed with lead roles in a diverse array of films, including the John Woo action hits “Broken Arrow” and “Face/Off”, the comedies “Michael” and “Get Shorty”, and dramas like “Phenomenon”, “A Civil Action”, and “Primary Colors”, in which the actor portrayed a doppelganger for then-President Bill Clinton. The current decade has seen continued success for Travolta with films like “Swordfish”, “Ladder 49”, and the “Get Shorty” sequel “Be Cool”. His only major blunder of the last decade was 2000’s expensive disaster “Battlefield Earth”, which was savaged by critics and ignored by audiences. However, in the long run its failure proved to be a minor scratch on his tremendous career.

Travolta has been married to Kelly Preston since 1991, and has two children with the stunning actress. He is slated to appear in the big-budget film version of “Dallas” as well as the high-profile film adaptation of the musical “Hairspray”.