John Travolta Biography
John Travolta is an American actor, singer, and dancer. Travolta rose to fame during the 1970s, appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978).
His acting career declined through the 1980s but enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction (1994), and he has since starred in films such as Get Shorty (1995), Broken Arrow (1996), Face/Off (1997), Swordfish (2001), Be Cool (2005), Wild Hogs (2007), Hairspray (2007), Bolt (2008), and The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009).
Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for performances in Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won his first and only Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his performance in getting Shorty, he has received a total of six nominations, the most recent being in 2011.
In 2010, he received the IIFA Award for Outstanding Achievement in International Cinema. In 2016, Travolta received his first Primetime Emmy Award, as a producer of the first season of the anthology series American Crime Story, subtitled The People v. O. J. Simpson. He received an additional Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of lawyer Robert Shapiro in the series.
John Travolta Education
John Travolta attended Dwight Morrow High School but he later dropped out as a junior at the age of 17 in 1971.
John Travolta Age|Birthday
John Travolta was born on February 8, 1954, in Englewood, New Jersey. He is 66 years old as of 2019. He celebrates his birthday on February 8, every year. His full names are John Joseph Travolta.
John Travolta Family
John was born in Englewood, New Jersey to his father Salvatore Travolta (November 1912–May 1995) and mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke; January 18, 1912–December 1978), who 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 semi-professional American football player who turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company? John was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, in an inner-ring suburb of Bergen County, New Jersey. He has three siblings namely; Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam Travolta.
They were all inspired by their mother’s love of theater and drama and they all became actors. John’s father was a second-generation Italian American (with roots in Godrano, Sicily) and his mother was Irish American.
He was brought up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. He was also brought up in from a Roman Catholic, but in 1975 he converted to Scientology. John attended Dwight Morrow High School but dropped out as a junior at age 17 in 1971.
John Travolta Young
After he dropped out of Dwight Morrow High School, John moved across the Hudson River to New York City. He landed a role in the touring company of the musical Grease and on Broadway in Over Here!, singing the Sherman Brothers’ song “Dream Drummin'” John then moved to Los Angeles for professional reasons.
His first screen role in California was as a fall victim in Emergency! (S2E2), in September 1972. However, 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).
At the same time, John 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). The show aired on ABC.
John Travolta Wife|Children|Kelly Preston
In 1991 John married actress Kelly Preston. He bought a house in Islesboro, Maine. They had a son, Jett. The couple’s daughter, Ella Bleu, was born in 2000 and a third child, a son, was born in 2010 in Florida. The couple has regularly attended marriage counseling; John has stated that therapy has helped the marriage.
John Travolta Son Death
John’s son, Jett, died at age 16 in 2009, while on a Christmas vacation in the Bahamas. A Bahamian death certificate was issued, attributing the cause of death to a seizure. John’s who had a history of seizures reportedly suffered from Kawasaki disease at the age of two. John settled speculation that his son had autism and suffered regular seizures.
He immediately made his public statements while giving testimony after a multimillion-dollar extortion plot against him in connection to his son’s death. After it was rendered invalid, John dropped the charges and has credited his immediate family and Scientology with helping him survive the death of his son and in moving forward with his film career.
In remembrance of his son, Travolta created the Jett Travolta Foundation. This is a non-profit organization to help children with special needs. The foundation has contributed to organizations such as the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
John Travolta Height
John stands at a height of 6feet 2inches (1.88 m).
John Travolta Quick facts
Weight: 97 Kg (214 LBS)
Hair Colour: Dark Brown
Eye Colour: Blue
Nationality: American
Race/Ethnicity: White
John Travolta Net Worth
John Travolta John is an American actor, singer, and dancer who has an estimated net worth of $170 million dollars.
John Travolta Scientology
John 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. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, joining other celebrities in helping with the relief efforts, John reportedly flew his Boeing 707 full of supplies, doctors, and Scientologist Volunteer Ministers into the disaster area.
Time magazine published a cover story titled “The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power” in May 1991. In the article, former Church of Scientology Executive Director William Franks alleged that Travolta was wary of leaving the faith because he feared the Church would publish detailed revelations of his private life, to include homosexual behavior.
These claims were reiterated by Franks and other Scientology defectors in Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, and former Church official Marty Rathbun claimed that he worked with Travolta’s attorneys several times to keep allegations about Travolta’s homosexuality out of the press and resolve lawsuits against the star.
John Travolta Actor
Travolta’s first screen role in California 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 (1975–79), in which his sister, Ellen, also occasionally appeared (as Arnold Horshack’s mother). The show aired on ABC.
John has also starred in Walt Disney Pictures’ 2009 film old dogs, along with Robin Williams, Kelly Preston and Ella Bleu Travolta, followed by the action thriller from Paris with love, starring opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers. John starred alongside Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir in the Oliver Stone directed movie, Savages.
He starred in the crime drama Gotti, where he played mob boss John Gotti opposite his wife, Kelly Preston as Victoria Gotti. The film, directed by Kevin Connolly, was released in theaters across the country in 2018. Last year John filmed Speed Kills, a movie about the high-stakes world of speedboat racing, and Trading Paint, where he will play a dirt track racing legend opposite Shania Twain, Michael Madsen, and Toby Sebastian.
He also starred in the classic Face/OFF opposite Nicolas Cage, and The General’s daughter, co-starring Madeline Stowe. In 2005, Travolta reprised the role of ultra-cool Chili Palmer in the Get Shorty sequel is cooL. In addition, he starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in the critically acclaimed independent feature film A love song for Bobby Long, which was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where both Travolta and the films won rave reviews.
He went on to star in the big-screen version of the long-running musical Grease and the wildly successful URBAN COWBOY, which also influenced trends in popular culture. Additional film credits include the Brian DePalma thrillers Carrie and BlowOut, as well as Amy Heckerling’s hit comedy look who’s talking and Nora Ephron’s comic hit Michael. T
John Travolta Hairspray
John played Edna Turnblad in the remake of Hairspray in 2007, his first musical since Grease. Hairspray is a musical romantic comedy film based on the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on John Waters’s 1988 comedy film of the same name.
The film was a venture produced by Ingenious Media and Zadan/Meron Productions. It was adapted from both Waters’s 1988 script and Thomas Meehan and Mark O’Donnell’s book for the stage musical by screenwriter Leslie Dixon.
John Travolta Downturn
After Urban Cowboy, John starred in a series of commercial and critical failures that sidelined his acting career. These included Two of a Kind (1983), a romantic comedy reteaming him with Olivia Newton-John, and Perfect (1985), co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis.
He also starred in Staying Alive, the 1983 sequel to Saturday Night Fever, for which he trained rigorously and lost 20 pounds; the film was a financial success, grossing over $65 million, though it, too, was scorned by critics.
During that time, Travolta was offered, but declined, lead roles in what would become box-office hits, including American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman, both of which went to Richard Gere.
John Travolta Plane|Airplane|Pilot
Travolta is a private pilot and owns four aircraft. This excludes the ex-Qantas Boeing 707-138B (Ex-VH-EBM) that he owned. In 2017, the plane was donated to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) near Wollongong, Australia, and is expected to be flown to Australia in November 2019.
Travolta plans to be on board when the aircraft is flown to Illawarra Regional Airport, where HARS is based, however, it will not be allowed to fly it, because it will be registered as an Australian aircraft. The 707 aircraft bears an old livery of Qantas, and Travolta acted as an official goodwill ambassador for the airline wherever he flew.
Travolta named his 707 “Jett Clipper Ella,” in honor of his children. The “Clipper” in the name represents that Pan Am used that word in the names of their aircraft. His estate in Ocala, Florida, is situated on Greystone Airport with its own runway and taxiway right to his house, with two outbuildings for covered access to planes.
On November 24, 1992, Travolta was piloting his Gulfstream N728T at night above a solid undercast when he experienced a total electrical system failure while flying under instrument flight rules into Washington National Airport.
During the emergency landing, he almost had a mid-air collision with a USAir Boeing 727, an event attributed to a risky decision by an air traffic controller. Travolta was inducted into the Living Legends of Aviation in 2007 and acts as the award show’s official ambassador.
On September 13, 2010, during the first episode of the final season of her talk show, Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be taking her entire studio audience on an eight-day, all-expenses-paid trip to Australia, with Travolta serving as a pilot for the trip. He helped Winfrey plan the trip for more than a year. He is the author of the book Propeller One-Way Night Coach, the story of a young boy’s first flight.
John Travolta House
John Travolta is located in Ocala, Florida, a short hour and a half drive outside of Orlando. The home is located in the Jumbolair Aviation Estate, which is a residential airpark. The house is complete with the main living area, known as the great room, that features tall curved walls and ceiling to floor windows that provide panoramic views of the front yard, and his legendary Boeing 707 parked out front in plain sight.
The property covers over 550 acres, a separate 3,600-foot-long lighted grass runway, a 7,686-square-foot mansion once owned by horse breeder Muriel Vanderbilt, an 8,700-square-foot conference center, and 17 unsold estate lots with runway access.
John Travolta Foundation
John, along with his wife, actress Kelly Preston, are also very involved in their charity, The Jett Travolta Foundation, which raises money for a wide variety of charitable and educational causes.
John Travolta Sexual assault allegations
In May 2012, an anonymous masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta, citing claims of sexual assault and battery. Travolta’s lawyer said that the allegations were “complete fiction and fabrication”. Travolta’s counsel also stated that his client would be able to prove that he was not in California on the day in question and asserted that Travolta would “sue the attorney and Plaintiff for malicious prosecution” after getting the case thrown out.
A second masseur later joined the lawsuit making similar claims. Both lawsuits were subsequently dropped by the complainants and dismissed without prejudice. On September 27, 2012, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Travolta and his attorney Marty Singer by writer Robert Randolph because he found that a letter, written by Singer in response to allegations in a book by Randolph, was protected by free speech.
In September 2014, Travolta denied claims made in January 2014 by his former pilot, Douglas Gotterba, that the two had shared a sexual relationship during the six-year period in which Gotterba worked for Travolta’s aircraft company, Alto.
John Travolta Time magazine
In May 1991, Time magazine published a cover story titled “The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power.” In the article, former Church of Scientology executive director William Franks alleged that Travolta was wary of leaving the faith because he feared the Church would publish detailed revelations of his private life, to include homosexual behavior.
These claims were reiterated by Franks and other Scientology defectors in Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, and former Church official Marty Rathbun claimed that he worked with Travolta’s attorneys several times to keep allegations about Travolta’s homosexuality out of the press and resolve lawsuits against the star. Travolta endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
John Travolta Dancing
John starred in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble and two of his most noted screen roles: Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977). Saturday Night Fever is a musical drama film directed by John Badham.
It stars John as Tony Manero, a working-class young man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as Stephanie Mangano, his dance partner, and eventual confidante; and Donna Pescow as Annette, Tony’s former dance partner, and would-be girlfriend. While in the disco, Tony is the champion dancer.
His circle of friends and weekend dancing help him to cope with the harsh realities of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local community, and his general restlessness. It earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, making him, at age 24, one of the youngest performers ever nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.
John Travolta Religion
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. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, joining other celebrities in helping with the relief efforts, Travolta reportedly flew his Boeing 707 full of supplies, doctors, and Scientologist Volunteer Ministers into the disaster area.
John Travolta New Movie|Latest Movies
- The Poison
- Speed Kills
- Gotti
- Trading Paint
John Travolta Upcoming Movies
- Trading Paint
- Moose
John Travolta Books
- John Travolta Staying Fit! His Complete Programme for Reshaping Your Body Through Weight Resistance Training and Modern Dance Techniques 1984
- Propeller one-way night coach 1997
- Untitled Travolta Memoir 2009
- Autobiography 2007
- Autobiography (John Travolta) 2008
John Travolta Resurgence
In 1989, Travolta starred with Kirstie Alley in Look Who’s Talking, which grossed $297 million, making it his most successful film since Grease. Next came to Look Who’s Talking Too (1990) and Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), but it was not until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s hit Pulp Fiction (1994), with Samuel L. Jackson, for which he received an Academy Award nomination, that his career revived.
The movie shifted him back onto the A-list and he was inundated with offers. Notable roles following Pulp Fiction include a movie-buff loan shark in Get Shorty (1995), a corrupt U.S. Air Force pilot in Broken Arrow, an FBI agent and 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 investigator in The General’s Daughter (1999).
John Travolta Awards
John has been honored twice with Academy Award nominations, the second for his riveting portrayal of a philosophical hit-man in Quentin Tarantino’s PULP FICTION. He also received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for this highly acclaimed role and was named Best Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, among other distinguished awards.
John Travolta Movies
- Grease 1978
- Saturday Night Fever 1977
- Pulp Fiction1994
- Face/Off 1997
- Hairspray 2007
- The Fanatic 2019
- Gotti 2018
- Look Who’s Talking 1989
- Urban CowBoy 1980
- Staying Alive 1983
- Get Shorty 1995
- Carrie 1976
- Wild Hogs 2007
- Phenomenon 1996
- Swordfish 2001
- Battlefield Earth 2000
- From Paris with Love 2010
- Broken Arrow 1996
- Be Cool 2005
- The Taking of Pelham 123 2009
- Blow Out
- Old Dogs 2009
- The Punisher 2004
- The General’s Daughter 1999
- Eye for an Eye 2019
- Killing Season 2013
- Trading Paint 2019
- Savages 2012
John Travolta TV Show
- Welcome Back, Kotter 1975-1979
- American Crime Story 2016
- The Boy in the Plastic Bubble 1976
- Mr. T and Tina 1976
- Where Are They Now? 1998-2001
- Paramount The Animated Series 2002
- Ladder 49: Extras
- The Scrat Show 2012
- The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
Frequently Asked Questions About John Travolta
Who is John Travolta?
Travolta is an American actor, singer, and dancer.
How old is John Travolta?
He is 66 years old as of 2019.
How tall is John Travolta?
He stands at a height of 6 feet 2inches 188 (cm).
Is John Travolta married?
Yes, he is married and he is married to actress Kelly Preston.
How much is John Travolta worth?
He has an estimated net worth of $170 million dollars.
How much does John Travolta make?
He makes an admirable income of his size though he has not revealed the actual value to the public.
Where does John Travolta live?
His house is located in Ocala, Florida, a short hour and a half drive outside of Orlando. The home is located in the Jumbolair Aviation Estate, which is a residential airpark.
Is John Travolta dead or alive?
He is still alive and in good health.