John Travolta's Biography

In the late sixties and early seventies, John Travolta had various stage and TV roles, but his big break came in 1975 when he played Vinnie Barbarino in the TV series Welcome Back Kotter.

It ran until 1979 and led to John Travolta releasing an album in 1976, which included the single, Let Her In, which reached number 10 in the Billboard chart.

During this period John Travolta was also acting in movies. He had major hits as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977), for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and as Danny Zuko in Grease (1978).

The late 1970s also saw John Travolta get together with Diana Hyland, who played his mother in the TV film, The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, however she died of cancer in 1977 only shortly after they had got together.

The 1980s saw John Travolta gain a number of acting credits, including performances in Urban Cowboy, reprising his Saturday Night Fever role as Tony Manero in Staying Alive, and, in 1989, The Experts, which was most notable for him meeting Kelly Preston, whom he married in September 1991.

However, the films were for the most part unremarkable until John Travolta put in a highly acclaimed performance in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), for which he received his second Oscar nomination for best actor.

Pulp Fiction proved to herald Travolta's renaissance, and he made notable performances in, for example, Get Shorty, and John Woo's Broken Arrow and Face/Off.

John Travolta's film performances in the late 1990s and in the early part of the twenty-first century were a mixed bag. The credits included Primary Colours, The Thin Red Line, A Civil Action, and The General's Daughter.

Also amongst his movies was Battlefield Earth, which was written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, of which, like Tom Cruise, John Travolta is a follower.

Battlefield Earth did not prove popular unlike other Travolta films including Ladder 49, The Punisher, Wild Hogs, and the remake of Hairspray.

In 2009, he starred in The Taking of Pelham 123.

On November 24, 2010 People reported that John Travolta and Kelly Preston were parents to a son Benjamin.

In 2023, he starred in the film The Shepherd, based on the book by Frederick Forsyth.