The Life and Career of John Travolta

Hello, Everybody! Top picture is actor John Travolta, an actor who has gone through many highs and lows during his career. His career has been a seesaw so far which I've pretty much covered in this article. 

Born in Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey and growing up in an Irish American neighborhood, his father, Salvatore "Sam" Travolta was a semi-pro American football player turned tire salesman and a partner in a tire company, Travolta Tyre Exchange and was a second-generation Italian-American while his mother, Helen Cecilia was an actress and a singer who appeared in a vocal group called The Sunshine Sisters before becoming an English and Drama teacher and was Irish American. Travolta has said that his home was Irish in culture and is raised Roman Catholic, but converted to Scientology in 1975. He and his siblings, Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam were all inspired by their mother's work and pursued acting. He also attended Dwight Morrow High School, but dropped out during his junior year at age 17 in 1971. Afterwards, he pursued an acting career by moving to New York City.

He starred in a few NYC plays before landing a role on Broadway in Over Here! and a touring company of Grease. He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional career with his first screen role as a victim in the medical drama, Emergency!, his first movie role however was Billy Nolan in Carrie, a high school bully. Around the time of the success of Carrie, he landed a star-making role in the sitcom, Welcome Back, Kotter which premiered in 1975. A few years later, he starred in the classic television film, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble which earned 4 Emmys. During filming, he met actress Diana Hyland and began dating until she passed away from Breast cancer in 1977. Due to Plastic Bubble's success, he landed his big break by starring in the iconic role of Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever and earning him his first Academy Award nomination at the age of 24, making him one of the youngest actors to ever be nominated in the Best Actor category. He then reunited with "Plastic Bubble" director, Randal Kleiser to star in the iconic musical movie, Grease, playing the role of Danny Zuko. Both of those movies made John Travolta a house-hold name and became a part of the Hollywood A-List. 2 years after Grease in 1978, he starred in Urban Cowboy alongside Debra Winger which inspired country music craze across the United States and the criminally underrated Neo-noir thriller film, Blow Out.

The 1980s came around and John Travolta was already on top of the world, but... this decade wasn't kind to him. He starred in a series of failed films that nearly ruined his career including Two of a Kind, which was a second collaboration with Olivia Newton-John and Perfect alongside Scream Queen, Jamie Lee Curtis and the VERY forgettable sequel to Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive, although that one was a financial success rather than a critical one. The cause of his decline was the fact that he was offered, but declined to lead roles in American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman, with both roles going to Richard Gere.

By the end of the decade, he starred in 3 mediocre films; Look Who's Talking, Look Who's Talking Too and Look Who's Talking Now. It seems as if he'll go through another decade of failure, but it wasn't until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino's hit movie, Pulp Fiction alongside Samuel L. Jackson that go him back into superstardom. The role earned him his first Academy Award nomination in 17 years, putting him back into the A-List. He then starred in Get Shorty as loan shark, Chili Palmer which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy, a corrupt U.S. Air Force pilot in Broken Arrow alongside Christian Slater, Sean Archer/Caster Troy in Face/Off, which earned him critical praise, an attorney in A Civil Action, a presidential candidate based on Bill Clinton in Primary Colors and a military investigator in The General's Daughter. Get Shorty, Face/Off and Primary Colors received the most acclaim. During that decade, he married Kelly Preston in 1991 and had 3 children and have been together for 30 years. On July 12, 2020, Preston passed away after a long battle with Breast Cancer.

The 2000s have also not been nice to John Travolta. In the year 2000, he starred in Battlefield Earth, a movie based on L. Ron Hubbard's book of the same name and a sci-fi film about aliens invading a bleak planet Earth. The movie was destroyed by critics earning it two Golden Raspberry Awards to Travolta. Oh, boy it seems as if he can't catch a break. One minute critics love you and the next they're roasting you. That's the case with John Joseph Travolta. He still did appear in mediocre films to say the least including Swordfish, which by the promise of his opening monologue it all came crashing down earning him another Razzie award, Be Cool, which was an unsuccessful sequel to Get Shorty, Ladder 49, Lonely Hearts, The Taking of Pelham 123, Wild Hogs and Old Dogs. In 2007, he made a couple of minor comebacks in the remake of Hairspray. His first musical since Grease and voicing a dog who thinks that his superpowers are real in the Disney-Animated movie, Bolt alongside Miley Cyrus. At the end of the decade, his son Jett died from a seizure when he was only 16 years old.

During the 2010s, he has mostly stuck to humanitarian work by owning a four aircrafts and becoming a private pilot, excluding his Qantas Boeing aircraft that he owned. He donated it to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society in 2017 and is an official Qantas goodwill ambassador. He flew his Boeing aircraft to Haiti carrying supplies during the earthquake in 2010. His estate in Ocala, Florida is at Jumbolair airport with its own runway right to his house. He also supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. In the being of 2019, after years of wearing hair, he now sports a bald head. 

 

The 2010s were also a bad decade for Travolta but had minor great roles in those movies. From Paris with Love was a mediocre film but boasted a strong performance from the actor, he also played a U.S. Marshal in In a Valley of Violence in 2016, which earned positive reviews. That same year, he starred in the critically acclaimed first season of American Crime Story, The People vs. O.J. Simpson as celebrity defense attorney, Robert Shaprio which earned him Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe nomination. Despite the success of those two great roles, they haven't really resurrected his career... yet. Other bad films included Savages, Killing Season, The Forger, Life on the Line, Criminal Activities, Speed Kills, Trading Paint, The Fanatic and I Am Wrath. Arguably his worst movie his career, is Gotti. A formulaic and oh-so cliched gangster drama which has an abysmal 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

So... that's that. That's his career. Many have tried and failed over the years but few have come so close like John Travolta. A literal rollercoaster of a career. It's hard to know when he'll make his next comeback. Probably not in a very long time. But for the time being, we can expect his next bad movie, his next great minor role in a movie or his next BIG movie. Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment below what your favorite John Travolta movie is. Personally, I love Saturday Night Fever.