John Travolta

Looking on his career that spans three decades, it is easy to notice that John Travolta is an extraordinary actor whose talent and skills are certainly beyond questions yet many probably do not know that he had to go through ups and down to achieve all the accolades and respect he really deserves of. Born John Joseph Travolta on February 18, 1954, in Englewood, New Jersey to Salvatore and Helen Burke Travolta as the youngest of their six children, little John was heavily influenced to grow an interest in acting by his mother who used to be an actress, singer, and director so that it really did not take a long time for him to come up with an intention of becoming a fine thespian. Joined a local group of actors at age 12 while also learned dancing under Fred Kelly's guidance, he diligently honed his skills through some musical productions in his hometown before finally fixed his mind to embark on a journey to accomplish his dream at age 16.

Quitting his high school study with his parents' permission to then head for Manhattan New York, John made his way to land small parts in some off-Broadway plays, such as "Rain", "Over Here!", "Metamorphosis", "She Loves Me", plus "Bye Bye Birdie" and later appeared in a handful of TV series, notably that of "Welcome Back, Kotter" (1975-1979) which satisfyingly brought him to people's attention due to its rocketing popularity. However, it was through his next project, "Saturday Night Fever" (1977), that he eventually received widespread recognition all over the globe for this musical drama amazingly hit the box-office with tremendous income of more than 237 million U.S dollar internationally, furthermore led him to gloriously earn the Best Actor in a Leading Role nomination at the 1978 Academy Awards.

John's story of success still continued afterwards, this time even became greater when he, alongside Olivia Newton-John, helped "Grease" (1978) to collect over $394 million worldwide which established the movie as the highest grossing musical film ever while also spawned several hit songs from its soundtrack, a perpetuation of the achievement he had scored in music industry two years ago through his self-titled album. Sadly, the brilliant shine of his star began to fade by the time he entered the '80s since most of his features, like "Urban Cowboy" (1980), "Blow Out" (1981), "Two of a Kind" (1983), and "Perfect" (1985) turned out to be just some mediocre pictures that were easily forgettable though he later fared better in "Look Who's Talking" (1989).

As he kept encountering disappointing results during the early 1990s in his 1991 films of "Shout" and "Eyes of an Angel", not to mention the two sequels to "Look Who's Talking", John did not put much high hopes when Quentin Tarantino cast him to play a philosophical hit man named Vincent Vega opposite Uma Thurman's Mia Wallace in "Pulp Fiction" (1994). To his surprise, the picture not only was commercially successful, but also obtained huge praise from either critics and audience, especially that for his brilliant portrayal which directed him to once again be nominated at Academy Awards in the same category by 1995 along with others of BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. This fantastic attainment undeniably brought him back to the spotlight besides restored his status as one of the A-list actors in Hollywood.

Showered with numerous promising film offers, John carefully selected the roles he was about to take to thus find himself creating success after another up to the end of 1990s through a series of blockbuster movies, namely "Get Shorty" (1995), "Broken Arrow" (1996), "Phenomenon" (1996), "Michael" (1996), "Face/Off" (1997), and "The General's Daughter" (1999). Nevertheless, this blue-eyed actor again faced a failure after his next feature, "Battlefield Earth" (2000), which he also produced based on L. Ron Hubbard's sci-fi novel of the same title, was critically panned down by critics while became a box-office disaster for it was only able to garner about $21 million despite its expensive production budget of $73 million. Unaffected with the poor result of the movie, he went on filming his 2001 movies of "Swordfish" and "Domestic Disturbance", followed by enactments in "Basic" (2003) then "The Punisher" (2004) alongside Thomas Jane.

Bounced back with a strong turn in "Ladder 49" (2004) which was both well reviewed and received before reprising his role in "Get Shorty" sequel, "Be Cool" (2005), John moved quite steadily to maintain his hold in film industry, acquiring the first billing in "Lonely Hearts" (2007) and "Wild Hogs" (2007) while making a very surprising performance as Tracy Turnblad's mother in musical flick "Hairspray." Though his portrayal drew some criticism from individuals in the gay community, the latter nonetheless turned out to be a huge success either critically and commercially, even became the one of the highest-grossing PG-rated films of that year. More high-profile roles followed afterwards as seen in "Old Dogs" (2008), "Dallas" (2009), and "The Taking of Pelham 123" (2009) apart from voice stints in "Bolt" (2008) and "Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey" (2009).

Concerning his love life, John once dated his co-star of "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" (1976), Diana Hyland, but their relationship sadly came to its tragic end when Hyland passed away in 1977 because of cancer. After reportedly being romantically involved with Merilu Henner, Olivia Newton-John, and Debra Winger, he ultimately gave his heart to Kelly Preston, whom he met during the filming of "The Experts" (1989) in Canada. Proclaimed husband and wife by a French Scientologist minister on September 5, 1991, the wedding unexpectedly was declared illegal, so they remarried in Daytona Beach by the next 7 days and later joyously welcomed their two children, Jett Travolta on April 13, 1992 then Ella Bleu on April 3, 2000.