All about this artist
Biography:
Born 18 February 1954, Englewood, New Jersey, USA, of Italian-Irish ancestry. Travolta left school at the age of 16 to become an actor. After working in off-Broadway productions and Hollywood bit-parts, he landed a lead in Welcome Back Cotter, a nationally transmitted television series.
Hating to see this exposure go to waste, Midsong Records engaged the handsome young thespian as a recording artist. Three singles, notably 1976's "Let Her In', cracked the US Top 40 which, with his film roles in such as Devil's Rain (1975), The Boy In The Plastic Bubble (1976) and Carrie (1976), readied the public for his pièce de résistance as the star of Saturday Night Fever which turned disco into a multinational industry.
Travolta's pop and cinema interests combined in 1978"s Grease, for which he was singularly well prepared, having once toured in a stage version of this musical. From the soundtrack, his duets with co-star Olivia Newton-John, "You're The One That I Want" and "Summer Nights", were worldwide number 1 hits with Travolta's solo highlights, "Sandy" and "Greased Lightnin'", also selling well.
His solo chart career ended (perhaps temporarily) after the fall of Sandy from the UK album lists in 1979. Staying Alive, a sequel-of-sorts to Saturday Night Fever, and Two Of A Kind (in which he teamed again with Newton-John) were made during the 80s when his career was in decline.
Travolta found himself replaced by a new wave of actors who included Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, and Kevin Costner. His comeback came in 1994 courtesy of director Quentin Tarantino's smash hit Pulp Fiction, which earned Travolta a second Best Actor Oscar nomination to add to the one for Saturday Night Fever.
Since then his star has been in the ascendancy, and the musical magic started all over again in 1998, when the Grease soundtrack, and the single, "You're The One That I Want", returned to the charts following the film's 20th anniversary re-release.
In the same year, Travolta received a lifetime achievement award at the 34th Chicago International Film Festival.
