1970s stardom The films were among the most commercially successful pictures of the decade and catapulted Travolta to international stardom. Saturday Night Fever 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.
He landed jobs in commercials and small television roles before making his Off-Broadway debut in Rain in 1972. After the show's brief run, he toured in a minor role in Grease before making his Broadway debut in Over Here! Travolta became a teen idol following the debut of the TV series Welcome Back, Kotter in 1975.
The movie that made John Travolta one of the biggest stars on the planet, Saturday Night Fever was a cultural phenomenon. Not only was it a major critical and commercial success, but it also brought disco music back into the limelight.
Beginning his stellar career in the 1970s, Travolta first appeared in the 1975 television series Welcome Back, Kotter. His acting career quickly took off as when he starred in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978), shortly after his debut.
John Travolta's woozy, bleary-eyed turn as heroin-addicted hitman Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction is the definitive role of his career. It not only features the finest acting he's ever done, but it came at a time when his career was all but in the toilet.
The singing, dancing star of Grease had watched his career flatline throughout the Eighties – that is until Quentin Tarantino told him “you're the one that I want” and cast him in his sophomore feature Pulp Fiction.
His lowest-rated films, according to critics, include "Trading Paint" and "The Poison Rose." Travolta's top movies include the documentaries "Paul Williams Still Alive" and "Casting By."
John Travolta, who starred as Danny Zuko in Grease, famously stood out as younger than much of the rest of Grease's principal cast during filming in summer 1977 at age 23.
The film is also notable for having Danny (played by John Travolta, who had already had top-40 hits before Grease) sing lead on the song, while Kenickie (Jeff Conaway) contributed with a few call-and-response lines.
John Travolta is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, singer, dancer, musician and pilot. He first became well known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease.
Phenomenon is a 1996 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Jon Turteltaub, written by Gerald Di Pego, and starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall, and Jeffrey DeMunn.
John Joseph Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey, one of six children of Helen Travolta (née Helen Cecilia Burke) and Salvatore/Samuel J. Travolta. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His father owned a tire repair shop called Travolta Tires in Hillsdale, NJ.
Police in 2000 took a police report from a 21-year-old masseur who accused John Travolta of groping his buttocks and indecently exposing himself during a deep-body massage at a Palm Springs hotel, the Daily Mail reported Monday.
As part of a three-picture deal with Stigwood, Travolta was given the lead role after Henry Winkler turned down the role for fear of being typecast as a greaser, having been playing the similar bad-boy greaser Arthur Fonzarelli on Happy Days since 1974. (Winkler would later regret the decision.)
By the time Grease was a hit – and the studio realised a sequel might not be such a bad idea after all – Travolta and Newton-John had moved on to other things. Director Randal Kleiser also gave it a miss. Instead, Patricia Birch, choreographer of the original stage musical and the first film, was put at the helm.
Why Do They Call in Grease? The 1978 hit movie Grease got that title from the word “greasers.” Greasers were young guys of the '50s often with greased back hairstyles. The movie Grease is based on the musical with the same name, which had its first performance in 1971.
Kelly Ward brought the youngest member of the T-Birds, Putzie, to life in a role specifically created for the film. Grease wasn't his first time working with costar John Travolta, as the two worked together on 1976's made-for-television movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
In a recently published oral history of Grease, Thurm, 80, has admitted the reason why a decision to cast older actors was made. “People might say the cast is too old, but Grease is not a documentary; it's a fantasy,” he told The Guardian. “It's a non-PC fairytale that is better for the cast not being teens.
He even took a couple of years off from the profession entirely to take care of his children following the passing of his wife. No fault at all there, but his inactivity didn't help any chances. Plus, he only has two films on the horizon: the first will be American Metal (2023).
