John Travolta
Actor, producer
Born: February 18, 1954, in Englewood, New Jersey
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2011: Arts & Entertainment

Through six decades of triumphs and tragedies, low spells and comebacks, John Travolta has remained an American icon.

Travolta is the youngest of six children born to his Italian American father and Irish American mother. His father owned a tire business; his mother was an actress and singer who became a high school drama and English teacher. Travolta attended Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, his hometown, but dropped out as a junior to pursue a career as an actor.

Crossing the Hudson River to Manhattan, Travolta landed a role in a touring company of the musical “Grease” and subsequently made his Broadway debut one month after his 20th birthday in the musical “Over Here!” Next, Travolta crossed the country to Hollywood, where he landed his early film and TV roles, including a key part in the 1976 horror film, “Carrie.”

Travolta blossomed into a scene-stealing star as the cocky Vinnie Barbarino in the ABC-TV sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter,” which ran from 1975-1979. In the midst of his TV fame, Travolta exploded on the big screen in 1977 as Tony Manero, the dance-floor king of “Saturday Night Fever,” a hugely popular and influential musical drama that fueled the disco craze. Travolta won a best-actor Oscar nomination for his dynamic performance, which showcased his serious acting chops alongside his trademark dance moves.

Having soared to stardom, Travolta followed “Fever” in 1978 with the starring role (alongside Olivia Newton-John) in Hollywood’s version of the musical “Grease,” another monster box-office hit.  His upward trajectory continued in 1980 with the hit film “Urban Cowboy,” which improbably cast Travolta as Bud Davis, a swaggering oil-refinery worker and obsessive mechanical-bull rider.

After emerging as one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Travolta mostly went cold for much of the 1980s. Then, in 1989, along came his comeback role in the feel-good romantic comedy “Look Who’s Talking.”  His career again went into high gear with the 1994 crime drama “Pulp Fiction,” in which Travolta played against type as the lowlife hoodlum Vincent Vega. The film earned Travolta his second Oscar nomination.

Having proven himself as a versatile leading man, Travolta subsequently earned plaudits for his roles in such diverse films as 1995’s “Get Shorty” (for which he won a Golden Globe as best actor), “Primary Colors” (1998), and “The General’s Daughter” (1999).  In 2007, he made a campy return to musical comedy as Edna Turnblad in the Hollywood remake of “Hairspray.” He returned to television in 2016 as a lawyer in the crime series “The People v. O.J. Simpson.” The performance earned Travolta a Prime-Time Emmy nomination.

In recent decades, Travolta has continued to work as an actor, producer, and executive producer, bouncing back from the loss of one of his three children in 2009 and his wife, the actress Kelly Preston, in 2020.

Beyond acting, Travolta’s other passion is flying. He holds numerous aviation licenses and can pilot aircraft as large as a Boeing 747.