John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and singer. He established his career as a leading Hollywood actor with films such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta enjoyed a career revival in the 1990s, stemming from his role in Pulp Fiction.Travolta, youngest of six children, was born in Englewood, New Jersey, the son of Salvatore Travolta, a semi-professional football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company, and Helen Cecilia (née Burke), an actress and singer who had appeared in The Sunshine Sisters, a radio vocal group, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama and English teacher. She was 42 when Travolta was born. Travolta's father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American; Travolta grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. His family was Catholic.
Travolta married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. They have a son named Jett, and a daughter named Ella Blue.
Travolta is a FAA licensed pilot and owns five airplanes, including an ex-Australian airliner, the Qantas 707-138. The plane bears the name Jett Clipper Ella in honour of his son Jett and his daughter Ella. Pan Am was a large operator of the 707 and used Clipper in their names. The 707 aircraft bears the marks of Qantas, as Travolta acts as an official goodwill ambassador for the airline wherever he flies. His US$4.9 million estate in the Jumbolair subdivision in Ocala, Florida is situated on Greystone Airport with its own runway and taxiway right to the door.
In 1992, he wrote and illustrated a short children's book entitled Propeller One-Way Night Coach about the fictional journey of an 8-year-old boy named Jeff across the USA in the 1950s.
In 2007, Travolta intervened on behalf of fellow Scientologist Tom Davis who he believed had been unfairly treated in the BBC current affairs program Panorama episode "Scientology and Me", lobbying Members of Parliament to stop the documentary from being aired.
Travolta was previously involved with actress Diana Hyland, who died of breast cancer in 1977.
