How much is John Travolta worth?
| Net Worth: | $250 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actor |
| Date of Birth: | February 18, 1954 (age 68) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
About John Travolta
Most Americans would certainly recognize the name of John Travolta. Many people around the world, for that matter. But depending upon your age, or if you don’t happen to be a pop culture junkie like me, even those who immediately feel familiar with the star of stage, the big screen and television may not know his entire life’s story. Some might only know him from his Oscar nominated performance in Quentin Tarantino‘s 1996 smash hit Pulp Fiction. Some may only be familiar with Travolta with regard to more recent tabloid news or his dedication to the church of Scientology. What many people may not be aware of is how far back his career actually spans.
Prior to the beginning of Travolta’s career, he spent his first seventeen years in Englewood, New Jersey, where he was born in 1954. He and his five siblings are of Sicilian and Irish descent, and they had a mother who took keen interest in theater, which subsequently influenced her children’s interest in the arts. At seventeen, John dropped out of high school and moved from Englewood across the Hudson River into New York City. There he would begin a performing career that is as illustrious as it is diverse. John could act, dance and sing, all talents that he would utilize exhaustively on his journey to worldwide fame.
Travolta’s first acting role in NYC was for a touring musical show called Grease. Although he didn’t know it at the time, the story of Grease would later catapult him to a level of stardom that most of us cannot fathom. Once he had worked on Grease, he landed a role in a Broadway show called Over Here!, which was also a musical. With these two gigs under his belt, at the ripe old age of eighteen, John packed up and took his talent, dreams, and aspirations westward to Hollywood, California.
Once he was in Hollywood, he took bit parts while honing his skills as a young actor and singer. By the mid 1970’s, a pair of acting jobs would serve as a springboard to success. In 1975, John was cast in a new TV sitcom called Welcome Back, Kotter, a show that fictionally took place, of all locations, in Brooklyn, NY. The story centered on a New York teacher who had returned to the place he grew up to teach a bunch of troubled high school kids, one of which was Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino. The students Mr. Kotter would be teaching were a ragtag bunch who had been given the name “the sweathogs.” Travolta became a popular character on the show due to his clever quips and rhymes, delivered in thick Brooklyn accent, such as “Up your nose with a rubber hose!”
The second big break Travolta would seize upon was a primary role in the movie version of the Stephen King novel Carrie, a horror film in which John played one of the antagonists in the story. Travolta was finding success, but no one could have foreseen the meteoric rise that was just around the corner.
Kotter had introduced Travolta to American living rooms. Carrie had shown his ability could stretch to horror and drama on the big screen. By 1977, John had become a familiar face to the majority of America. It was his next two films, Saturday Night Fever and a movie rendition of the previously noted musical Grease, that would result in superstardom. Both movies were heavy on singing and dancing, which was right up Travolta’s alley. SNF was released during the height of disco music, while Grease was set in the 1950’s doo-wop era. John, who had already dabbled in the music business, was perfectly cast in each role, and the two films combined earned a total gross of over $600 million! By 1978, between hit tv shows, box office smashes and a discography of his own, including songs from Grease that were big hit singles, it was pretty safe to say Travolta was a bonafide megastar. Still in his twenties, he had reached a level where he would be able to command top dollar for roles. Heading into the 1980’s, John had single handedly become his own bankable commodity.
While we know one of the most important attributes for entertainers is physical attractiveness, his looks were but one component of the reason he scaled such heights in his chosen profession(s). He could pull off just about any role presented to him. He sang and danced, which opened up a whole new market for someone as versatile as John. But Travolta was also not averse to challenges and accepting roles that might not be perfectly within his wheelhouse. For example, during his career, he played a sickly teen who lived inside an air-purified plastic bubble, a disco dancing star, a cowboy, and a gangster, the last of which earned him an Oscar nomination. Travolta’s best asset, one which endeared him to fans, was his ability to be relatable, something he accomplished with relative natural ease.
Summing-Up
John Travolta’s star has shined for some fifty years. Nearly all of us know some piece of his work. But when you take a step back and realize the full scope and breadth of his performing in all those years, it’s something to behold. Way back when he played a delinquent teenager in high school, he could already recognize the pitfall and danger of being typecast in one limited role. So, he made a concerted effort to create a broad and expansive resume that would showcase his many abilities. When he did have dry spells or periods of lesser success, he had the chops to resurface and surprise us all with yet another facet to his acting. One final note: in the late 80’s and early 90’s, John starred in a trio of movies with the recently deceased Kirstie Alley, called Look Who’s Talking along with two sequels that followed the same plot. Travolta and Alley had great chemistry in their work together, and I’ll finish by offering condolences for such a distinguished actress in her own right.
