John Travolta Pays Tribute to "Grease" Co-Star Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John passed away on Monday at the age of 73.
The beloved singer and film star had been public about her long battle with breast cancer. Her husband, John Easterling, posted the news on her Facebook page that her passing was peaceful.
Newton-John had a storied career marked by number one hits and the classic starring role of Sandy in the movie version of the musical “Grease.”
Every Sandy must have her Danny and Olivia’s Danny was played, famously, by John Travolta. KPNX reports that Travolta posted a tribute to his “forever” co-star on Instagram after the news of her death was made public.
“‘My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better,’ Travolta wrote. ‘Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the first moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!'”
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From 1973-83, Olivia Newton-John topped the charts as one of the world’s most popular entertainers.
“She had 14 top 10 singles just in the U.S., won four Grammys, starred with Travolta in ‘Grease’ and with Gene Kelly in ‘Xanadu.’ The fast-stepping Travolta-Newton-John duet, ‘You’re the One That I Want,’ was one of the era’s biggest songs and has sold more than 15 million copies.”
The role of Sandy in “Grease” launched the singer to “super-stardom” alongside her co-star, Travolta. It would be her on-screen pinnacle, although she also had success in “Xanadu” and “Two of a Kind” in which she reunited with Travolta.
This isn’t the first time Travolta has faced the grief and loss caused by breast cancer. In 2020, John’s wife, Kelly Preston, died two years after her diagnosis of breast cancer. Earlier in his life, he was in a relationship with actress Diana Hyland. He remained with her until her death from breast cancer.
While Travolta’s romance with Newton-John happened only on-screen, the painful loss of another friend to breast cancer is hard to fathom. Olivia Newton-John waged a 30-year battle with breast cancer.
Kelly Preston and Travolta also lost their son, Jett, to death by seizure, in 2009 when he was only 16.
In 2019, Travolta and Newton-John revisited their roles for one special night in West Palm Beach, Florida. They “attended a sing-along of the movie and a Q&A session at the Coral Sky Amphitheatre,” as reported by CNN.
Their movie relationship will live on in the hearts of fans and of each new generation that discovers the angst and power of high school romance in the forever relationship of Sandy and Danny in “Grease.”
