![]() ![]() Newton-John began to become an advocate for cancer research in 1991, after the tragic death of her best friend's daughter from a rare childhood form of the disease. ![]() Movies and music took an eventual backseat to motherhood and medical issues. ![]() Actually, it was the entire industry's biggest hit of that decade, according to a Billboard ranking, and held its top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 consecutive weeks. She notched her biggest hit with the song "Physical" in November 1981. The film disappointment didn't matter much: In the early '80s, Newton-John was busy having plenty of success in the music business. Image: Olivia Newton-John during the annual Wellness Walk and Research Run in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. Newton-John seemed to give up on Hollywood after the 1983 fantasy romance "Two of a Kind" reunited her on screen with Travolta, but it had none of the magic their last collaboration did. But they separated after 11 years of marriage, in 1995. Two years later, the couple welcomed a daughter, Chloe Rose. Her follow-up, the sci-fi, disco musical "Xanadu," didn't fare nearly as well.Īt least something good came of that role: She married co-star Matt Lattanzi in 1984. That final result proved to be a blockbuster. "We couldn't have been more thrilled by the final result." "She embodied the character in the beginning of the film, and we all hoped she could pull off the sexy vixen at the end," Kleiser said. She asked to have a screen test so she could see how she would come across and feel how the chemistry would be between she and John and myself."įortunately, the test worked well enough to convince her that she could handle the part. "(At 29 years old) she wasn't sure she would look the part of a 17-year-old and wanted to make sure she and John looked like they could be contemporaries," Kleiser said. "She had had a bad experience on an English film and didn't want to repeat it." "Olivia Newton-John was our first choice for the part of Sandy, but she had a few concerns," Kleiser recalled by email. So when "Grease" director Randal Kleiser was looking to cast the role of Sandy, a straight-laced Australian student who falls in love with a greaser and ultimately becomes one herself, he at least knew his first choice could sing, whether or not Newton-John could act opposite the red-hot John Travolta, who was fresh off "Saturday Night Fever." 1 and her next two Grammys a year later with the country ballad "I Honestly Love You." ![]() She broke through on this side of the Pacific with her third solo album, "Let Me Be There," in 1973, with the title track earning the singer her first Grammy Award, for best female country performance. (ABC via Getty Images)īut it would be as a solo artist, starting in 1966, that Newton-John would hit her true potential. Just a few years later, she won a talent contest on one of the country's most popular television shows, “Sing, Sing, Sing.” By the time she was 15, she had formed an all-girl group and later partnered with her friend Pat Carroll for the pop duo Pat & Olivia. But from an early age, it seemed she was not destined to follow into the family business of academia.Īfter her father took a job at a college in Australia, the family moved to Melbourne when Newton-John was 5. Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, in 1948 to a father, Brin, who was both a World War II hero with British military intelligence and a professor of German literature, and a mother, Irene, whose own father, physicist Max Born, would win a Nobel Prize six years later. "You can be a victim, or you can be a winner and enjoy your life.”īy all accounts, Newton-John lived a winning life. You have to make that decision," she told the "TODAY" show in March 2019. "I think, you know, what you think creates your reality. In more recent years, however, Newton-John became best known as an advocate for breast cancer survivors, being one herself since first her first diagnosis in 1992. She is credited with selling more than 100 million records over the course of a five-decade career. 1 single of that decade, according to Billboard. She stole hearts in the 1978 blockbuster "Grease" and dominated the charts with songs like the 1981 hit "Physical," which was the No. In the late '70s and early '80s, Newton-John was one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world. John Travolta and Olivia Newton John in the film 'Grease,' in 1978. ![]()
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