Formidable Hollywood star of the late 1970s and early '80s whose tempestuous career decisively discredits the old adage that there are no third acts in American life. Bright-eyed and boyish, Travolta first gained fame as Vinnie Barbarino, head "Sweathog" on the popular high school sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter (ABC, 1975-79). The character began as a dim-witted, swaggering bully but soon evolved into sweet-natured, vulnerable, and sexy teen idol.
Travolta even recorded the requisite pop album during this period and found himself mobbed by teenyboppers at suburban malls.
He first registered in features as a teen cad who plots against Carrie (1976) in the rousing Brian De Palma thriller. He truly graduated from TV and "hustled" his way to stardom in one of the signature films of the late '70s, Saturday Night Fever (1977).
Travolta's convincing urban Italian-American posturing, combined with a bruised sensitivity and several fiery disco routines helped make the film a resonant hit and earned the actor an Oscar nomination. The film benefited from and contributed to the growing popularity of disco with mainstream America.
After the critical and commercial fiasco of Moment By Moment (1978), a laughable romantic drama co-starring Lily Tomlin, Travolta cemented his popularity and proved himself a capable light romantic lead opposite Olivia Newton-John in Grease (1978).
Buoyed by the immense popularity of TV's Happy Days this faux 1950s song-and-dance fest became one of Hollywood's highest grossing film musicals.
Travolta's next feature, the well-received Urban Cowboy (1980),
featured the dancing lead in cowboy hat and boots as it tapped into America's ascendant interest in country-and-western culture. De Palma's Blow Out (1981) offered Travolta one of his most complex roles: a dedicated film sound recordist who accidentally records a political assassination. The result was a richly shaded portrait of the hack artist as fallen idealist.
Nonetheless, Blow Out stalled at the box office. A pumped-up Travolta made a strong commercial comeback in Staying Alive (1983), the Sylvester Stallone-directed sequel to Saturday Night Fever.
Travolta subsequently languished for nearly a decade in forgettable and/or unpopular films. His most notable work during this phase was a 1987 ABC-TV special: Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, a one-act two-character play directed by Robert Altman, in which Travolta played a Cockney hit man.
It was not until the sleeper hit of 1989, Look Who's Talking however, that Travolta was associated with another major box office success-though, in this case, he was not the main attraction. This romantic comedy featured the unreasonably popular gimmick of presenting a baby's thoughts in voice over and generated two more jobs for the former superstar-Look Who's Talking Too (1990) and Look Who'sTalking Now (1993). Glowing reviews for his performance in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994),
though, restored Travolta to Hollywood's A-list.
Relatively heavy-set, long-haired, and wearing earrings, Travolta's Vincent Vega was a strangely sympathetic hitman with a heroin habit and a disconcertingly innocent view of the world. The resuscitated star found himself deluged with scripts and deals offering him the biggest paydays of his estimable career as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Travolta capitalized on his success by starring in a trio of films. As Chili Palmer in Barry Sonnenfeld's popular Get Shorty he was acclaimed for his portrayal of a hitman entranced by Hollywood.
In White Man's Burden (both 1995), Travolta starred with Harry Belafonte in an ambitious film about reverse discrimination that won mixed critical notices and little audience support.
He followed with John Woo's action-adventure thriller Broken Arrow (1996)
in which he played a pilot who masterminds an extortion plot against the US government. Travolta reportedly received an $8 million fee for Phenomenon (1996)
in which he plays a man who is struck by a white light and develops superior abilities.
Michael
Mad City
Primary Colors
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