Iconic actor, dancer and singer John Travolta was born February 18, 1954 in Englewood, New Jersey. Travolta is sometimes referred to as the comeback kid, due to his early career that all but fizzled out until a timeless role in an independent film brought him back into the mainstream bigger and better than ever.

Travolta has the “everyman” appeal that makes his story very alluring to people of all ages looking for inspiration. As the youngest of six children in a quintessential Irish neighborhood, a young John Joseph Travolta wished to follow in his father’s footsteps as a football player before settling on acting.

His mother Helen was a small-time actor and singer who went on to become a high school English and drama teacher. After graduating from high school, John decided that her career path was more to his liking, and he jumped across the Hudson to New York and eventually landed a role in Broadway’s production of Over Here.

Although it’s thought by many that Travolta’s first acting role came in 1975 with television’s Welcome Back, Kotter, John actually held a small part in the 1972’s television drama Emergency. However, it was Welcome Back, Kotter that made him initially famous, playing the role of Vinnie Barbarino.

John’s first motion picture was in 1976 where he played a small role in the horror classic Carrie. Travolta wasn’t focusing solely on acting. He was also a recording artist. He had a top-ten single on the Billboard charts with Let Her In, and his singing, dancing and acting talents landed him the role of Tony Manero in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever.

In the 1978 movie Grease, Travolta became an instant icon of the big screen in the disco community, and with 1980’s Urban Cowboy, he inspired a country craze that literally swept the nation.

Travolta’s career was seriously struggling after Urban Cowboy. Although John was still a working actor, he starred in a series of huge flops and was considered to be corny and untalented. His only picture from 1981 to 1994 that was even mildly successful was Look Who’s Talking, and most attribute the movie’s success to Bruce Willis.

Though Travolta was thought to be long dead, Quentin Tarantino jumped at the chance to cast him in his 1994 indie flick Pulp Fiction. The low-budget, intertwined thriller went on to become one of the biggest cult hits of all time, and Travolta’s character, a hitman named Vincent Vega, catapulted John back into the mainstream.
 
Travolta followed up Pulp Fiction with a handful of wildly successful features, including Get Shorty, Face/Off, Primary Colors, The General’s Daughter and A Civil Action. The 2000s have also been successful for Travolta, with movies like Swordfish, Be Cool, Ladder 49, The Punisher and Wild Hogs to his credit.

Travolta has recently suffered tragedy in his personal life but continues to work in both films and with his Scientologist charity circle. John and his wife Kelly Preston married in 1991 and had 2 children, Jett and Ella. In 2009 while on vacation in the Bahamas, John’s son Jett died of seizure-related complications.