JOHN TRAVOLTA

One of six children born to Helen and Salvatore Travolta, John Travolta grew up in Englewood, New Jersey. His father owned a tire repair shop. John appeared in a local production of Who'll Save the Plowboy? His mother enrolled him in a drama school in New York, where he studied voice, dancing, and acting. He decided to combine all three of these skills and become a musical comedy performer. At 16, John landed his first professional job in a summer stock production of the musical Bye Bye Birdie. John Travolta quit school at 16 and moved to New York. He worked regularly in summer stock and TV commercials. When work was scarce in New York, he went to Hollywood and appeared in minor roles in several TV series. A role in the national touring company of the hit fifties musical Grease brought him back to New York. An opening in the New York production of Grease gave John his first Broadway role at age 18. After Grease, John became a member of the company of the Broadway show Over Here, which starred the famed Andrews Sisters. After 10 months in Over Here, John decided to try Hollywood once again. Once in Hollywood, John had no trouble getting roles in numerous TV shows. He was seen on "The Rookies," "Emergency," and "Medical Center," and also made a movie, Devil's Rain, in New Mexico. The day he returned to Hollywood, John was called to an audition for a new situation comedy series ABC was planning to produce called "Welcome Back, Kotter." John got the part of Vinnie Barbarino and the series went on the air during the 1975 fall season.

In 1977, he parlayed his teenybopper fame into a big-screen career with the disco blockbuster Saturday Night Fever (1977). He languished in light dramas and TV movies in the 1980s, but started a comeback in 1989 with Look Who's Talking (1989). He further resuscitated his career with an Oscar nomination for his role as a heavyset sympathetic hitman in Pulp Fiction in 1994.