What was the first movie John Travolta starred in?
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John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, film producer, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, appearing on the television series "Welcome Back, Kotter" (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes "Saturday Night Fever" (1977) and "Grease" (1978). His acting career declined through the 1980s, but enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in "Pulp Fiction" (1994), and he has since starred in films such as "Get Shorty", "Broken Arrow", "Face/Off", "Swordfish", "Be Cool", "Wild Hogs", "Hairspray", and "The Taking of Pelham 123".
John Travolta
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Travolta's wife Kelly Preston also appeared in one scene, playing Terl's "baldish Psychlo girlfriend" Chirk. Travolta originally saw himself in the role of Jonnie, but by the time the movie was actually made, Travolta felt he was too old to play the role, and took the role of the main villain instead. Travolta's role in the film required what he described as an amazing physical transformation: "I wear a tall head apparatus with strange hair. I have amber eyes and talons for hands. It's quite remarkable ... I'm on 4-foot stilts." To star in the film, Travolta turned down the movie "The Shipping News" and postponed production on "Standing Room Only".
Battlefield Earth (film)
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Travolta's first screen role in California was as a fall victim in "Emergency!" (S2E2), in September 1972, but his first significant movie role was as Billy Nolan, a bully who was goaded into playing a prank on Sissy Spacek's character in the horror film "Carrie" (1976). Around the same time, he landed his star-making role as Vinnie Barbarino in the TV sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" (1975–1979), in which his sister, Ellen, also occasionally appeared (as Arnold Horshack's mother). The show aired on ABC.
John Travolta
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The subsequent film adaptation, released in 2000, was a commercial failure and was criticized as one of the "worst films ever made".
From the book's release, Scientologist and science-fiction fan John Travolta aimed to bring Hubbard's book to the big screen in a series of two movies with himself playing Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, as well as producing. A first film was planned to be released in 1983, but due to rising costs, trouble in finding a studio that would fund the project, and Travolta's waning star power, the project was cancelled. It was finally produced by Franchise Pictures and released in 2000 as "Battlefield Earth". Directed by Roger Christian, it starred Travolta (who by now felt he was too old to play the hero) as Terl, Barry Pepper as Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, and Forest Whitaker as Ker.
Battlefield Earth (novel)
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Travolta had converted to Scientology in 1975 and subsequently became one of the Church of Scientology's most prominent supporters. Hubbard sent him an autographed copy of "Battlefield Earth" when the book was first published in 1982; he reportedly hoped that Travolta would turn the book into a film "in the vein of "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"". While Travolta was interested, his influence in Hollywood at the time was at a low after participating in a series of flops. He gained renewed influence with the success of the 1994 film "Pulp Fiction", which garnered Travolta an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He had not forgotten Hubbard's wishes to see the book on the big screen and took on the task of making "Battlefield Earth" into a movie. Travolta described the book in interviews as "like "Pulp Fiction" for the year 3000" and "like "Star Wars", only better".
He lobbied influential figures in Hollywood to fund the project and was reported to have recruited the aid of fellow Scientologists in promoting it. According to Bill Mechanic, the former head of 20th Century Fox, "John wanted me to make "Battlefield Earth". He had Scientologists all over me. They come up to you and they know who you are. And they go, 'We're really excited about "Battlefield Earth".'" This did not impress Mechanic: "Do you think in any way, shape, or form that weirding me out is going to make me want to make this movie?"
Battlefield Earth (film)
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Travolta first became well known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series "Welcome Back, Kotter" (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease". Although his acting career declined through the 1980s, Travolta also enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction", and he has since starred in films such as "Face/Off", "Swordfish", "Wild Hogs", and "Hairspray".
John Travolta filmography
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Kleiser directed several television movies in the mid-1970s, including 1975's "" and 1976's "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble", which starred John Travolta. Kleiser was then tapped to direct his first feature film, the 1978 film "Grease", in large part because of Travolta's recommendation based on their work together on "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble". Kleiser would go on to direct several more feature films, including "The Blue Lagoon" (1980) with Brooke Shields, "Summer Lovers" (1982) with Daryl Hannah, "Grandview, U.S.A." (1984) with Jamie Lee Curtis, "Flight of the Navigator" (1986), featuring the first use of digital morphing in a film, "Big Top Pee-wee" (1988), "White Fang" (1991) and "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid" (1992).
Randal Kleiser
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In 1989, Travolta starred with Kirstie Alley in "Look Who's Talking", which grossed $297 million making it his most successful film since "Grease". Next came "Look Who's Talking Too" (1990) and "Look Who's Talking Now" (1993) but it was not until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino's hit "Pulp Fiction" (1994), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, that his career revived. The movie shifted him back onto the A-list, and he was inundated with offers. Notable roles following "Pulp Fiction" include a movie-buff loan shark in "Get Shorty" (1995), an FBI agent and terrorist in "Face/Off" (1997), a desperate attorney in "A Civil Action" (1998), a Bill Clinton-esque presidential candidate in "Primary Colors" (1998), and a military investigator in "The General's Daughter" (1999).
John Travolta
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Smith first came to public attention with her role as Pam in the 1980 John Travolta film "Urban Cowboy", and later co-starred in the films "All of Me" (1984), a Steve Martin-Lily Tomlin comedy, and "2010" (1984), the science fiction sequel to "". In the early 1980s she also appeared in several TV movies, including "Pray TV", "Rehearsal for Murder" and "Deadly Intentions". She portrayed Jehan Al Sadat, wife of Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat, in the 1983 TV miniseries "Sadat", and played Ernie Kovacs' wife Dorothy in the 1984 TV movie "".
Madolyn Smith
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Since 2010, Travolta has starred mostly in action films and thrillers. In 2016, he returned to TV in the first season of the anthology series "American Crime Story", titled "", in which he played lawyer Robert Shapiro.
John Travolta