John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954 in Englewood, New Jersey) is an American actor.
He became famous for his appearance in Saturday Night Fever and Grease at the height of the disco era, as well as for his portrayal of Vinnie Barbarino on the television sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. After that, his career more or less slumped until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, for which he received an Academy Award nomination.
Travolta also played a lead role in the panned Battlefield Earth, in which he plays the leader of a group of aliens that enslave humanity in a bleak future Earth. The film received almost universally negative reviews and did not do well at the box office. Travolta, who is a Scientologist (converted 1975) and idolizes the late L. Ron Hubbard, had hoped that the film would be well-received and be the first in a series of Hubbard film adaptations.
He is married to actress Kelly Preston and father of two children.
Travolta is a qualified pilot, and owns five airplanes, including a former Qantas Boeing 707-138. His house in Florida has its own runway and taxiway right to the door. In 1993 Travolta successfully performed an emergency landing of a plane with electric trouble.
Travolta has always been accessible to his public and loves to sign autographs.
