John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor, dancer, and singer.

He’s 54!

He’s best known for his leading roles in films such as Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Pulp Fiction, and Hairspray.

Travolta, the youngest of six children, was born in Englewood, New Jersey. His father, Salvatore Travolta, was a semi-professional football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke), who was 42 when Travolta was born, was an actress and singer who had appeared in The Sunshine Sisters, a radio vocal group, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama and English teacher. Travolta’s father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American; Travolta grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. His family was Catholic.

After dropping out of Dwight Morrow High School after his junior year, Travolta moved to New York City to get a job as a performer. He landed a role in the touring company of Grease (musical) and on Broadway in Over Here! singing the Sherman Brothers’ song “Dream Drummin’.'” Travolta also cut singles for a local record company, but the songs were quickly forgotten. But eventually, he moved to Los Angeles to further his career in show business.

Travolta’s first television role was as a fall victim in Emergency! (S2E2) in September 1972, but his first major movie role as Billy Nolan, a bully who played a prank on Sissy Spacek’s Carrie White 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). (Travolta also had appeared in various TV commercials during this time span, appearing in ads for Band-Aid, Haggar Slacks and Mony Insurance among others.)

Around this time he also had a hit single entitled “Let Her In” peaking at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the next few years, he appeared in some of his most memorable screen roles: Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and as Danny Zuko in Grease (1978). These two films were among the most commercially successful pictures of the decade and catapulted Travolta to international stardom. His mother and his sister Ann appeared as extras in Saturday Night Fever and his sister Ellen appeared as a waitress in Grease. Travolta performed several of the songs on the Grease soundtrack album, that eventually went on to sell more than 10 million copies. In 1980, Travolta inspired a nationwide country music craze that followed on the heels of his hit film, Urban Cowboy, in which he starred with Debra Winger.

Personal Life

Travolta married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. They have a son named Jett, and a daughter named Ella Bleu.

Travolta is a certified pilot and owns five airplanes, including an ex-Australian Boeing 707-138 airliner. The plane bears the name Jett Clipper Ella in honour of his son Jett and his daughter Ella. Pan Am was a large operator of the Boeing 707 and used Clipper in its names. The 707 aircraft bears the marks of Qantas, as Travolta acts as an official goodwill ambassador for the airline wherever he flies. His US$4.9 million estate in the Jumbolair subdivision in Ocala, Florida is situated on Greystone Airport with its own runway and taxiway right to the door.

Other February 18th Birthdays:

Yoko Ono/Singer
Cybill Shepherd/Actress
Vanna White/TV Personality
Matt Dillon/Actor
Dr. Dre/Rapper
Molly Ringwald/Actress