Trivia

During the filming of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), he fell in love with Diana Hyland, 18 years his senior. She died of breast cancer at 41, in his arms, in 1977. Coincidentally, in 2020, his wife, Kelly Preston, the mother of his three children, also died of breast cancer.

Spent nine months learning how to dance to disco music while filming Saturday Night Fever (1977).

Speaks French fluently.

Turned down the roles: Splash (1984), Apollo 13 (1995) and Forrest Gump (1994). Tom Hanks was cast as the lead.

In 1985, Princess Diana asked him to dance at a party at the White House.

Has claimed his favorite director to work with was Sylvester Stallone, for Staying Alive (1983). He said Stallone knew how to make him look the best on screen.

Jett Travolta, his 16-year-old son, died following a seizure at the family's Bahamas holiday retreat on 1/2/09.

Married Kelly Preston twice. Their first wedding on 9/5/91, by a French Scientologist minister, was declared illegal. The couple met during the filming of The Experts (1989).

Got the role of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction (1994) primarily because Michael Madsen, the actor for whom the role was written, was unavailable due to a prior film commitment. Vincent was the brother of Michael Madsen's character Vic Vega (aka Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs (1992)) and the role jump-started his career after a long slump.

He owns (and is qualified to fly as second in command) a Boeing 707-138, appropriately registered N707JT, first built in 1964 for QANTAS Airlines of Australia. In July 2002, he had the aircraft painted in its original QANTAS paint job and subsequently took it on a worldwide promotional tour for QANTAS and, in return, was trained as a 747-400 first officer with the company.

Although he is often cast as Italian-American and is of Italian descent on his father's side, he has stated that his family was invested more in his mother's Irish ancestry, and he grew up mostly around Irish culture.

In honor of his 60th birthday on 2/8/14, there was a special singalong showing of Grease (1978) at the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles. Before the start of the movie, a video tribute from Olivia Newton-John was played, followed by a thank you video from Travolta himself.

Owns homes in Santa Barbara, CA; Ocala, FL; Maine; and his wife's home state of Hawaii. Their main residence is in Ocala, where he owns a large home, complete with an airstrip for his planes.

While filming Blow Out (1981), he suffered from insomnia, which he had since he was a child waiting up for his mother to come home from late acting jobs. He learned to play the violin to calm his nerves.

Richard Gere practically owes his film career to Travolta. Travolta turned down the leads for Days of Heaven (1978), American Gigolo (1980), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Chicago (2002), all of which went to Gere.

He appeared on the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine four times, the most for any actor (through 1994).

Owns a vacation home on a small island in Maine's Penobscot Bay. The secluded 20-room château, surrounded by acres of pines, overlooks the ocean and comfortably accommodates up to 50 guests. He bought it because Christmas is his favorite holiday, and he wanted a place big enough to house his extended family.

He lost 20 pounds for his role in Saturday Night Fever (1977).

Did yoga and boxing to lose his "love handles" for Swordfish (2001).

Is the youngest of six children--three boys and three girls--and was nick-named "Bone" when young because he was long and lean.

He frequently eats at Denny's in the middle of the night, which is where he ate through Lucky Numbers (2000).

Has piloted or owned a multitude of jet aircraft, including three Gulfstream jets, a Learjet, and a Boeing 707. His most notable aviation feat was a successful landing at Washington National Airport in a Gulfstream IIB with complete electrical failure. Conditions at the time were night, IMC, icing.

He was offered Richard Gere's role in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), and opted to go to American Airlines' jet pilot school instead.

He was named one of the Most Valuable Actors of All Time, with the total gross of his films coming in at $4.3 billion.

When introducing Idina Menzel at the 2014 Academy Awards, he mistakenly pronounced her name as "Adele Dazeem". The flub has since drawn a lot of attention and ridicule (including a Twitter account for Adele Dazeem). He apologized to Menzel and sent her a bouquet of flowers.

Has a dance scene in nearly all of his films.

Was considered for the role of Lester Burnham in American Beauty (1999) but Kevin Spacey, who went on to win a Best Actor Oscar for his performance, was cast instead.

On 4/2/07, while piloting his return flight from Germany to New York, he was forced to make an emergency landing in his Boeing 707 at Ireland's Shannon Airport. He'd been promoting his new movie in Europe and encountered technical difficulties on his return flight. Fortunately for him, he was flying over Ireland at the time he first detected his private jet's engine problems and was safely diverted to Shannon on Ireland's west coast. Not allowing himself to be fazed by the whole ordeal, he grounded his 34-seater and continued his flight home on a commercial airline.

In 2006 his performance as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977) is ranked #73 on" Premiere" magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.

He drew inspiration for his acting from James Cagney, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and others.

Turned down the leading role in Forrest Gump (1994), a decision he later admitted was a mistake.

Master of Ceremony at the Centennial of Flight Celebration at Kitty Hawk, NC, in December 2003, where he presented to John Glenn aviation's highest award.

Read for the Tom Hanks role in Splash (1984) but was discouraged by his agent from doing the film.

Third child, son Benjamin, was born in a Florida hospital on 11/23/10 at 8 lbs. 3 oz.

Turned down several offers from the producers of Chicago (2002) to play the role of Billy Flynn. Richard Gere accepted the role and won a Golden Globe for his performance.

Was among the guests at Tom Cruise's and Katie Holmes' wedding ceremony in Italy.

Was told to gain 30 pounds for his role in Primary Colors (1998).

He was offered the role of Melvin Udall in As Good as It Gets (1997), which went to Jack Nicholson.

Michael Jackson's song "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (1983) was originally written for Travolta but ultimately ended up as Michael's own personal recording from his 1982 "Thriller" album. Travolta would later appear as one of several celebrity cameos in Michael Jackson: Liberian Girl (1989).

He was to have played the lead role in "The Double", an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel about a man whose life is taken over by his doppelganger. He was being paid $17m and shooting was to have started in Paris in June 1996. Just days before principal photography was due to begin, he flew back to the US following an argument with the film's director, Roman Polanski, over alleged changes to the script, and the film collapsed shortly afterwards.

He and Kelly Preston had a son, Jett Travolta (1/13/92-1/2/09).

He has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Carrie (1976), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978) and Pulp Fiction (1994).

Owns a home in Ocala, FL, because of his wife's intense love of horses.

Ten of his films have grossed over $100 million in the US: Grease (1978), Wild Hogs (2007), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Look Who's Talking (1989), Hairspray (2007), Bolt (2008), Face/Off (1997), Pulp Fiction (1994), Phenomenon (1996) and The General's Daughter (1999); 8 of these have grossed over $200 million worldwide.

On the Saturday Night Live (1975) episode, John Travolta/Seal (1994), he parodied his Welcome Back, Kotter (1975) character Vinnie Barbarino.

Was the youngest of six children of Salvatore Travolta and Helen Travolta.

His characters make mention of an Al Pacino film in at least three of his films: Saturday Night Fever (1977), Get Shorty (1995) and Swordfish (2001).

He was inducted into the 2011 New Jersey Hall of Fame for his contributions to the Arts and Entertainment.

He stars in three of the top 150 Greatest Movies of All Time, as listed by "Empire" Magazine: Blow Out (1981) (#139), Carrie (1976) (#86), Pulp Fiction (1994) (#9) [August 2015].

He auditioned to play Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), which went to Ted Neeley.