She had a voice that made her a Grammy-winning chart topper in pop, country, adult contemporary and dance music. She won the hearts of countless people in her iconic role in the one of the best films of all-time as everyone’s favorite Sandy. She battled breast cancer on and off for three decades and used her vast fortune to create a foundation to advocate and gain support for research in the fight against cancer while also being an outspoken advocate for breast cancer awareness. Unfortunately, the disease that she fought against and advocated for so long took her down.
On Monday, four-time Grammy winner and actress
Olivia Newton-John, whose breakout role as Australian student Sandy Olsson alongside
love interest Danny Zuko, played by John Travolta in “Grease” passed away on
Monday morning on her ranch in Santa Ynez Valley in Southern California
surrounded by family and friends following her long and brave battle with
breast cancer, which she was first diagnosed with back in 1992 at age 43 when
she found a lump in her right breast. She was 73. Newton-John is survived by
her husband of 14 years in founder and President of the Amazon Herb Company
John Easterling and her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, 36.
The devastating passing of the
English-born actress who was raised in Australia was announced on her official
Facebook page, which the statement that was put up by Easterling read: “Olivia
has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey
with breast cancer. Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with
plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated
to researching plant medicine and cancer. In lieu of flowers, the family asks
that any donations be made in her memory to the @onjfoundation.”
“We ask that everyone please respect the
family’s privacy during this very difficult time.”
At the start of this past weekend,
Lantazzi put up a photo on Instagram three days before her passing, calling her
mom her “best friend.” There is no exact time of when this final shot of
Lantazzi with her mom in Mrs. Newton-John was taken.
“I worship this woman. My mother. My best
friend,” Lantazzi captioned in the said photo of her and Newton-John on
Instagram posing together in a field.
Newton-John, who was one of the first
celebrities to be so open about her health went into remission when she battled
cancer the first time thanks to catching it in the early stages and getting immediate
treatment for it through chemotherapy, a partial mastectomy, and a breast
reduction.
“I made a decision. I’m going to be alright. I’m going to let everyone know that I’m going to be alright, and they’re going to have to decide I’m going to be alright,” Newton-John said in 1993 about her attitude towards her fight with cancer.
“And I really think there’s so much power
in thought and so much power in your mind. I go with my instincts. I trust myself,
now. I feel really happy.”
But it returned 21 years later in her
shoulder in 2013 and did not share the diagnosis until she shared being diagnosed
for the third time in 2017.
“I thought, ‘It’s my life,’ and I just
decided to keep it to myself,” Newton-John said of her third diagnosis of
breast cancer.
In May 2017, Newton-John revealed that her
third battle with breast cancer resulted in a tumor in her lower back. She also
said that she had undergone radiation, changed to a much healthier diet, and
used “cannabis oil” to treat her tumor.
However, Newton-John revealed in January
2020 her cancer had spread to her bones but said that she would not allow her prognosis
to put a hinderance on her life. One year and a month later, she attended her
daughter Chloe’s wedding to martial arts specialist James Driskill, who
co-manages a farm with his then fiancée that he proposed to in 2010.
“I’m winning over it well and that’s how I
see it,” Newton-John said of her fourth and eventual final battle with breast
cancer earlier this month to G’Day USA. “I don’t think about it a lot, to be
honest. Denial is a really good thing and I’m getting stronger and better all
the time.”
Fellow actors expressed their sympathies
for the passing of Newton-John on social media like actor Daniel Dae Kim
writing, “Farewell to with love to the legend who will forever be my first
crush.”
Actress Tracie Thoms added, “Olivia Newton-John
is an icon. We will miss her dearly.”
Broadway actress and singer Kristen
Chenoweth posted on her Instagram @kchenoweth sharing one of Newton-John’s hit
songs writing, “For Olivia, I love you. You were everything to me. Thank you
for all you did for the world. I’m so sorry you’re gone too soon. I’ll forever
cherish the note you left me backstage at Wicked. #hoplesslydevotedtoyou.”
Fellow entertainment legend Barbara
Streisand on her Instagram page shared a throwback photo with her, Newton-John,
and fellow singer Lou Rawls along with a message, “Too young to leave this
world. May she rest in peace. #OliviaNewtonJohn.”
Friend and fellow Aussie in actor both on the silver screen and Broadway Hugh Jackman wrote about Newton-John, “She was a one-of-a-kind spirit. It’s no secret Olivia was my first crush. I kissed her poster every night before bed. Her legacy will only grow stronger in the years to come.”
Born in Cambridge, England on Sept. 26,
1948 to German literature professor Brin Newton-John and Irene Born, the
daughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, Olivia was the youngest of three
kids, her older brother Hugh (1939-2019), a medical doctor and her sister Rona
(1941-2013), an actress who married her co-star in “Grease” Jeff Conway in 1980
and divorced after five years together.
At age 6, Newton-John and her family
emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, where her father became a professor of
German as well as the master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne.
Growing up, Newton-John had dreams of
becoming a veterinarian, but as she won one singing contest after another in
her high school years and toured army bases, clubs, and recorded her first
single “Till You Say You’ll Be Mine,” in Britain for Decca Records in 1966. She
did all of this before age 20.
Five years later, Newton-John covered Bob
Dylan’s “If Not For You,” and had begun a close partnership with a fellow
Australian John Farrar, who later on married Pat Carroll, who Newton-John met during
an appearance on the popular Australian music television series “The Go!! Show,”
which aired on ATV-O, Melbourne August 1964-August 1967.
Farrar produced the song and later wrote
the song, “You’re The One That I Want,” “Magic” and several other hits for Newton-John.
Newton-John released her first solo album,
“If Not For You” in 1971, with the title track, that was written by
legendary music artist Bob Dylan was her first international hit, which reached
No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts. Her follow up single, “Banks Of The Ohio,”
became a Top 10 hit in both the United Kingdom and Australia.
The British weekly music newspaper “Record
Mirror,” which ran from 1954-1991 voted Newton-John Best British Female
Vocalist two years in succession. She also made frequent appearances on English
singer Cliff Richard’s weekly show “It’s Cliff Richard” and starred with him on
the telefilm “The Case.”
Newton-John found her music success here
in the U.S. in country music, where she fell in love with the records of “Tennessee”
by Ernie Ford since she was a child.
Along with winning her first of four Grammys
for “Let Me Be There,” Newton-John also won Country Music Association’s
(CMA’s) Female Vocalist of the Year in 1974, beating out more established Nashville-based
nominees, that are now Country Music royalty in 13-time Academy of Country
Music (ACM), eight-time CMA, recipient, and 26-time fan-voted Music City News
award recipient Loretta Lynn; three-time American Music Award winner, 10-time CMA
winner, and seven-time ACM recipient Dolly Parton; and three-time ACM recipient,
two-time CMA winner, and two-time Grammy winner Tanya Tucker. Newton-John also
beat out that year four-time Grammy winner Anne Murray from Springhill, Nova
Scotia, Canada.
That victory was by Newton-John was not
met with open arms after that win and it led to the birth of the short-lived
Association of Country Entertainers (ACE), designed to exclude the likes of
Newton-John and other musicians from other music genres from crossing over.
Newton-John eventually won the country
music community over and Parton’s sister Stella recorded “Ode to Olivia” and
Newton-John recorded her 1976 album “Don’t Stop Believin’” that was
released on Oct. 30 that year and received Gold certification by the Recording
Industries Association of America (RIAA) and reached No. 33 on the U.S.
Billboard 200 and No. 7 on the U.S. Top Country Albums chart. This album was
also Newton-John’s third chart-topping album in the Netherlands.
For a decade (1973-83) Newton-John was
among the most popular entertainers thanks to 14 top 10 singles. Sold over 100
million albums and won four Grammys.
It was also during this 10-year period
that Newton-John, who rose to greatness behind a blonde ever-smiling image
reinvented herself both with her music and image.
Newton-John initially became more in favor
of doing pop-country songs like “Please Mr. Please” and “Have You Ever Been
Mellow” as well as soft-breathing ballads like “I Honestly Love You,” which won
the 1975 Grammy for Best Female Pope Vocal and Record of the Year.
As great as Newton-John was as a singer, it
was not until she teamed up with an admirer of hers in show business that she
would skyrocket into a hands down star in entertainment.
Playing opposite the aforementioned
Travolta in the 1978 Paramount Pictures film “Grease,” which was a film adaptation
of the Broadway musical focused Newton-John, who changed her image from an
angelic ponytailed, white sweater and blouse dawning, Spandex-clad character named
Sandy Olsson arriving at Rydell High carnival that shifted to a bad-girl ready
in waist-high black leather pants to claim her man Danny Zuko, portrayed by
Travolta.
On particular seen that became iconic was
when Olsson shoots a piercing glance at Travolta and knocks him on his rear end
when she says, “Tell me about it, stud.”
It became such an iconic scene that New
York Post columnist Johnny Oleksinski had it on par with the scene in the 1942
hit “Casablanca” between the late Humphrey Bogart, who played Rick to Ilsa, portrayed
by the late Ingrid Bergman, Here’s looking at you kid.”
Oleksinski also compared that scene
between Newton-John and Travolta to the 1960s film “Star Wars: Episode V-The
Empire Strikes Back” when Darth Vader says to Luke Skywalker, “I am your
father.”
“Grease” skyrocketed the careers of
Travolta, Newton-John, and Stockard Channing, who played the role of Betty
Rizzo, and won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Actress.
“I worried that at 29 I was too old to
play a high school girl,” Newton-John said back in 2017 about playing the role
of Sandy in “Grease.” “Everything about making the film was fun.”
The soundtrack for “Grease,” which ranks
as one of the best-selling soundtracks of all-time spent 12 non-consecutive
weeks at No. 1 and yielded three Top 5 singles for Newton-John, which included
the platinum song “You’re The One That I Want,” with Travolta that was No. 1 on
the Pop and No. 23 on Adult Contemporary (AC) charts. The Gold song, “Hopelessly
Devoted To You,” that went No. 3 on the Pop, No. 20 on the Country, and No. 7
on the AC charts. The other song that went Gold was “Summer Nights"
performed by Travolta and the film cast of "Grease,” that along with “Hopelessly
Devoted To You” were written and composed by Newton-John’s aforementioned long-time
music producer Farrar, specifically for the film adaptation of “Grease” went
No. 5 on the Pop and No. 21 on the AC charts. The Broadway version of “Summer
Nights” and “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” were written by Jim Jacobs and the
late Warren Casey.
Newton-John’s performance in “Grease”
earned her the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Film Actress. She was
nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Musical and performed the Oscar-nominated
“Hopelessly Devoted To You” at the 1979 Oscars.
“I think the songs are timeless,”
Newton-John explained once about how popular the “Grease” soundtrack has become.
“They’re fun and have great energy. The’50s-feel music has always been popular,
and it’s nostalgic for my generation, and then the young kids are rediscovering
it every 10 years or so, it seems. People buying the album was a way for them
to remember those feelings of watching the movie and feelings of that time
period. I feel very grateful to be a part of this movie that’s still loved so
much.”
Travolta, 68, who collaborated also on
Newton-John’s 2012 holiday song “This Christmas” in tribute to Travolta’s late son Jett and
Newton-John’s cancer and wellness foundation paid tribute to his co-star writing
on his Instagram page @johntravolta: “My dearest Olivia, you made our lives so
much better. Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you
down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the first moment I
saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”
The film has been so beloved for nearly
four-and-a-half decades that when Newton-John passed on Monday as mentioned was
to many like losing a beloved family member.
To bring into focus how popular “Grease”
has been over the years, it was re-released in 1998 for his 20-year anniversary.
It was most recently re-released in Apr. 2018 for two days only in over 700
American movie theatres.
“Grease” became a movie that has touched multiple generations thanks in large part to Newton-John’s character Sandy.
That character was someone who we all saw
ourselves in. Someone who had an innocence about her and who at first when she
enters a whole new situation different from where she came from and is look
down upon by. But then takes control of said situation and gains a level of
respect and in the movie the eye of someone who digs her.
Newton-John’s transformative image of “Grease”
continued in her music career with 1978 album “Totally Hot,” which was her
first solo top 10 album since “Have You Ever Been Mellow.” She was
dressed on the cover in all leather.
In 1980, Newton-John released her duet song
with the late English-Australian singer and actor Andy Gibb “I Can’t Help It,”
from his “After Dark” album. The song reached No. 12 on the Pop and No.
8 on the AC charts.
Newton-John also starred in that year her
third television special, “Hollywood Nights.” That was followed by her second
starring role opposite the late Academy-Award winning Gene Kelly and Michael
Beck in the musical fantasy cult favorite motion picture “Xanadu,” where she
played a goddess that is sent to Earth.
While the film bombed at the box office,
the soundtrack for “Xanadu” was No. 4 on the Pop charts and went certified
double platinum and scored five Top 20 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.
One actress, entrepreneur and activist who
said was a big fan of the movie “Xanadu” was Gabrielle Union, the better half
of three-time NBA champion and 13-time All-Star Dwyane Wade, who played 16 NBA
seasons (2003-19) with the Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Newton-John one year later released her bouncy,
Rated-R 1981 smash hit “Physical” was No. 1 for 10 consecutive weeks and was
named Billboard’s song of the year, despite being banned by some radio
stations. A more friendlier promo clip of the song that had an
aerobic-friendlier feel that was filmed during the infancy of Music Television
(MTV), won Newton-John a Grammy for best video.
In the fall of 2021, Newton-John told Fox
News that she felt the song was a bit raunchy when it first came out and said
of her fans saw her differently in the wake of the hit single, “They call it
reinventing yourself.”
“I wasn’t doing it on purpose,” she added.
“It just was the song that I was attracted to and the album. But I feel very fortunate
that I had the opportunity to record it. I don’t thing I was really aware of
how raunchy it was when I was recording in until afterward, and that’s when I
freaked out.”
In the years that followed, Newton-John had very few hits on the music charts and made headlines more for what was going on in her private life.
In 1992 as she was preparing for concert
tour, her aforementioned father Brin passed away and was diagnosed with breast
cancer at age 43. Her marriage to her first husband of 11 years in actor and
dancer Matt Lattanzi, the father of their previously mentioned daughter Chloe
ended three years later. Her nearly decade (nine-years exactly) long
relationship with cameraman Patrick McDermott concluded very mysteriously as he
went missing during a fishing trip in California in 2005. His vanishing sparked
a frenzied search and became a major headline on international news. But his whereabouts
still remain a mystery.
An investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard
in 2008 though suggested that McDermott “was lost at sea.” Two years later, a
private eye hired by a TV news program here in the states claimed that
McDermott faked his own death to get a payout of his life-insurance policy.
Tuesday, Aug. 9 edition of New York’s Newsday via “The Associated
Press” that alleges McDermott has been living in Mexico with his new
girlfriend.
“Nobody really knows what happened,”
Newton-John told Australia’s “60 Minutes” in 2016 about her ex’s whereabouts.
Things got better for Newton-John when she
wed in 2008 when she married Easterling in an Incan spiritual ceremony in Peru.
They had a legal wedding ceremony nine days later on June 30, 2008 on Jupiter
Island, FL.
At the start of this week, the entertainment
industry said goodbye to an iconic singer, actress, and cancer advocate. She reigned
over the music industry for years and in a decade period of time from the early
1970s to the 1980s ruled the pop, country, and adult contemporary charts. She
shot to iconic status thanks to her performance on the silver screen in the 1978
film “Grease.”
Above all that, Olivia Newton-John was a thriver
who fought against cancer and displayed courage to become not only an advocate
to find a cure for this disease through her cancer and wellness foundation but
she went live a life where she got married again and watched her daughter Chloe
Lattanzi find her special someone and see them make their union official.
On top of that, she earned the respect of
her fellow actors and musicians both for her body work. For the respect she
showed them whether they worked with her or for how she treated them when they
were rising their own respective careers.
On Monday, the world said goodbye to a
brave, loveable, exceptional singer, actress, advocate, mother, wife, leader,
and friend to many in Olivia Newton-John.
Legendary singer, actress and television
host Dionne Warwick, who featured Newton-John on her 2006 album “My Friends And
Me,” wrote on her Twitter page @dionnewarwick, “Another angelic voice has been added to the Heavenly
Choir.”
“Not only was Olivia a dear friend, but
one of the nicest people I had the pleasure of recording and performing with. I
will mist definitely miss her. She is now Resting in the Arms of the Heavenly
Father.”
Singer and actress Lea Salonga, who
supplied the singing voice to two of Walt Disney’s famed princesses (Jasmine of
“Aladdin” and Hua Mulan of “Mulan”) wrote online, “Rest In Peace, Olivia
Newton-John. Hers was one of the voices of my childhood.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Lattanzi; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwyane_Wade; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Casey; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Gibb; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lea_Salonga; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Stop_Believin%27_(album); https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_Mirror; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_Parton#Awards_and_honors; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretta_Lynn#Awards_and_achievements; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Tuckier#Awards_and_nominations.
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