Olivia Newton-John has died at 73, after a long battle with cancer
Olivia Newton-John died Monday morning at her ranch in Southern California, surrounded by family and friends. Her husband, John Easterling, shared the sad news on Facebook, where he spoke of her 30 year commitment to sharing her journey with breast cancer.
“Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer,” he wrote. “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 Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund.”
She became a superstar after starring in Grease opposite John Travolta in 1978, but she was also a musical sensation in the ’70s and ’80s. She sold over 100 million records in her career.
Olivia Newton-John has died.
It feels like I’m writing these sentences more and more often. I’m in my late forties, and the actors and actresses I sat starry-eyed, staring at in front of the TV as a kid are getting older—just like I am. I was five when Grease was released in 1978. It wasn’t long after its theatrical release that the movie started playing, yearly, on TV, in 1981. I’m not sure I can adequately express the excitement we felt, waiting for it to come on.
I try to paint a picture for my kids of what it was like growing up and not having access to instant entertainment at your fingertips. They are so used to being able to grab their iPads and search for their favorite movies. They watch a movie with a new star that they like and they’re able to instantly search that star, and watch anything that exists that they may have already filmed. It wasn’t like that for those of us who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. We didn’t have a giant pool of actors and actresses to relate to. We had a small pool. We had Friday night movies on the G Channel (on the West Coast). We had yearly ABC movie nights. We had Grease. We had The Wiz. We had The Wizard of Oz. We had The Sound of Music. We had Olivia Newton-John.
We had Olivia Newton-John in her fantastic tight black pants, and big gold hoops. We had Sandy, with her black off the shoulder shirt and the cigarette we knew she didn’t know how to smoke. We had Olivia Newton-John. And honestly, it hurts to let her go.
Newton-John was 29 when she was cast to star opposite John Travolta in Grease. According to The Hollywood Reporter, as director Allan Carr tried to convince her to take the part, he promised to make her character Australian—which John Travolta also lobbied for, to support her. Travolta left a beautiful tribute to his co-star and friend today.
“My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better. Your impact was incredible,” he wrote. “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!”
If you were born in the ’70s or ’80s, you may feel like a big chunk of your childhood has died today.
And you wouldn’t be alone.
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