John Travolta flies jumbo jets and parks them beside his house
John Travolta is rated to fly Boeing 707s and 747s, and his Florida home sits on an airfield with a taxiway running to the front door. Flying runs through his life as persistently as acting, from a near miss over Washington to his first film as director, a story about a boy's first flight.
Born in Englewood, New Jersey, on 18 February 1954, Travolta was the youngest of six children. His mother, a former radio singer turned drama teacher, inspired all of them to act. He dropped out of high school at 17, crossed the Hudson to New York, and toured in the musical Grease as the minor character Doody. His first screen role was a fall victim on the TV series Emergency! in 1972, and his break came as Vinnie Barbarino in the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.
Saturday Night Fever and Grease followed in 1977 and 1978, and the first brought a Best Actor nomination at 24, making him one of the youngest ever. Then came a slump. He turned down American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman, which went to Richard Gere, and Splash, which went to Tom Hanks. Look Who's Talking grossed $297 million in 1989, but it was Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in 1994, and a second Oscar nomination, that put him back on the A-list. Battlefield Earth in 2000, a long-held dream project, earned him two Razzies instead.
In the air he has had his share of drama. On 24 November 1992 his Gulfstream lost all electrical power at night on instruments into Washington National Airport, and during the emergency landing he nearly collided with a USAir 727. He flew an ex-Qantas Boeing 707 in the airline's old livery as its goodwill ambassador, named it Jett Clipper Ella after his children, and in 2017 gave it to an aircraft restoration society near Wollongong, Australia. In 2010 he piloted Oprah Winfrey's entire studio audience on a trip to Australia, having helped plan it for over a year.
His 2014 slip at the Oscars, introducing Idina Menzel as Adele Dazeem, became a meme she later called one of the best things to happen to her career. In 2026 his directing debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, adapted from his own book, premiered at Cannes, where he received an honorary Palme d'Or.
Source: John Travolta
