Grease actor and Grammy-winning singer Olivia Newton-John died Monday morning, according to a statement posted on her official Facebook account. He was 73 years old.
The statement said Newton-John “passed away peacefully at her ranch in Southern California” on Monday morning, “surrounded by family and friends.”
“We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time,” the statement said.
The singer and actor was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 and underwent chemotherapy and a partial mastectomy. In 2013, cancer was found in his shoulder.
In September 2018, Newton-John revealed that her cancer had returned the previous year and had spread to her lower back.
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The statement announcing her death highlighted her work advocating for cancer research and asked fans to donate to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer, instead of the flowers
One of the best-selling artists of the 1970s and 1980s, Newton-John had a string of No. 1 singles, including “You’re the One That I Want,” the catchy duet she sang with John Travolta on the 1978 musical sensation . fat
PREMIUM —GREASE, Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta, 1978, (c) Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection.
His starring role in that film catapulted the Australian to superstardom, as did his appearance with Gene Kelly in 1980’s Xanadu, with his rendition of the title track also topping the charts.
His 1981 smash hit “Physical” further cemented his superstardom, spending 10 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, while its risqué lyrics and fitness-themed music video reinvented his image for the rest of the 1980s.
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“I recorded it and suddenly I thought, ‘Oh my God, maybe I’ve gone too far!'” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2017, recalling how the song had been suggested by manager Roger Davies. “I called Roger and told him say, “We have to throw this song out!” He said: “It’s too late. It’s already on the radio and up the charts.’ I was horrified!”
From 1973 to 1983, Newton-John had 14 top 10 singles in the US alone and won four Grammys. He sold more than 100 million records throughout his career.
Newton-John was the daughter of German literature professor Brin Newton-John and Irene Bron, whose father was Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Bron. The Newton-Johns moved to Australia when Olivia was 5, but returned to England as a teenager and lived with her mother after her parents separated.
She had early dreams of becoming a vet, but was winning singing contests in high school and by the time she was 20 had toured army bases and clubs and recorded her first single, ‘Till You Say You’ ll Be Mine”. In 1971, he covered Bob Dylan’s “If Not for You” and began a close collaboration with a friend from Australia, John Farrar, who produced the song and later wrote “You’re the One That I Want”, “Magic” and several. other achievements for her.
From a young age she liked country music, especially the records of “Tennessee” Ernie Ford, but her first success did not impress the critics or some fellow musicians. A Village Voice review compared her to a geisha who “makes her voice smaller than it really is just to please men.” When Newton-John beat out Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn for the Country Music Association’s top artist of 1973, Tammy Wynette helped found the Country Artists Association, a club designed to exclude Newton- John and other crossover performers.
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PREMIUM —OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, Physical video, circa 1981-82.
But Newton-John had a showbiz fan who with her became one of the most unforgettable film teams. Travolta had starred in the stage version of “Grease” and for the planned film he thought Newton-John would be the “final” Sandy, the nice girl who gets tough in the final act and gets her man.
“I was worried that at 29 I was too old to play a high school girl,” Newton-John, who insisted on a screen test before accepting the role, told The Telegraph in 2017.
“Everything about making the film was fun, but if I had to pick a favorite moment, it was the transformation from what I call Sandy 1 to Sandy 2. I got to play a different character and wear different clothes, and when I I put. that tight black dress to sing ‘You’re the One That I Want,’ I got a very different reaction from the guys on set.”
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Until that decisive moment, Newton-John had favored soft pop-country songs like “Please Mr. Please” and “Have You Never Been Mellow” and soft-breathing ballads like “I Honestly Love You,” which in 1975 won the Grammy for the best female and vocal pop album of the year.
He had a few hits after “Physical,” but his career waned and Newton-John was more likely to make news because of his private life. In 1992, while preparing a concert tour, her father died and she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Her marriage to actor Matt Lattanzi, with whom she had a daughter, actor and singer Chloe Lattanzi, broke up in 1995 and a years-long relationship with cameraman Patrick McDermott mysteriously ended. McDermott disappeared during a 2005 fishing trip in California and his fate remained unknown years later. Numerous reports claimed he was living in Mexico, with a new girlfriend.
“He was lost at sea, and nobody really knows what happened,” Newton-John told Australia’s “60 Minutes” in 2016. “It’s human to wonder. But you know, these are the things in life that you have to accept and let go. Because whenever you go through hard times, there’s always those worries.”
Olivia Newton John performs during the Viña del Mar International Song Festival at Quinta Vergara in Viña del Mar, Chile, Thursday, February 23, 2017. It is believed to be one of the biggest music events in Latin America, the annual festival The five-day festival was inaugurated in 1960. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix).
Newton-John’s recent albums include “Stronger Than Before”; a holiday collaboration with Travolta, “This Christmas” and the autobiographical “Gaia: One Woman’s Journey,” inspired by her battle with cancer and the loss of her father.
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Newton-John married John Easterling, founder of the Amazon Herb Company, in 2008. She has been involved in numerous charitable causes, serving as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program and as a spokesperson national of the Environmental Coalition for Child Health. She also founded the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Center in Melbourne, Australia.
She is survived by her husband; daughter Chloe Lattanzi; sister Sarah Newton-John; brother Toby Newton-John; and several nieces and nephews.
Travolta was among co-stars, collaborators and other celebrities who paid tribute to Newton-John on Monday after her death was announced.
“My dear Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better,” Travolta wrote in an online post. “Your impact was amazing. I love you so much. We’ll see you down the road and we’ll all be together again. Yours from the moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”
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—With files from the Associated Press
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