Posts Tagged ‘Happy Birthday’

John Travolta celebrates his birthday today.  He was born in Englewood in 1954.

Travolta, the youngest of six children, was born and raised in Englewood. His father, Salvatore was a semi-professional American football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke), was an actress and singer who had appeared in The Sunshine Sisters, a radio vocal group, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama and English teacher. His siblings, Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam Travolta, have all acted. His father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American; he grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. He was raised Roman Catholic, but converted to Scientology in 1975.

After attending Dwight Morrow High School, Travolta moved across the Hudson River to New York City and landed a role in the touring company of the musical Grease and on Broadway in Over Here!, singing the Sherman Brothers’ song “Dream Drummin.” He then moved to Los Angeles to further his career in show business.

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