Australian actress and singer Olivia Newton-John, star of the film Grease alongside John Travolta, died at 73, her husband announced Monday in a statement posted on social media.
The actress is “passed away peacefully at her ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by her family and friends,” says John Easterling in the press release. She had been battling breast cancer for thirty years.
Lacquered hair and leather jackets, Olivia Newton-John made herself world famous with her film role in the cult musical Grease, alongside Travolta. The interpreter of Dany Zuko paid tribute to his ex-co-star on his Instagram account “My dearest Olivia, you have made our lives so much better. Your impact has been incredible. I love you so much. We will meet again one day and we will all be together again,” writes the actor, before signing: “From our first meeting and forever, your Danny, your John!”.
To his credit, some forty country and pop rock albums – including Physicalhuge success in 1981 – and hundreds of concerts given across the planet.
Since the cancer had fallen on her in her forties – breast cancer and mastectomy in 1992 then two recurrences in 2013 and 2017, with metastases – the star put all her energy and her notoriety at the service of the fight against the disease.
“Olivia has been a beacon of triumph and hope for 30 years by sharing her experience of breast cancer,” wrote her husband, specifying that a fund in his name had been created in order to finance research on medicinal plants and cancer, the “Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund”.
Updated at midnight with the reaction of John Travolta.