45 interesting facts about John Travolta: Is a licensed pilot, has been in the Scientology Church since 1975

American John Travolta is a Golden Globe-winning actor whose breakout role was in Saturday Night Fever. He had a career revival in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. He has been in the Scientology Church since 1975. Here are 45 more interesting facts about this talented actor.

1. His full name is John Joseph Travolta.
2. Travolta was born on February 18, 1954 in Englewood, New Jersey.
3. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His father owned a tire repair shop called Travolta Tires in Hillsdale, NJ.
4. His mother, herself an actress and dancer, enrolled him in a drama school in New York, where he studied voice, dancing and acting.
5. Travolta is 6' 2" (1.88 m) tall.
   
6. He was raised in the Roman Catholic church where he would go every Sunday to mass with his family.
7. At 16 he landed his first professional job in a summer stock production of the musical "Bye Bye Birdie".
8. Travolta attended Dwight Morrow High School, but dropped out as a junior at age 17 in 1971.
9. He made his debut in an off-Broadway production of Rain (1972), then joined the Broadway cast of Grease, as well as the hit musical Over Here! starring The Andrews Sisters.
10. In 1975, Travolta shot to stardom for his role as Vinnie Barbarino in the hit TV series Welcome Back Kotter.
11. Travolta has been a practitioner of Scientology since 1975 when he was given the book Dianetics while filming the movie The Devil's Rain in Durango, Mexico.
12. John Travolta won rave reviews for his dance moves in the movies "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease". In fact, these were the two movies that catapulted him to fame. He later moved away from dancing roles and started acting in action movies.
    
13. It took him 9 months to train for his dance scenes in "Saturday Night Fever".
14. During the filming of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) he fell in love with Diana Hyland, 18 years his senior. She died of cancer in his arms in 1977.
15. In July 1978 he became the very first male to make the cover of "McCall's" magazine.
16. In 1984, he read for the male lead role for "Splash". His agent discouraged him from taking the part, which then went to Tom Hanks. The film went on to become a massive hit.
17. He turned down the lead roles in four popular films: "Days of Heaven", "American Gigolo", "An Officer and a Gentleman", and "Chicago". Oddly enough actor Richard Gere accepted the lead in each of these movies after Travolta declined them.
18. In 1985, Princess Diana asked him to dance at a party at the White House.
19. Travolta struggled professionally in the 1980s, but regained his status via his role in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction.
20. Notable films since that period include Get Shorty (for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy), Ladder 49, Face/Off and Primary Colors.
21. He was named Man of the Year by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club in 1981.
22. Travolta married actress Kelly Preston in 1991.The couple married twice, their first wedding on 5 September 1991, by a French Scientologist minister, was declared illegal. The couple met during the filming of The Experts (1989).
    
23. In 1997 he was ranked as the 21st "Top Movie Stars Of All Time" by the UK magazine, Empire.
24. The couple had two children: son Jett, born on April 13, 1992, and daughter Ella Bleu, born in 2000.
25. His son, Jett Travolta, was conceived during a weekend at the home of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis.
26. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the Travolta family when their son, Jett, died on January 2, 2009, during a family vacation in the Bahamas. A coroner's report determined the cause of death to be a seizure.
27.  In May 2010, nearly 16 months after their son's death, the couple announced that they were expecting another child.
28. John Travolta's net worth is $165 million.
29. Travolta has a pilot's license and regularly takes both friends and family on flights in his very own private plane.
30. He owns not one, but five private planes.
31. John Travolta has been the Ambassador for Qantas since 2001.
    
32. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, joining other celebrities in helping with the relief efforts, Travolta flew his 707 plane full of supplies, doctors, and Scientologist Volunteer Ministers into the disaster area.[
33. Apart from acting he is also a published author. His books include "John Travolta Staying Fit!" and "Propeller One-Way Night Coach, A Fable For All Ages".
34. Oprah Winfrey claims that John Travolta is her favorite movie star. The two are great friends.
35. On September 13, 2010, during the first episode of the final season of her talk show, Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be taking her entire studio audience on an 8-day expenses-paid trip to Australia, with Travolta serving as pilot for the trip. He had helped Winfrey plan the trip for more than a year.
36. He owns homes in Santa Barbara, California; Ocala, Florida; Maine; and in his wife's home state of Hawaii. Main residence is in Ocala, Florida where he owns a large home, complete with airstrip for his planes.
37. His favorite movie is A Man and a Woman (1966). His favorite movie as a child was Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
38. His best female friend is Kirstie Alley. They starred together in the Look Who's Talking Series.
39. His favorite actor growing up was James Cagney.
40. He was among the guests at Tom Cruise's and Katie Holmes' wedding ceremony in Italy.
41. John Travolta and Kelly Preston's third child, a son named Benjamin, was born in a Florida hospital on November 23, 2010 at 8 lbs. 3 oz.
42. Although he is often cast as Italian-American and is of Italian descent, he has admitted that his family was invested more in their Irish ancestry and he grew up mostly around Irish culture.
43. In May 2012, an anonymous masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta citing claims of sexual assault and battery.
44. In September 2014, Travolta denied claims made in January 2014 by his former pilot, Douglas Gotterba, that they had shared a sexual relationship while working for Travolta's aircraft company, Alto, for six years before leaving voluntarily in 1987. Gotterba argued that he was not bound by any confidentiality agreement during his term in the position.
45. When introducing Idina Menzel at the 2014 Academy Awards, he mistakenly pronounced her name as "Adele Dazeem". The flub has since drawn a lot of attention and ridicule (including a Twitter account for Adele Dazeem). Travolta apologized to Menzel and sent her a bouquet of flowers.