Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey, the youngest of the six children of Salvatore Travolta (an Italian American semi-professional football player of Sicilian descent who later turned tire salesman) and Helen Cecilia Burke (an Irish American actress and singer who had appeared in radio vocal group The Sunshine Sisters, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama teacher). After dropping out of Dwight Morrow High School after his junior year, Travolta moved to New York City to get a job as a performer. He landed roles in the touring company of Grease and on Broadway in Over Here! singing the Sherman Brothers' song "Dream Drummin'". Travolta also cut singles for a local record company, but the songs were quickly forgotten. But eventually, he moved to Los Angeles, California to further his career in show business.

Travolta gained his first major movie role as Billy Nolan, a sadistic bully who taunted Sissy Spacek's Carrie White in the horror film Carrie (1976). Around the same time he landed his star-making role as Vinnie Barbarino in the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979) in which his sister, Ellen, also occasionally appeared (as Arnold Horshack's mother).

Around this time he also had a hit single called "Let Her In", peaking at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the next few years, he appeared in some of his most memorable screen roles: Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and as Danny Zuko in Grease (1978). His mother appeared as an extra in Saturday Night Fever and his sister Ellen appeared as an extra in Grease. Travolta performed several of the songs on the Grease soundtrack album, that eventually went on to sell more than 10 million copies. In 1980, Travolta inspired a nationwide country music craze that followed on the heels of his hit film, Urban Cowboy, in which he starred with Debra Winger.

After Urban Cowboy came a string of flops that sidelined his acting career (some suggest that he was typecast as a disco stud or 1970s icon could be the reason why his agent has intervened on several occasions to either turn down an acting role). During that time he was offered, but turned down, the lead role for what would become a series of box office hits, including American Gigolo, An Officer and A Gentleman, and Splash. His only hit film during this period was alongside Kirstie Alley and a baby voiced by Bruce Willis in Look Who's Talking. However, it wasn't until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino's hit Pulp Fiction (1994), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, that his career was revived. The movie shifted him back onto the A-list, and he was inundated with offers. Ironically, before Travolta took the role, he had first visited Tarantino who was living in a ramshackle apartment in Los Angeles, the same apartment that Travolta had been living in when he got his start. Notable roles following Pulp Fiction include a movie-buff loan shark in Get Shorty (1995), an FBI agent in Face/Off (1997), a desperate attorney in A Civil Action (1998) and a military detective in The General's Daughter (1999).
Travolta dancing with Princess Diana at a White House dinner on 9 November 1985
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Travolta dancing with Princess Diana at a White House dinner on 9 November 1985

Travolta also starred in Battlefield Earth (2000) (which is based on a work of science fiction by L. Ron Hubbard), in which he played the leader of a group of aliens that enslaves humanity on a bleak future Earth. The film received almost universally negative reviews and did poorly at the box office. Travolta, who converted to Scientology in 1975 and endorses the teachings of the late Hubbard, had hoped that the film would be well received and be the first in a series of Hubbard film adaptations. In fact, the film won a Razzie Award for Worst Film of the Year at the 2000 awards.

Travolta's affiliation with Scientology has caused some controversy. In 1998 he was named in a lawsuit involving a former member who claimed that he was promised that his homosexuality could be cured. The lawsuit alleged that the organization frequently cited Travolta as proof that the organization could in fact change a person's sexual orientation. A lawyer for Travolta replied, "This looks like complete hogwash. Travolta is a happily married man, which proves he isn't gay" (see [1]).

There has also been widespread speculation that Travolta's son Jett does not have Kawasaki syndrome, as he and wife Kelly Preston have claimed, but is autistic, and the Travoltas are denying him treatment because autism is not recognized by Scientology. This is primarily because the triggers listed by Preston (various environmental toxins) have not been linked to Kawasaki Syndrome in the past, and because this illness is primarily found in Japanese children under the age of five. [2] To date, however, this claim has not been confirmed.[3] [4] On April 10th, 2006, Hollywood, Interrupted made a public plea to Travolta and Preston to treat their son properly, and claimed that five reliable sources--including representatives from Cure Autism Now and The Autism Perspective, had confirmed Jett Travolta's affliction with autism. [5]

Questions have also been raised regarding what kind of agreements were made between Travolta and then President Bill Clinton, regarding how Travolta would portray Clinton in the movie Primary Colors and whether Clinton would pressure the German government to remove its ban on Scientology. Travolta was quoted about the issue in May 1998 issue of George magazine:

    The next day, I met with Clinton. He told me: "Your program sounds great. More than that, I'd really love to help you with your issue over in Germany with Scientology." I was waiting for the seduction that I had heard so much about. I thought, "Well, how could he ever seduce me?" And after we talked, I thought, "Bingo!" He did it. Scientology is the one issue that really matters to me.

In another interview [6], Travolta admitted that his portrayal of Clinton was much more kind than that in the book Primary Colors. The next year, in November 1998, Clinton sent Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to urge German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel to grant Scientology the status of a registered religion (see [7], [8]).

Travolta was previously involved with actress Diana Hyland, who died of breast cancer (reportedly in Travolta's arms) in 1977.

Travolta is a qualified pilot and owns five airplanes, including a former Qantas Boeing 707-138. The plane bears the name Jett Clipper Ella in honor of his son Jett and his daughter Ella. Pan Am was a large operator of the 707 and used Clipper in their names. His house in Jumbolair, Florida has its own runway and taxiway right to the door. In 1993, Travolta successfully performed an emergency landing of a plane with electric trouble at Washington National Airport, now known as Reagan Washington National Airport.

In 1992, he wrote and illustrated a short children's book entitled Propeller One-Way Night Coach about the fictional journey of an 8-year-old boy named Jeff across the USA in the 1950s.

Travolta has had a song written about him by country music artist Cledus T. Judd. Livin' Like John Travolta, and is a parody of Livin' La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin.

He celebrated with the Australian national football team in their dressing room following their qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup

He is currently writing his autobiography, which will be out soon.