What the Hell Happened to John Travolta?

John Travolta is the King of the Comeback.  Where most careers involve a rise and a fall, Travolta’s career is a roller coaster or peaks and valleys.  In the 70’s, he was a pop culture icon, in the 80’s he was a has-been and in the 90’s, he reinvented himself as an Oscar-nominated tough guy.  Today, you’re more likely to see him on tabloid covers than headlining a movie.  What the hell happened?

travolta - boy in the plastic bubble

Travolta started off on the stage in New York in the touring production of Grease.  Eventually, he moved to California where he started making TV appearances like The Boy in The Plastic Bubble.

travolta - welcome back kotter

We’ve got a lot to cover here, so we’re just going to skip to 1975 when Travolta was cast in Welcome Back Kotter.  Kotter was a sitcom developed around stand-up comedian, Gabe Kaplan.  Kaplan played a teacher at an inner-city school and Travolta played one of his delinquent students known as the “Sweathogs”.

Kotter was a big hit during its first couple of seasons.  This lead to lots of merchandising opportunities including a board game based around Travolta’s catch phrase, “Up your nose with a rubber hose.”

travolta - carrie

While still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter, Travolta made the leap to film with Brian De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, Carrie.

By now, there have been umpteen adaptations of King’s novels.  Some have been adapted more than once.  A remake of Carrie is currently underway.  But De Palma’s Carrie was the first and it set the bar too high for most of the adaptations that would follow.

Travolta’s role was relatively small.  He played the boyfriend of Carrie’s primary tormentor, Chris, who was played by Nancy Allen.  But Travolta was involved in some of the movie’s more memorable scenes.  He was the one who slaughtered the pig for the bloody climax.  And when a blood-soaked Carrie left the flame-engulfed prom, Travolta’s character tried to run her over.

travolta - saturday night fever

The following year, Travolta entered pop culture history with Saturday Night Fever.  The image of Travolta in the white leisure suit dancing to the Bee Gees is bigger than any movie.  It has come to symbolize an entire decade.

But Saturday Night Fever is nothing like its image.  The soundtrack may make you want to dance, but the movie is actually a depressing melodrama about a guy who feels trapped in a meaningless existence he can only escape on the dance floor.

The movie was based on an article in New York magazine about the budding disco culture, Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night.  Ironically, the writer of the article later admitted that he had made it all up.  As an Englishman, he was baffled by the American dance craze.  So he based his story on a “Mod” friend instead.

Saturday Night Fever got mostly positive reviews.  It was nominated for several awards including Best Actor for Travolta.  Film critic, Gene Siskel claimed Fever as a personal favorite.  He even went so far as to buy Travolta’s leisure suit at an auction.

saturday night fever soundtrack

Fever wasn’t just a hit.  It was a smash that dominated the pop culture landscape.  It ushered in the Disco Era.  The soundtrack was the best-selling soundtrack album of all times.  Eventually, the popularity of disco eclipsed the movie.  So when the disco backlash started, Saturday Night Fever was marginalized along with it.

travolta - grease

In 1978, Travolta was still appearing on Welcome Back Kotter.  But he was no longer a regular.  Instead, he was credited as a “special guest star”.

He followed up Saturday Night Fever with the big screen adaptation of Grease co-starring Olivia Newton John.  Grease has a double-nostalgia thing going for it.  It is intended as a loving look back at the 50’s.  But it is so of its era, that it captures the feeling of the 70’s just as well.

Grease was nowhere near as critically acclaimed as Saturday Night Fever.  In fact, most critics at the time didn’t like it.  But audiences loved the catchy musical numbers and elaborate dance scenes.  Grease was another huge hit for Travolta.

Responding to the success of Grease, Paramount Pictures re-cut a PG version of Saturday Night Fever to play as a double feature with the more family friendly musical.  A few years later, Paramount would try to recapture the success of Grease with a sequel.  But Grease 2 was such a disaster that it nearly killed Michelle Pfeiffer’s career in its infancy.

travolta - moment by moment

Travolta’s winning streak came to an end later that year with Moment By Moment.

In Moment By Moment, Travolta played a young drifter who starts a romantic relationship with a wealthy older woman played by Lily Tomlin.

It was a romantic pairing no one wanted to see.  And very few did.  Moment By Moment got terrible reviews and was a huge bomb at the box office.

winger - urban cowboy

In 1980, Travolta recovered from his first flop with Urban Cowboy opposite Debra Winger.  Urban Cowboy was basically the country music version of Saturday Night Fever.

While it wasn’t as successful or well-reviewed as Fever, Cowboy did get decent reviews and did well enough at the box office.

travolta - blow out

In 1981, Travolta re-reteamed with his Carrie co-star and director for the Hitchcockian thriller, Blow Out.

In Blow Out, Travolta played a sound technician trying to find the perfect screaming sound for a movie he is working on.  While he is out recording, he accidentally captures a car crash on his recording equipment.  Slowly, Travolta’s character gets drawn into a conspiracy.

Critics love Blow Out comparing it favorably to the works of Alfred Hitchcock.  But audiences were turned off by the dark subject matter and the unhappy ending.  It seemed they only wanted to see Travolta dance.

stallone - staying alive

In 1983, Travolta decided to give audiences what they seemed to want.  He danced his way through a sequel to Saturday Night Fever called Staying Alive.

A sequel to Saturday Night Fever was a tricky proposition.  For one thing, there really wasn’t any more story to the character of Tony Manero.  Creatively, there was no reason for a sequel to exist.

Worse still, the original movie was best known for ushering in the Age of Disco and the Bee Gees.  But in 1983, there was a huge backlash against all things disco.  So Saturday Night Fever would have to be a sequel that didn’t remind people of the original.

Towards this end, Paramount made some odd choices.  First, they decided that Tony Manero would move on from disco and try to make it on Broadway.  Second, they decided to hire Sylvester Stallone to do everything but cater the thing.  Stallone co-wrote, directed and produced the sequel which resulted in weirdness like this:

Stallone even made an uncredited cameo at the end of the movie.  And of course his brother Frank sang the original song, “Far From Over”.

As bizarre as the decision to let Stallone direct a Saturday Night Fever sequel seems today, it made a certain kind of sense at the time. Stallone was the top dog in Hollywood in the early 80s.  He had just written, directed in starred in two successful Rocky sequels.  He was Paramont’s go-to guy.

Unfortunately, Stallone drained all the grit that had made Saturday Night Fever a success in the first place.  Instead, he delivered the Broadway equivalent of Rocky 3 1/2.

The critics had a field day with Staying Alive which is viewed today as one of the worst sequels ever made.  Although it turned a profit at the box office, it was a disappointment compared to Travolta’s earlier successes.

travolta - two of a kind

Later that year, he reteamed with his Grease co-star Olivia Newton John for Two of a Kind.

Travolta and John played a couple of petty criminals who fall in love.  Somehow, this proves to God that man is worth saving and prevents him from pulling a Noah.  I shit you not.  Charles Durning plays an angel who intervenes to ensure a happy ending.

The critics savaged Two of a Kind and rightly so.  Even the allure of Travolta and John together again was not enough to save this turkey.  It stank up the box office.

Travolta received his first Golden Raspberry nomination that year for both Staying Alive and Two of a Kind.

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In 1985, Travolta’s free fall continued with Perfect.  Perfect tried to do for health clubs in the 80s what Saturday Night Fever did for disco clubs in the 70s.  Man, did it ever fail!

Travolta played a Rolling Stone journalist investigating the fitness craze.  Jamie Lee Curtis co-starred as a fitness instructor Travolta pursues for an interview… with benefits.

Perfect was anything but.  The reviews were horrible and Perfect bombed at the box office.  Travolta was nominated for another Golden Raspberry, but he lost to his Staying Alive director, Sylvester Stallone.

From 85-89, Travolta was largely out of the public spotlight.  He appeared in Robert Altman’s 2-part TV movie, Basements in 1987.

In 1987, Tavolta reunited with Olivia Newton-John once again for Micahel Jackson’s star-studded music video for the song Liberian Girl off the album, Bad.  The video features a cavalcade of celebrities from the late 80’s.  The celebs are gathered for a video shoot, but Jackson appears to be a no show.

There are too many celebrities for me to list them all.  Some of the bigger names include Whoopi Goldberg, Rosanna Arquette, Steven Spielberg, Billy Dee Williams, Danny Glover, Dan Aykroyd and Steve Guttenberg.

travolta - the experts

In 1989, Travolta returned to the big screen in the Cold War comedy, The Experts.

The Experts co-starred Ayre Gross.  Who?  Yeah, that’s all you need to know. The Cold War comedy in which Travolta played one half of an idiotic duo enlisted to teach Russian spies about life in the USA was a train wreck.  The Experts looked like the final nail in Travolta’s coffin.  He was done.  Written off.  Game over, man.  On the upside, he met his future wife, Kelly Preston.

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Later that year, the unthinkable happened.  Travolta had an unlikely comeback opposite Kirstie Alley and the voice of Bruce Willis in Amy Heckerling’s comedy, Look Who’s Talking.

In the history of cinema, there have been a surprising number of talking baby movies.  And only one of them has ever been a hit.  For whatever reason, it was Look Who’s Talking.

Despite mixed reviews, Look Who’s Talking was crazy successful.  Travolta was back in business.

Travolta - Look Who's Talking Too

Look Who’s Talking was so successful, the studio wanted a sequel immediately.  In 1990, everyone returned for Look Who’s Talking Too.

In the real world, if a kid was as old as Mikey and still wasn’t talking, his parents would be worried.  But this is a talking baby movie.  So even though the baby is now a toddler, Bruce Willis still provides his internal monologue.  For good measure, Roseanne Barr voiced Mikey’s half-sister.  Damon Wayans, who was on the rise thanks to In Living Color, provided the voice for one of Mickey’s friends.

As with most sequels, there were diminishing returns.  Reviews were universally negative.  And while Look Who’s Talking Too made money, it was a disappointment.

fiorentino - shout

In 1991, Travolta starred opposite Linda Fiorentino, Heather Graham and Jamie Walters in the rock-and-roll coming-of-age film, Shout.

Travolta played a new music teacher at a home for wayward boys who dares to teach his students about rock’n’roll.  It was meant to be Footloose meets Dead Poet’s Society.  Instead, it was the movie with the “How Do You Talk to an Angel Guy”.

Anyway, Shout was a bomb.  Travolta was nominated for a Golden Raspberry.

travolta preston wedding

Also in 1991, Travolta and Kelly Preston tied the knot.  It was a match made in heaven.  Or by the powers that be in Scientology.  You decide.

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Travolta’s big comeback was turning out to be short-lived.  Desperate, he went back to the Look Who’s Talking well for Look Who’s Talking Now in 1993.

By this point, the kids were talking normally.  So the third movie changed the gimmick from talking babies to talking dogs.  Diane Keaton and Danny DeVito voiced a couple of family dogs.

Speaking of dogs, Look Who’s Talking Now was one.  Reviews were terrible and the movie bombed.

PULP FICTION

Once again, it looked like Travolta was down for the count.  His career was on life support and the Look Who’s Talking franchise had officially run out of gas.  Then an up and coming director threw the actor a much-needed lifeline.

The part of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction was originally intended for Michael Madsen who played Vic Vega in Quentin Tarrantino’s previous film, Reservoir Dogs.  But Madsen dropped out of Pulp Fiction so he could appear in Kevin Costner’s Wyatt Earp.  You can bet that Madsen has never stopped kicking himself.

With Madsen out, Harvey Weinstein pushed for Daniel Day-Lewis for the role.  But Tarantino wanted Travolta.  Travolta agreed to a fraction of his going rate for the chance to reinvent himself.  It was the best decision of his entire career.

travolta - pulp fiction jackson

Like Saturday Night Fever before it, Pulp Fiction was more than just a movie.  It was a cultural revolution.  Hollywood would spend the next decade playing catch-up.

Travolta got his best reviews the early days of his career.  He was nominated for an Oscar for the second time after a wait of nearly 20 years.  It was one of the biggest comebacks in Hollywood history.  And for Travolta, it was the second comeback of his career.

russo - get shorty

This time, Travolta didn’t waste his second (or third) chance.  His next film was Barry Sonnenfeld’s Elmore Leonard adaptation, Get Shorty.

Get Shorty was an inspired choice.  It allowed Travolta to play another tough guy, but this time for laughs.  Travolta played a loan shark named Chili Palmer who travels from Miami to Hollywood to collect a gambling debt from a shifty B-movie producer played by Gene Hackman.

In Hollywood, Travolta’s character becomes entangled in movie business.  He starts up a romantic relationship with a B-movie actress played by Rene Russo.  Soon, he finds he excels as a movie producer by using the skills he honed as a gangster.

Get Shorty got great reviews and was a hit at the box office.  Travolta won a Golden Globe for Best Actor.  He was on a roll.

travolta - white man's burden

In 1995, Travolta’s winning streak hit a bump in the form of White Man’s Burden, a bizarre science fiction film that takes place in a world where white people are an oppressed minority.

White Man’s Burden got mixed reviews and flopped at the box office.

slater - broken arrow

Travolta bounced back in 1996 with three hit movies.  The first was John Woo’s Broken Arrow in which Travolta played a villain to Christian Slater’s hero.

Broken Arrow got mixed reviews.  So much so that Gene Siskel actually changed his review from positive to negative mid-show after hearing Roger Ebert’s criticisms of the film.  It was the first and only time that happened.

It was a modest hit at the box office, but it did even better in the overseas market.

travolta - phenomenon

That summer, Travolta starred in a truly unlikely hit, Phenomenon.

In Phenomenon, Travolta played an average mechanic who became a genius with telekinetic powers.  It’s a weird premise which ultimately had an unhappy ending.  And yet, it was a hit.

Phenomenon was the kind of movie that proves a star is A-list.  Audiences turned out to see Travolta.  He sold tickets.  Without his star power, there is virtually no chance Phenomenon would have been a hit.

macdowell - michael

Travolta closed out the year with Nora Ephron’s, Michael.

Travolta played a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking angel who comes to earth for one final mission.  Yep, spoiler alert, Travolta dies again.  He also gets another dance number.

In spite of mostly negative reviews, Michael was another hit for Travolta.

cage face off

In 1997, Travolta re-teamed with his Broken Arrow director, John Woo, for Face/Off.  But this time, he traded up in terms of co-stars.  Instead of Christian Slater, Travolta was paired with Nicholas Cage.

Travolta and Cage each got to play hero and villain as the two characters switch roles.  This also allowed each actor to do an impression of the other.  Much scenery was chewed.

Reviews were mostly positive and Face/Off was a big international hit at the box office.

travolta - she's so lovely

The rest of Travolta’s year wasn’t as triumphant as Face/Off.  First, Travolta appeared opposite Sean Penn and his wife, Robin Wright Penn, in She’s So Lovely.

She’s So Lovely was a little art house movie.  No one had any expectations of it being a hit.  It was a prestige picture.

travolta - mad city

But Mad City was a different story.  Travolta starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in a thriller which aimed at social commentary on the media.  Mad City missed its target.

Reviews were negative and the movie bombed in spite of its high-profile leads.

TRAVOLTA THOMPSON

Travolta’s slump carried over into 1998 with Mike Nichols’ political satire, Primary Colors.

Primary Colors was based on a book of the same name.  The book was at least partially based on Bill Clinton’s bid to be the Democratic nominee for president.  Travolta played his character, Jack Stanton, as a Clinton stand-in.  Reportedly the real Bill Clinton, who was friends with Travolta at the time, was pretty pissed off by the whole thing.

Primary Colors was an uneven mix of comedy and drama.  It never really settled on a tone.  Reviews were mixed.  But most enjoyed Travolta’s Clinton impression.  The president, who considered Travolta a friend, was reportedly not amused.

It was released when Clinton was embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky scandal which could have worked for or against the movie.  As it turns out, audiences were sick of Clintonian political scandal and didn’t go to the movies for a fictionalized account.  Travolta was nominated for a Golden Globe.

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On Christmas Day in 1998, Travolta appeared in two movies.  He was part of a star-studded ensemble that included Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, and Nick Nolte in Terrence Malick’s war movie, The Thin Red Line.

The Thin Red Line was the first movie from the legendary director in more than 20 years and as you can see, A-list actors were lining up to appear in it.  Just getting cast was a victory of sorts.  The fact that The Thin Red Line got good reviews and was a hit at the box office was just icing on the cake.

travolta - a civil action

Travolta’s other Christmas release was the legal drama, A Civil Action.

A Civil Action was based on a book which was based on a true story about an environmental pollution law suit.  It wasn’t subject matter that screamed “box office hit”.  And in spite of mostly good reviews, A Civil Action wasn’t a box office hit.

However, I think it is a testament to Travolta’s popularity at this time that A Civil Action did as well as it did.  Worldwide, the movie grossed over 100 million dollars which is pretty impressive for a legal drama about pollution.

travolta - general's daughter

Travolta was still A-list, but he was slipping.  His movies were alternating between base hits and mild disappointments with no real home runs or strike-outs in the mix.  That trend continued in 1999’s The General’s Daughter.

Travolta and Madeleine Stowe played a couple of military investigators who used to be involved romantically.  They are tasked with investigating the murder of the daughter of a prominent general played by James Cromwell.  The cast also included Timothy Hutton and James Woods.

The movie received negative reviews and opened in third place at the box office.  It grossed over $100 million dollars in the US which sounds like a decent figure until you take into consideration the production budget.  The General’s Daughter barely broke even which qualifies it as a disappointment.

travolta - battlefield earth

Then came a little movie you may have heard of… Battlefield Earth.

Battlefield Earth is one of those infamous flops like Waterworld or Cutthroat Island.  It didn’t just fail.  It failed spectacularly as only a few movies can.

As the second-most-famous Scientologist in Hollywood, it was a personal dream of Travolta’s to film L Ron Hubbard’s science fiction epic.  Travolta had originally planned to play the lead role of Jonnie Goodboy himself.  But getting Battlefield Earth made took such a long time that Travolta was too old to play the lead.  Instead, he cast himself as the villain.

travolta - battlefield earth 2

Why did it take so long to get Battlefield Earth made into a movie?  Well, no one in Hollywood was all that excited about the idea of making a big budget science fiction epic based around the a philosophy that many viewed as cultish.  Also, did I mention the fact that the hero was named Jonnie Goodboy.  That’s a pretty good indication of the level of sophistication of the source material.

But Battlefield Earth was a personal mission for Travolta.  He fought to make it happen.    It is a testament to how much power he had at the time that he was eventually successful.  Because pretty much every single non-Scientologist in the room knew Battlefield Earth was destined for infamy.

We deal with a lot of infamous flops here at What the Hell Happened.  And frequently, we get comments about how Waterworld or Cutthroat Island aren’t as bad as their reputations make them out to be.  In spite of their respective flaws, most of these films are pretty entertaining once you have adjusted your expectations.

travolta - battlefield earth 3

Not so with Battlefield Earth.  It is the rare case of a flop which is arguably worse than its reputation.  You really have to watch Battlefield Earth in order to understand every way in which a movie can be inept.  It’s not just that it is badly written and acted.  It’s that every single decision made by everyone involved in the film is a bad one.

I had the pleasure of watching Battlefield Earth before it opened.  I was the only person in the theater.  And my mouth was on the floor the entire time.  I could not believe this movie had been made let alone that it was about to be released on an unknowing public. Surely, someone would intervene.

But no, Battlefield Earth was released as planned.  It was savaged by critics and tanked at the box office.  It cleaned up at the Golden Raspberries including a much-deserved win for Travolta.

And yet, in spite of failing in every way a movie can, Travolta was hell-bent on making a sequel for many years after the release of Battlefield Earth.  That is a kind of self-delusion I can’t comprehend.

travolta - lucky numbers

Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Michael director, Nora Ephron for the lotto comedy, Lucky Numbers.

Any other year, a movie like Lucky Numbers would be an embarrassing flop.  The reviews were terrible.  It lost roughly 50 million dollars.  It was a train wreck.  And yet, next to Battlefield Earth, Lucky Numbers didn’t seem so bad.

travolta - swordfish

Amazingly, Travolta’s career survived his abysmal year.  But it was limping.  In 2001, Travolta played another villain in the cyber-thriller, Swordfish.

Swordfish co-starred fellow X-Men Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.  Jackman was trying to establish himself as a viable lead outside of his role as Wolverine.  And Berry, well, she was trying to overcome her fear of nudity.

Thankfully for all involved, Halle Berry conquered her fears.  Swordfish got a lot of press for featuring Berry’s first-ever topless scene.  The reviews for Swordfish were poor, but Berry’s boobs propelled the movie to success.

travolta - domestic disturbance

Later that year, Travolta starred in Domestic Disturbance, a would-be thriller that sadly did not include gratuitous nudity from Halle Berry.  Without Berry’s boobs, Domestic Disturbance flopped.  And that is probably the only time the word “flopped” will ever appear in the same sentence as Halle Berry’s boobs.

Anyway, Roger Ebert recounted the story of attending a critic’s screening of Domestic Disturbance in which the wrong final reel was shown.  Apparently, the reel that was shown to critics had the wrong soundtrack.  Ebert pointed out that “Music is the last thing wrong with that reel.”

Between Swordfish and Domestic Disturbance, Travolta was nominated for another Razzie.  

travolta - goldmember

In 2002, Travolta’s only appearance was a celebrity cameo in the third Austin Powers movie.  The cameos by Travolta, fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise, Gweneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, etc were easily the highlight of Mike Meyers’ tired sequel.

travolta - basic

In 2003, Travolta re-teamed with his Pulp Fiction co-star Samuel L Jackson for another military thriller, Basic.

Basic is one of those movies that looks good on paper.  Travolta and Jackson reunited, Travolta had a hit with the military thriller The General’s Daughter and director John McTiernan had hits with Die Hard and Predator.  It seemed like a sure thing.

Unfortunately, Basic was anything but.  It should have been called Convoluted or Incomprehensible.  The plot twists piled on top of each other until no viewer could possibly keep them straight.

The reviews were bad and Basic failed at the box office.

travolta - the punisher

In 2004, Travolta decided to get himself a piece of that super hero action.  As Travolta himself was way past his super hero expiration date, he opted to play yet another villain.  Unfortunately, he decided to do so in The Punisher.

As Marvel Comics characters go, The Punisher is a three-time loser.  The Punisher from 2004 starring Thomas Jane as the violent vigilante was the second of three Punisher movies.  All three of them were critical and box office failures.

travolta - ladder 49

Later that year, Travolta appeared opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the fire fighter drama Ladder 49.  A fire fighter movie in the wake of 9/11 could be viewed as pandering.  But it worked all the same.

Despite mixed reviews, Ladder 49 was a much-needed hit for post Battlefield Earth Travolta.

travolta - love song for bobby long

Later that year, Travolta appeared opposite Scarlett Johansson in the Southern fried drama, A Love Song For Bobby Long.

Bobby Long got mixed reviews and bombed at the box office.

thurman - be cool

In 2005, Travolta returned to one of his best roles with Be Cool, a sequel to Get Shorty.  Further stacking the deck in his favor, Travolta reunited with his Pulp Fiction co-star, Uma Thurman.

Unfortunately, where Get Shorty was an incredibly smart Hollywood satire, Be Cool was  just a dumb comedy.  The reviews were largely negative and Be Cool just barely broke even at the domestic box office.

travolta - lonely hearts

In 2006, Travolta appeared in the period crime drama, Lonely Hearts.

If you have never heard of it, you are not alone.  It got a very limited release before going to “on demand”.

Tim Allen, John Travolta, William H Macy and Martin Lawrence Wild Hogs movie image

In 2007, Travolta staged a mini-comeback of sorts.  He started the year off with the middle-age crisis motorcycle road trip comedy, Wild Hogs.

Wild Hogs teamed three former A-listers (Travolta, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence) and one well-known character actor (William H. Macy, slumming for a paycheck) in an attempt to combine their fan base.  And despite bad reviews, it worked.  Wild Hogs was a surprise hit.

travolta - hairspray

Later that year, Travolta put on drag and a fat suit for the adaptation of the Broadway musical, Hairspray.  The movie was an adaptation of a musical which was itself an adaptation of a movie.

Nikki Blonksy starred as an overweight teenager who’s obsessed with a dance show hosted by James Marsden.  Travolta (in drag) played the teen’s mother.  Brittany Snow played the show’s dancing queen and Michelle Pfeiffer played her mother.  Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes and Zac Efron co-starred.

Reviews were positive and the movie was a hit at the box office.  It opened in third place behind Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  Third place may not sound great, but it actually set a record for the biggest box office opening ever for a musical.  The record was later broken by Mama Mia!

travolta - bolt

In 2008, Travolta lent his voice to the Disney animate film, Bolt.  Generally, I don’t spend a lot of time discussing voice work in these columns because voice work rarely has much of an impact on an actor’s career one way or another.

But Bolt is a bit of a special case.  Disney was so confident in its pairing of Travolta with their in-house superstar, Miley Cyrus, that they scheduled Bolt up against the first Twilight movie.  That was a mistake.  A big one.  But wasn’t little Miley just the cutest?  What happened there?

Despite decent reviews, Bolt got trampled at the box office by Twilight.  It is viewed as one of Disney’s largest marketing blunders in recent years.

travolta - taking of pelham 123

In 2009, Travolta played another villain in The Taking of Pelham 123 opposite Denzel Washington.

The Taking of Pelham 123 was a remake of a 1974 movie of the same name.  It was directed by the late Tony Scott who had several box office hits with Denzel Washington.

Pelham 123 was not one of them.  It got mixed reviews and did okay at the box office.

travolta - old dogs

Later that year, Travolta re-teamed with his Wild Hogs director, Walt Becker, for another middle-aged comedy, Old Dogs.

Old Dogs co-starred Robin Williams, Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, Seth Green (who was featured singing to a gorilla on the trailer) and Bernie Mac (in his final performance).

Old Dogs was dedicated to the memories of Bernie Mac and Jett Travolta, the son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston who died earlier that year of a seizure.  In spite of truly terrible reviews and was a mild success at the box office.

This image sums up Old Dogs nicely.

old dogs poster

Travolta seems to be saying, “What am I doing here?  Have I really fallen so low?  Is gorilla rape really the selling point of this movie?  Anyone want to make Battlefield Earth 2?  Anyone?

travolta - from paris with love

In 2010, Travolta starred in another crime drama, From Paris With Love.

I have never seen From Paris, but my entire family had a good laugh when it came out.  Travolta in From Paris looks exactly like my younger brother.  I am looking at that picture above and laughing my ass off right now.  I will never be able to watch that movie without laughing hysterically.

Anyway, From Paris got mostly negative reviews and was another box office disappointment.  But I swear to God, he looks just like my brother…

travolta - savages

In 2012, Travolta appeared as part of an ensemble in Oliver Stone’s drug-themed thriller, Savages.

I don’t think audiences were even aware Savages existed.  Critics were mixed.

In 2012, Travolta also faced a bit of controversy.   An anonymous male masseur filed a lawsuit against Travolta citing claims of sexual assault and battery.  Travolta’s lawyers denied the claims.  However, a second masseur has come forward making similar claims.

Since then, Travolta has been all over the tabloids with one accusation after another.

travolta - tabloids

Pictures of Travolta in drag have surfaced.

travolta - drag

A former secretary accused Travolta of having an affair with his former pilot.  The male pilot eventually came forward claiming to have had a 6-year affair with Travolta that pre-dated his marriage to Preston.

travolta kiss

Personally, I am not especially interested in Travolta’s personal life.  If these rumors are true, I would think it would be in his best interest to simply own up to them and let the scandal pass.  Until that happens, his denials just fuel the story.

travolta - christmas album

In late 2012 just as the tabloids were having their way with Travolta, he released a Christmas album with his Grease co-star, Olivia Newton-John.  The album received mixed reviews from critics and spawned this bizarre video:

So, what the hell happened?

Travolta started off as a pop culture icon.  He seemed to excel in movies that attached him to dance crazes.  But once he became out of step with the latest fads, his audience dried up.

Later, he had one of the greatest come-backs of all times.  His career soared to new heights.  He was one of the most powerful actors in Hollywood.  And he threw all of that power at one of the most notorious flops in history.

Even then, his career survived.  But he chose one bad movie after another. As Travolta got older, he lost the physique that made him a star. The tabloids reveled in posting pictures of a portly Travolta. Now he’s embroiled in a series of scandals that seem likely to mar his image for some time to come.

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Danielle Charney
Danielle Charney
11 years ago

What a good piece- a month or so ago, ‘Moment by Moment’ was on HBO I think. I was late, and I needed distraction. I watched it twice in a row. I shit you not. (;)) I have to admit that I was mildly riveted. I will take Lily T. any way I can get her. She is so damn good without even trying. Travolta, is the same to me. Even if it sucks, I never tire of him- even in Face Off, which for me is pushing it from all sides. As for his personal life, I could not… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Film Flops: http://www.filmsite.org/greatestflops6.html Moment by Moment (1978) Director: Jane Wagner Studio/Distributor: Univeral Pictures Budget: ? Domestic Gross: ? Still, the idea of an R-rated character study and chick-flick melodrama about a May-December romance remains unnerving, between 24 year-old John Travolta – fresh from the disco dance hit Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978) — both produced by Robert Stigwood, and 39 year-old TV comedienne and actress Lily Tomlin (from Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, and Oscar-nominated for Nashville (1975)). Years after making the film, Lily Tomlin admitted that she had been in a decades-old lesbian… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

Concluding Case File #37: Moment By Moment: http://www.avclub.com/articles/concluding-case-file-37-moment-by-moment,97167/ That’s the case in 1978’s Moment By Moment, a film that has come to personify miscasting and explosive anti-chemistry the same way the slightly more fruitful pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn has come to personify chemistry. Moment By Moment has a lot to teach casting directors about chemistry. For starters, if you’re making a heterosexual romance about a sexual bond so potent it transcends age and class, it’s good if at least one of the leads sends out at least a mildly heterosexual vibe. Secondly, if a film is about… Read more »

seandaniel1966
11 years ago

For one thing, Savages is pretty good. You just gotta wade thru ’bout 45 minutes of weird three-way crap. Secondly, I have followed his career (because he lives down the road) and never even heard of some of those movies. Thirdly, Get Shorty is his best work. Pulp Fiction is great, but I like Chili Palmer better.
And I personally appreciate that you don’t speculate on personal lives or odd beliefs. Like Cruise, though, he’s made some bad calls because of it. That was why he wanted to make Battlefield so badly, ’cause Hubbard (a terrible author) wrote it.

daffystardust
Editor
11 years ago

Big score here, Lebeau!
-Somehow I had never seen that picture of Travolta in drag. Thanks for that!
-Anyone who has never seen “Blow Out” should rush to add it to their queue.
-Don’t kid yourself, Travolta was plenty funny in “Pulp Fiction.”

seandaniel1966
11 years ago

I need to get over my problem with movies that have open displays of drug use. It is hard for me to watch that scene in Pulp Fiction when Uma overdoses.

seandaniel1966
11 years ago

I watched Pulp Fiction last night, and it was better than I remember. Jackson stole every single scene he was in. No wonder he gets the big bucks.
I did not like NBK at all, won’t watch it ((like Passion of the Christ) and would not recommend Savages if it was like NBK. I also think Stone is overhyped.
Thinking about Christian Slater yet? It got me thinking about him after you mentioned Broken Arrow. I LOVED True Romance.

seandaniel1966
11 years ago

He’s all over the radar…like Kilmer. Never understood his career choices, but the guy can act. Be sure to rewatch Kuffs, too. Silly but very entertaining. He had a new show this year, but I think it got cancelled.

seandaniel1966
11 years ago

Funny. No…he was stuck (and may still be stuck) in direct-to-DVD stuff, I think. When you think about it, Slater is perfect for WTHH. I kinda liked Hard Rain, and put it in Film Cemetery.
There is another actor I’d like to see featured here. Do you only do movie actors?

seandaniel1966
11 years ago

The dad from Raising Hope is so versatile. Dillahunt played two separate parts on Dead Wood. He’s not for WTHH…he steals everything he’s in – including Burn Notice and Terminator.
It’s just a suggestion. I’ve had a man-crush on Garret Dillahunt and Eric Bana for years. I’m weird, it’s true. Maybe, though, that’s the ‘it’ thing you talked about.

conneeconehead
11 years ago

Unlike my friends, I have never found Travolta particularly attractive. However, I think he is charming and charismatic in his roles on screen. My favorite roles of Travolta’s were Get Shorty, Faceoff, Phenomenon and Broken Arrow. If Travolta has had relationships in his life with women and if rumors are correct, with men, wouldn’t that make him bisexual, not gay? Not that it matters. Is it more than a coincidence that whenever Travolta (or Cruise) consider breaking from the Scientology “religion” (I use the term very loosely here), suddenly “gay” rumors begin to surface? We should also take into account… Read more »

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
10 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I know this info is coming a few months late, but the Christmas album that Travolta did last year with Olivia Newton-John peaked on the Billboard album chart at an abysmal #81 late last year. I don’t know how many copies that translates to, but it’s pretty miniscule. If Travolta and Newton-John had released their Christmas album in the late 90’s or so, when Travolta was still a huge draw, i have no dobut it would’ve been a Top 10 album. Clearly things are quite different now.

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I’ll admit that when I saw Kelly Preston’s name on the poll of future “What the Hell Happened to…” actors/actress I wondered if she was ever close to reaching her full potential (a la Sean Young, Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari, and/or Penelope Ann Miller) but some how it never clicked. It seems like Kelly Preston never really had a true “breakout role” (like perhaps, Nicole Kidman during her marriage to Tom Cruise) to make herself be able to not simply be “Mrs. John Travolta”. Kelly probably came the closest in “Twins”, but it just didn’t pan out. And I do… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  lebeau

I do kind of find the obsession or curiosity over John Travolta’s sexuality very funny because it isn’t like he has been the only high profile actor throughout history who has come under suspicion for such a thing. There are rumors swirling around that Cary Grant was in fact gay if not at least bisexual. And let’s not forget, Rock Hudson, who was I think, the first really high profile figure to die of AIDS. Hudson even married I think his agent’s secretary to divert attention towards his homosexuality.

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago
Reply to  conneeconehead

I really think that the massive failure of “Battlefield Earth” (where John plays a large ham of a villain) besides the gay rumors (especially when he “reinvented himself” as a tough guy when “Pulp Fiction” brought him back to relevancy) severely ruined John Travolta’s box office credibility/marketability. I think w/ “Battlefield Earth”, it wasn’t just that it was a bad movie, it’s the whole ties to Scientology (whether you like to admit it or not, people already have preconceived notions about what Scientology really is about) and the fact that it was a personal pet project of John’s for many,… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

John Travolta pretty much has this weird pattern of doing really bad movies, fading out, then making a comeback with a good performance in a good film (almost as if he sometimes ends up getting lucky). But it’s probably safe to say that this sort of process or “lucky streak” really can’t last forever.
http://forums.superherohype.com/archive/index.php/t-341480.html

seandaniel1966
11 years ago

He does make a very interesting supporting character.
Umm…bit of news about my site, lebeau dude. It seems, like the great David Hasselhoff, I’m a big hit in Germany. LOL. Been getting a bunch of very nice emails from some very nice Germans. Wish I knew how to set up a easy-to-use comments section like Jalopnik.

Jake
Jake
11 years ago

Like Dune (the Lynch version, although Syfy’s isn’t much better), Battlefield Earth was DOA the minute some thought it would be the next Star Wars prior to its release.
I sometimes wonder what became of all those Battlefield Earth action figues nobody wanted

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

travolta did some great movies not all, saturday night fever, urban cowboy, pulp fiction, get short, broken arrow, michael face off, swordfish, old dogs, wild hogs, taking of pelham 123, and from paris with love were my favorites, the rest he did i didn’t give a shit about. now he’s gotten crazy with scientology and now with his gay behavior.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  andymovieman

John Travolta’s career an interesting case. His career was killed the first time by the infamously bad romantic drama Moment by Moment (1978), the third film in his three-film contract with producer Robert Stigwood. (The other two were Saturday Night Fever and Grease). It was revived by Pulp Fiction only to be killed again six years later with Battlefield Earth (2000).

Another interesting thing about Travolta is that he’s only really made a handful of starring films that are widely regarded as really good – Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Blow-Out, Pulp Fiction, and Get Shorty.

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

it’s a wonder why scientology has corrupted many good people we call actors. same with politics too. they are all raving lunatics. now i can’t watch a new film from cruise or travolta because of thier crazyness of scientology. last film i saw was from paris with love that was it. now no more new films from travolta or cruise. now they are on the list of actors whose films i boycott.

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

basic was also a good film i forgot to mention as well.

mr. ngoc
11 years ago

I have to say – i personally didnt see “Sat night fever” + “Grease” but i know it’s very popular. However, seeing “You’re the 1 i love”, i have to ask why people didnt think John Travolta is gay back then? I have to admit, John’s eyes r strange, with some1 else they would be attractive/sexy but on John’s faces they look so creepy, now that he’s old it is not that creepy but seeing the video of Grease it really is -.- Also, talking of Grease, any idea about “The Outsiders” cast? Out of the cast, Tom Cruise, Matt… Read more »

De
De
9 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

Matt Dillon is a wonderful actor, and he is still a very handsome guy. I wish you would do a piece on him.

mr. ngoc
11 years ago

PS: why dont u make WTHH for Uma Thurman? I saw Pulp Fiction because of her! (Ok, before i saw PP, i wasnt a film buff -.- and i just saw Kill Bill back then -.- that’s why i also feel bad about Daryl Hannah’s career, tbh, all the women in that movie should have a WTHH, Lucy Liu was such a huge crush of mine)

daffystardust
Editor
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I am in the middle of research for an article on Tim Roth to get my “Pulp Faction” series started. Once I get it going, we should tag your Thurman WTHH article to bring the two sets together. I’m also rehearsing a small part in Julius Ceasar right now, so it might be slow coming.

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

http://www.derober.com/2008/06/26/6-crazy-hollywood-stories-you-probably-havent-heard/ The real reason Bill Murray didn’t do the Charlie’s Angels sequel ~ Roll mouse over photo to Derobe ~ Bill Murray and Lucy Liu didn’t get along on the set of the first Charlie’s Angels. Bill was always uncomfortable around her and nobody knew why until one day a huge fight erupted between the two while they were filming a scene. People Magazine reported the Bill ‘loudly complained about her technique.’ People was being gentle. What actually transpired was much more intense. Bill Murray stopped a scene in progress and pointed to Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu… Read more »

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

do you think john travolta will do expendables 3 with sylvester stallone and nicolas cage and the rest of the cast, lebeau?

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

if john travolta worked with good action stars of the 80s 90s and right now i would see it. even though i hate tom hanks, i would still love to see him, travolta and robin williams in a movie together.

Stoich
11 years ago

Here’s a thought: you should do a WTHH to Stallone. I guess you could argue his career is doing OK right now with Expandables and what not. But whatever: I just want to read your thoughts on his flicks and his rise and fall. His movies are so perfect for making fun of – I think you would agree.

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago

Then again, since “Bullet in the Head” recently underperformed at the box office, maybe Stallone is once again “at risk” for getting a future WTHHT.

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