R.I.P. Olivia Newton-John
The iconic singer behind "Physical" and the star of Grease was 73
Olivia Newton-John, the beloved actor and singer who famously starred in Grease, has died following several years-long battles with breast cancer. The news was confirmed by her husband, John Easterling, in a Facebook post that referred to her as a “symbol of triumphs and hope” and highlighted her inspirational work in researching plant-based medicine for cancer treatments. Newton-John was 73.
Newton-John was born in the United Kingdom in 1948, the daughter of an MI5 officer, and her family moved to Australia when she was young so her father could take a job at a university in Melbourne. She began singing semi-professionally as a teenager, performing in Australia and England with her partner Pat Carroll until Carroll returned to Australia and Newton-John began working on a solo album. In 1971 she released If Not For You, a hit covers album, but her second album failed to make as much of an impact (it wasn’t officially released in the U.S.), and she released a third called Let Me Be There in 1973.
A year later, Newton-John represented the U.K. in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, where she eventually lost to the Swedish entry—“Waterloo” by an up-and-coming band called ABBA—and a tie-in album called Long Live Love was recut for American audiences to sound more like the country-esque Let Me Be There and released as If You Love Me, Let Me Know. That album featured Newton-John’s iconic “I Honestly Love You” and solidified her status as an international star outside of Australia and the U.K., which led to her getting the starring role in director Randal Kleiser’s movie adaptation of the musical Grease.