Olivia (35 page)

Olivia’s happiness was finally complete when, on 21 June, 2008, she wed John in Peru in a secret ceremony. A second, equally private, marriage ceremony followed a week later on Jupiter Island, Florida, and the newlyweds broke their happy news to family and friends at a barbecue held at Olivia’s Malibu home on 4 July.

Guests thought they were being invited to an American Independence Day party. Instead, they were asked to raise their glasses to John and Olivia, Mr and Mrs Easterling. Now cancer-free, fulfilled, in love and happy to become a bride again at the age of 59, it is an indication of how far Olivia has come on her life’s journey.

Filmography

A group of children in the small village of Wallaby Creek in the Australian outback are set to lose the wool shed they meet to play in unless they can come up with $200 before Christmas. While trying to raise the cash they accidentally stumble across a formula which turns sheep’s wool different colours and they try to sell the formula to foreign buyers. Olivia has a small role and sings ‘Christmas Time Down Under’.

 

Sci-fi musical centred around four students attending the London College of Arts and living in Chelsea, with Olivia as the ‘den mother’. To pay their way through college they form a pop band and create an original and stimulating musical sound, which subsequently brings them into close contact with alien visitors from a world called Alphoid. The dying aliens kidnap the group as they need the band’s ‘vibrations’ to survive. Co-stars included Roy Dotrice, Roy Marsden. With Karl Chambers, Vic Cooper and Ben Thomas as Olivia’s Toomorrow bandmates.

 

A co-production between the BBC and the Swedish broadcasting authorities starring Cliff Richard in a comedy-drama about the singer trying to get rid of a stolen suitcase full of money he had inadvertently picked up on his way to Sweden. Olivia and comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor find themselves caught up in the caper.

 

John Travolta and Olivia star as Danny and Sandy, two teenagers who enjoy a summer holiday romance then meet again unexpectedly as students at Rydell High School. But true love runs far from smoothly for prim cheerleader Sandy and Danny, greasy leader of the college T-BIRDS gang, as they attempt to rekindle their romance. Co-stars in the most successful movie musical of all time included Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Eve Arden, Edd Byrnes, Frankie Avalon and Sid Caesar.

 

Olivia stars as Kira, a heavenly muse who comes down from Mount Olympus to Earth to inspire frustrated artist Sonny (Michael Beck) and an old-time jazz musician Danny (Gene Kelly) to follow their dreams to open a roller-skating disco and musical pleasure dome. But Sonny and Kira’s love for each other is complicated by her being only a temporary Earthling.

 

Fantasy romantic comedy starring John Travolta as Zack, a bumbling, unsuccessful inventor who tries to rob a bank to pay off his debts and thereby avoid the thugs chasing him to pay up. Olivia plays the devious bank teller Debbie who, despite being held up at gunpoint, cleverly sends Zack away with a bag full of worthless paper and runs off with the real loot herself. Zack sets out to track her down and, when he finds her, the two villains have the chance to redeem themselves and an opportunity to save the world by embarking on a romance. Co-stars included Oliver Reed, Beatrice Straight and Charles Durning.

 

A little girl called Jessie, whose mother died when she was three, and who is largely neglected by her workaholic father, wins a free wish in a department store. Her wish for a mother to be with her over the Christmas period is fulfilled when a shop mannequin called Amy (Olivia Newton-John) comes to life.

 

Olivia stars as Julia, a single mum struggling to raise two daughters while living in the mountains surrounded by farm animals and good neighbours. A city banker (Gregory Harrison) brings the grim news that she will be forced out of her house unless she can pay the rent. But when he is caught in a snowstorm and forced to spend a few days with the family, he starts to appreciate their way of life and falls for Julia. Olivia’s daughter Chloe plays Deenie, one of Julia’s daughters.

 

Eric Roberts stars as a gay man facing death who gathers all his friends together for a final farewell party, before engaging a medical professional to help him end his days with dignity. Olivia plays Lina Bingham, one of the dying man’s friends and a woman who is in the throes of divorce and with a son who is coming out. Co-stars include George Segal, Roddy McDowall, Lee Grant, Sally Kellerman and Marlee Matlin.

 

Black comedy about white trash in a Texan town, based on Del Shores’s hit play. An eccentric cast of characters includes Beau Bridges as a love rat Vietnam vet with wooden legs, Bonnie Bedelia as a mother in denial over her gay son, Delta Burke as a bitter, gun-toting, cheated wife out for revenge, and Olivia as Bitsy-Mae Harling, a tattooed lesbian ex-con. Olivia reprises the role in a spin-off
Sordid Lives
TV series.

 

Family film with Olivia starring as Jasmine Wilde, a single mother living quietly in a small town in Georgia. Jasmine is desperate to keep secret the fact that she was once a famous singer, but her secret past is revealed when her daughter Izzy (Chloe Lattanzi) herself shows special singing talent and attracts the interest of a Los Angeles record producer.

Discography

1970:
Toomorrow
(soundtrack)

1971:
Olivia Newton-John

1972:
Olivia

1974:
Music Makes My Day

1974:
Long Live Love

1974:
If You Love Me Let Me Know

1975:
Have You Never Been Mellow

1976:
Come On Over

1976:
Don’t Stop Believin’

1977:
Making A Good Thing Better

1977:
Greatest Hits

1978:
Grease
(soundtrack)

1978:
Totally Hot

1980:
Xanadu
(soundtrack)

1981:
Love Performance - Olivia Live In Japan

1981:
Physical

1982:
Greatest Hits Volume II

1983:
Two Of A Kind
(soundtrack)

1985:
Soul Kiss

1988:
The Rumour

1989:
Warm And Tender

1992:
Back To Basics: The Essential Collection

1994:
Gaia: One Woman’s Journey

1998:
Back With A Heart

2000:
One Woman’s Live Journey

2001:
Sordid Lives
(soundtrack)

2001:
The Christmas Collection

2002:
2

2005:
Indigo: Women Of Song

2005:
Stronger Than Before

2006:
Grace And Gratitude

2008:
Olivia’s Live Hits

2008:
The Great Walk to Beijing: A Celebration in Song

 

 

Picture Credits

P. 1 © Robert Whittaker, Camera Press, London; p. 2 (
top left)
© Robert Whittaker, State Library of Australia (
top right
) Courtesy of University of Newcastle, Australia (
bottom
) The Herald & Weekly Times Limited/State Library of Victoria; p. 3 (
top
) The Herald & Weekly Times Limited/State Library of Victoria (bottom) State Library of New South Wales; p. 4 (
top
) © WireImage (
bottom
) © Monitor Picture Library/Retna; p. 5 (
top
) Lowndes Prods/The Kobal Collection (
bottom
) © Daily Mail; p. 6 (
top
) The Herald & Weekly Times Limited/State Library of Victoria (
bottom
) © Getty Images; p. 7 (
top
) © PA Photos (
bottom
) © PA Photos; p. 8 © Lichfield/Getty Images; p. 9 © Alan Pappe/Corbis; p. 10 (
top
) Paramount/The Kobal Collection (
bottom
) Paramount/The Kobal Collection; p. 11 (
top
) Universal/The Kobal Collection (
bottom
) Universal/The Kobal Collection; p. 12 (
top
) ©
www.scopefeatures.com
(
bottom
) © Lisa O’Connor/ZUMA/Corbis; p. 13 (
top
) © Corbis (
bottom left
)
Photos12.com
(
bottom right
) © Wenn; p. 14 (
top
) London Features International (
middle
) Eddie
Sanderson/scopefeatures.com
(
bottom
) Douglas Kirkland/Corbis; p. 15 (
top
) WireImage (
bottom left
) Alpha (
bottom right
) Alpha; p. 16 (
top
) Photoshot (
bottom
) Reinhard Krause/Reuters/Corbis