American actor John Travolta was BOTD in 1954. Born in Englewood, New Jersey, he dropped out of high school to move to New York City, landing a role in a touring company of the musical Grease. He rose to attention in the horror film Carrie and as the star of TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. He became an international star after appearing in two of the most successful films of the 1970s, Saturday Night Fever and Grease, both showcasing his oleaginous sex appeal and killer dance moves. His career tanked during the 1980s, becoming more famous for his conversion to Scientology (which was rumoured to have “cured” him of his homosexuality). He had a comeback in the 1990s with rom-com Look Who’s Talking and a stunning return to cool-guy form as a dancing mobster in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Back in Hollywood’s A-list, he had hits with Get Shorty and Face/Off. In Mike Nichols’ 1998 political satire Primary Colours, he played a philandering presidential candidate, wittily modelled on Bill Clinton. In 2000, he co-produced and starred in Battlefield Earth, a sci-fi fantasy based on the writings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. A critical and box office disaster, it ended Travolta’s plans to produce further Hubbard adaptations. He had better success in drag as Edna Turnblad in the 2007 remake of John Waters’ cult comedy Hairspray, and impressed as villainous lawyer Robert Shapiro in Ryan Murphy’s true-crime TV series The People v O. J. Simpson. Travolta married actress Kelly Preston in 1991, with whom he had three children, remaining together until Preston’s death in 2020. In 2012, he was sued by two male masseurs who accused him of sexual assault; the lawsuits were subsequently dismissed.