Profile of the Day: Olivia Newton-John

Today we remember singer and actress Olivia Newton-John on what would have been her 75th birthday.

Image: Olivia Newton-John / Nationaal Archief, CC0

Newton-John was born on September 26, 1948 in Cambridge, England to Brinley “Bryn” Newton-John and Irene Helene Born. During World War II, her father was an MI-5 officer assigned to the Enigma codebreaking unit at Bletchley Park. Her maternal grandfather was Max Born, a German Nobel Prize-winning physicist. When she was five years old, the family moved to Melbourne, Australia.

She began performing at a young age, landing spots on local Australian television shows. In 1971, she released her first solo album, If Not for You. By the time she was cast in the 1978 musical Grease opposite John Travolta, Newton-John was already a notable singer. However, with the release of the film, she was catapulted to a new level of fame. The film would become one of the most popular and commercially successful musicals of all time and a cultural phenomenon. Over the course of her career, Newton-John won four Grammy Awards and sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Sadly, Newton-John died on August 8, 2022 after a long battle with breast cancer at the age of 73.

Explore Olivia Newton-John’s family tree on Geni and discover how you’re related to the star.