Liberty Lighthouse Journal: DOSSIER: OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN

“I do have high standards, but I don't expect anything from anyone that I don't expect from myself.”

BORN: September 26^th, 1948, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England

DIED: August 8^th, 2022, Southern California

NICKNAME: “The Goddess”, “Olivia Neutron-Bomb”, “ONJ”, “Olivia”

HEIGHT: 5' 6”

Olivia was born in Cambridge to Brinley “Bryn” Newton-John (1914-1992) and Irene Helene (1914-2003). Her father was born in Wales. Her mother was born in Germany and came to UK with her family in 1933 to escape the Nazi Regime. Olivia's maternal grandfather was German-Jewish Nobel Prize winning physicist Max Born. Olivia's maternal grandmother Hedwig was the daughter of German-Jewish jurist Victor Ehrenberg. Olivia was a cousin of comedian Ben Elton.

Olivia's father was an MI5 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park who took Rudolf Hess into custody during World War II. After the war, her father became the headmaster of the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys.

Olivia was the youngest of three children. Her brother Hugh (1939-2019), a medical doctor, and her sister Rona (1941-2013), an actress who was married to Jeff Conaway (Grease co-star) from 1980 until 1985.

In 1954, when Olivia was six, the family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia where her father worked as a professor of German and as the master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne. She attended Christ Church Grammar School in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra and then to the University High School in Parkville.

At age 14, Olivia formed Sol Four, an all-girl group, with three classmates, performing in a coffee shop owned by her brother-in-law. She became a regular on local Australian television shows including The Happy Show, where she performed as “Lovely Livvy”.

Olivia also appeared on The Go!! Show where she met her future duet partner, singer Pat Carroll and her future music producer, John Farrar.

In 1965, Olivia entered a talent contest and won on the television program Sing, Sing, Sing, hosted by Australian 1960s icon Johnny O'Keefe, performing songs “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and “Everything's Coming Up Roses”. The prize money provided funding for her trip to Great Britain a year later after her mother encouraged Olivia to broaden her horizons.

In Britain, Olivia recorded her first single, “Till You Say You'll Be Mine” for Decca Records in 1966. While in Britain, Olivia missed her Australian boyfriend, Ian Trupie, with whom she had co-starred in an Australian telefilm, Funny Things Happen Down Under. Olivia would book trips back to Australia and her mother would cancel them.

Pat Carroll moved to the UK and Pat and Olivia formed a duo called “Pat and Olivia” touring nightclubs in Europe. Carroll's visa expired, forcing her to return to Australia, while Olivia remained in Britain to perform solo until 1975.

In 1970, the group Toomorrow, recruited Olivia and they starred in a “science fiction musical” film, recording the soundtrack album on RCA Records.

Olivia released her first solo album, If Not for You in 1971. The title track was written by Bob Dylan and it was Olivia's first international hit. She was voted Best British Female Vocalist two years in a row by the magazine Record Mirror.

In 1972, Olivia's second album, Olivia, was released, but not in the United States. Her fortune changed with the release of “Let Me Be There” in 1973, becoming popular in the U.S. reaching the Top 10 as No. 6 in Country music and earned her a Grammy for Best Country Female and an Academy of Country Music award for Most Promising Female Vocalist.

In 1974, Olivia represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Long Live Love”. The Long Live Love album was released in the U.S. and Canada as If You Love Me, Let Me Know.

The next single, “I Honestly Love You” became Olivia's signature song. It was written by Jeff Barry and Peter Allen. It became her first Pop number-one and stayed there for two weeks.

In 1974, in the United States, some country music “purists” had an issue with a foreigner singing country pop music and being classed with native Nashville artists. Eventually, Olivia was supported by the country music community with the help of Stella Parton (Dolly's sister) who recorded “Ode to Olivia” and with Olivia recording her 1976 album, Don't Stop Believin' in Nashville.

Encouraged by Australian singer Helen Reddy, Olivia left the UK and moved to the USA.

For 45 years, Olivia held the Guinness World Record for the shortest gap (154 days) by a female between new Number 1 albums (If You Love Me, Let Me Know, Have You Never Been Mellow) on the US Billboard 200 album charts until Taylor Swift in 2020.

In 1979, Olivia was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2020 for her services to charity, cancer research and entertainment.

Olivia's career soared after her starring role in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease in 1978. She was offered the role of Sandy by producer Alan Carr at a dinner party at Helen Reddy's home. Olivia was 28 and felt she was too old for the part, so she insisted upon a screen test with the co-star John Travolta. The film accommodated Olivia's Australian accent by changing the character Sandy Dumbrowski to Sandy Olsson, an Australian who moved there with her family.

Grease became the biggest box-office hit of 1978. The soundtrack album was also a hit.

Olivia became the second woman (after Linda Ronstadt in 1977) to have two singles - “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “Summer Nights” in the Billboard Top 5 simultaneously.

The film's popularity has endured through the years. Personally, Grease is the few musicals I have enjoyed and is in my DVD library. It was re-released for its 20^th anniversary in 1998 and ranked as the second highest-grossing film behind Titanic in its opening weekend. It was most recently re-released in April of 2018 in over 700 American theatres for two days only. The soundtrack is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.

Olivia stated:

“I think the songs are timeless. They're fun and have great energy. The '50s-feel music has always been popular, and it's nostalgic for my generation, and then the young kids are rediscovering it every 10 years or so, it seems. People buying the album was a way for them to remember those feelings of watching the movie and feelings of that time period. I feel grateful to be a part of this movie that's still loved so much.”

In 2006, Newton-John's company ON-J Productions Ltd filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group for $1 million in unpaid royalties from the Grease soundtrack. In 2007, it was announced that she and UMG had reached a “conditional settlement”.

Grease transformation of Olivia's character Sandy, imposed a change in her music career. In 1978, she released her next studio album, Totally Hot, which became her first solo Top 10 (No.7) album since Have You Never Been Mellow. Dressed on the cover all in leather, Olivia capitalized on the new Sandy look introduced at the end of Grease.

In 1980, Olivia charted No. 1 Pop, No. 2 AC with “Magic”. It was the biggest pop hit for Olivia to that point staying No. 1 for four weeks.

While her recording “Physical” became a platinum recording, two Utah radio stations banned the single from their playlists because of the “provocative” lyrics.

The success of Physical led to an international tour and the release of her second hits collection, the double platinum Olivia's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (No. 16 Pop).

In 1983, Olivia re-teamed with Travolta for the commercially unsuccessful Two of a Kind. That same year Olivia and Pat Farrar (formerly Pat Carroll) founded Koala Blue. The store involved a chain of women's clothing boutiques. Initially successful, it eventually went bankrupt and closed in 1992. Olivia and Pat would later license the brand name for a line of Australian produced wines, confections, and bed/bath products.

At the 1986 VFL Grand Final, Olivia performed the Australian national anthem.

After nearly a three-year hiatus following the birth of her daughter Chloe in January of 1986, Olivia resumed her recording career with the 1988 album, The Rumour. The album was promoted by an HBO special, Olivia Down Under.

In 1989, Olivia released the album Warm and Tender, which reunited her with producer John Farrar. Inspired by her daughter, who appeared on the cover, the album featured lullabies and love songs for parents and their children. It failed to revive her recording career and would be the last album produced by Farrar.

In 1992, Olivia was primed to make a comeback and planned her first tour since her Physical tour ten years earlier. But shortly after the album's release, Olivia was diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing her to cancel all publicity for the album as well as the tour. She received her diagnosis the same weekend her father died. Olivia recovered and later became an advocate for breast cancer research and other health issues. She was a partial owner of the Gaia Retreat and Spa in Bryon Bay, New South Wales.

Prior to cancer research advocacy, Olivia was involved with other humanitarian causes. Olivia cancelled a 1978 concert tour of Japan to protest the slaughter of dolphins caught in tuna fishing nets. She rescheduled the tour when the Japanese government assured her that the practice was curbed. Olivia had a passion for dolphins describing them as “beautifully evolved creatures”, as she called them in the Warm and Tender album and also expressed her love of dolphins in the 1981 “The Promise”, a Dolphin Song. The song was inspired by dolphins she met at Sea Life Park in Hawaii and stated:

“It was strange. The morning after I was in the pools. I woke up and the words and melody were in my head. I think it was a gift from them.”

Olivia's cancer diagnosis affected her type of music she recorded. In 1994, she released Gaia: One Woman's Journey, which chronicled her ordeal.

Between 1998 and 2005, Olivia was president of the Isle of Man Basking Shark Society.

In 2005, she released Stronger Than Before, sold exclusively in the United States by Hallmark.

In 2008, she raised funds to help build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

Olivia continued to record and perform pop and country music, She returned to Nashville in 1998 to record Back with a Heart.

Olivia also released several Christmas albums, teaming up with Vince Gill and the London Symphony Orchestra in 2000 for 'Tis the Season that sold exclusively through Hallmark.

Since Two of a Kind, Olivia acted occasionally. She appeared in a supporting role in It's My Party. In 2000, she appeared in a different role as Bitsy Mae Harling, a lesbian ex-con country singer in Sordid Lives. Olivia reprised her role for Sordid Lives as a series on LOGO television network.

CHLOE AND OLIVIA

Olivia's television work included starring in two Christmas films, A Mom for Christmas (1990) and A Christmas Romance (1994) – both were Top 10 Nielsen hits. Her daughter, Chloe, starred as one of her children in A Christmas Romance and in the 2001 Showtime film The Wilde Girls.

Olivia was actively touring and doing concerts from 2012 to 2017. In 2012, she sang songs on Australian tour of Perth, Melbourne and Sydney as well as on a tour of the United States singing songs she never previously performed in concert.

In 2012, Olivia teamed with John Travolta to make a charity album This Christmas in support of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre and the Jett Travolta Foundation.

In 2013 her performance at the Flamingo Las Vegas was cancelled because of the death of her elder sister, Rona (aged 72) from a brain tumor. She resumed performing in 45 shows in 2014.

Olivia's Vegas performances was extended beyond August 2014.

In 2015, Olivia was a guest judge on an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race. That same year, she scored her first number-one single with “You Have to Believe” with daughter Chloe and producer Dave Audé.

In 2015, Olivia was inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame.

In 2019, Olivia's elder brother Hugh, a doctor, died at age 80, his death left Olivia as the sole surviving sibling. In the same year, Olivia was among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

On November 2^nd, 2019, Julien's Auctions auctioned hundreds of memorabilia items from Olivia's career. The sale raised $2.4 million. The anonymous buyer acquired her famous Grease leather jacket for $243,200 and returned the item to her and said:

“It should not sit in a billionaire's closet for country-club bragging rights. … The odds of beating a recurring cancer using the newest emerging therapies is a thousandfold greater than someone appearing out of the blue, buying your most famous and cherished icon, and returning it to you.”

All proceeds were donated to Olivia's cancer and wellness research centre in Australia.

PERSONAL LIFE & TRIVIA

1968 – Olivia was engaged to but never married Bruce Welch, one of her producers and co-writer of her hit song “Please, Mr. Please”. In 1972, Olivia ended her relationship with Welch, who subsequently attempted suicide.
1973 – While vacationing on the French Rivera, British businessman Lee Kramer became her new boyfriend and manager. They stayed as a couple on and off until 1979. Kramer returned to England and married.
1984 – Olivia married long-time partner, actor Matt Lattanzi. The couple met four years earlier while filming Xanadu. They divorced in 1995. The couple remained friends. Their daughter, Chloe Rose, was born in January of 1986.
In 1992, Olivia returned to New South Wales, Australia to recuperate from her battle with breast cancer. She underwent surgery, declared bankruptcy, and her father died of liver cancer.
Olivia was close friends with Karen Carpenter.
She performed the background vocal for John Denver's song “Fly Away”.
Olivia was a great-aunt of Layla Lee-Curtis.
Never left home without her passport and lipstick.
1996 – A year after her divorce from Matt Lattanzi, Olivia met Patrick McDermott, a gaffer/cameraman. The couple dated on and off for nine years. McDermott disappeared following a 2005 fishing trip off the California coast. Olivia was in Australia at the time. It was thought by the US Coast Guard that he was lost at sea. He was located in April of 2009 by Dateline NBC investigators in a Mexican beach town, living under the name of Pat Kim and working on a yacht which ferries tourists in and out of a marina near Sayulita, Mexico.
In 1998, Olivia was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.
Olivia's performance as Sandy Olsson in Grease (1978) is ranked #89 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Fractured her coccyx while filming the dance sequence “Suddenly” in Xanadu (1980).
Olivia was the aunt of actress Tottie Goldsmith.
Olivia was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard on August 5^th, 1981.
2008 – Olivia married John Easterling, founder and president of the Amazon Herb Company in an Incan spiritual ceremony in Peru on June 21^st, 2008, followed by a legal ceremony nine days later on Jupiter Island, Florida.
After relocating to America in 1975, Olivia set up residence in Malibu, California, where for 40 years she owned several properties, including a horse ranch and beach houses.
In 2009, Olivia and second husband John Easterling purchased a new $4.1 million home in Jupiter Inlet, Florida.
On June 26^th, 2012, the Australian government issued a semi-postal postage stamp to help raise funds for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre Appeal. The stamp was valued at 60¢. It was sold in panes of ten stamps for $8, with $2 going to the charity.
Her first husband, Matt Lattanzi, appears in Grease 2 (1982).
Olivia's first hit song, “I Honestly Love You”, was featured in Jaws (1975).
Olivia suffered three miscarriages during her marriage to Matt Lattanzi.
Olivia auditioned for Tootsie (1982) and Yanks (1979).
Olivia was named after screen legend Olivia de Havilland.
In 2015, the couple purchased a $5.1 million, 4,750 square foot, 12-acre horse ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley outside Santa Barbara after the sale of their Florida home for $5.1 million. It was offered for sale in 2019, but not sold, and Olivia was living there at the time of her death.
In 2019, Olivia sold her 187-acre Australian farm, which she had owned for 40 years. It sold for $4.6 million; in 1980, she had paid $622,000 for the property.
On August 8^th, 2022, Olivia Newton-John died of cancer at her Santa Ynez Valley home at the age of 73. It has made me aware of my own mortality since Olivia was one year older than myself. Chloe, who was close to her mother, and other family was present in California at the time of her death.