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Olivia Newton-John,
Pop Singer and ‘Grease’ Star,
Dies at 73


She began her career as an innocent purveyor of middle-of-the-road pop
but later adopted a bad-girl persona.



Olivia Newton-John starring as Sandy in the 1978 hit movie “Grease.”
She was a four-time Grammy winner, beguiling listeners with a high, supple,
vibrato-warmed voice.
Credit...CBS via Getty Images



By Jim Farber
Aug. 8, 2022
Updated 4:40 p.m. ET


Olivia Newton-John, who sang some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and ’80s while recasting her
image as the virginal girl next door into a spandex-clad vixen — a transformation reflected in
miniature by her starring role in “Grease,” one of the most popular movie musicals of its era — died
on Monday at her ranch in Southern California. She was 73.

The death was announced by her husband, John Easterling.

Ms. Newton-John amassed No. 1 hits, chart-topping albums and four records that sold more than
two million copies each. More than anything else, she was likable, even beloved.




Ms. Newton-John and John Travolta in a scene from “Grease.” It became one of the
highest grossing movie musicals ever, besting even “The Sound of Music.”
Credit...Paramount/Library of Congress, via Associated Press


In the earlier phase of her career, this English-Australian singer beguiled listeners with a high, supple,
vibrato-warmed voice that paired amiably with the kind of swooning middle-of-the-road pop that, in the
mid-1970s, often passed for country music.

Her performance on the charts made that blurring clear. She scored seven Top 10 hits on Billboard’s
Country chart, two of which became back-to-back overall No. 1 hits in 1974 and ’75. First came
“I Honestly Love You,” an earnest declaration co-written by Peter Allen and Jeff Barry, followed by
“Have You Never Been Mellow,” a feather of a song written by the producer of many of
her biggest albums, John Farrar.

“I Honestly Love You” also won two of the singer’s four Grammys, for record of the year and
best female pop vocal performance.

The combination of Ms. Newton-John’s consistently benign music — she was never a favorite of
critics — and comely but squeaky-clean image caused many writers to compare her to earlier
blond ingénues like Doris Day and Sandra Dee. “Innocent, I’m not,” Ms. Newton-John told
Rolling Stone in 1978. “People still seem to see me as the girl next door. Doris Day had four
husbands,” she said, yet she was still viewed as “the virgin.”

An entry into movies in 1978 aimed to put the singer’s chaste image behind her, starting with
“Grease.” Her character, Sandy, transformed from a pigtailed square smitten with John Travolta’s
bad-boy Danny to a gum-smacking bad girl. “Grease” became one of the highest grossing movie
musicals ever, besting even “The Sound of Music.” Its soundtrack was the second best-selling
album of the year, beaten only by the soundtrack for “Saturday Night Fever,”
which also starred Mr. Travolta.

The “Grease” soundtrack spawned two No. 1 hits, both sung by the co-stars, including the manically
lusty “You’re the One That I Want” and the doo-wop romp “Summer Nights.”
A ballad Ms. Newton-John sang alone, “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” earned the film’s lone
Oscar nomination, for best song.

Applying the evolution of her “Grease” character to her singing career, Ms. Newton-John titled
her next album “Totally Hot,” and presented herself on the cover in shoulder-to-toe leather.
The album, released at the end of 1978, went platinum, yielding the rock-oriented
“A Little More Love” with the line, “Where did my innocence go?”




Ms. Newton-John in an undated photo. In the 1980s she sought to shed her innocent image,
emerging with “Physical,” which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in Billboard’s rankings.



The album featured Ms. Newton-John singing in a somewhat more forceful voice. Though her sales
dipped as the 1970s turned into the ’80s, by early in the decade she began the most commercially
potent period in her career, peaking with the single “Physical,” which spent 10 weeks on Billboard’s
top perch. Later, the magazine declared it to be the biggest song of the 1980s.

Olivia Newton-John was born on Sept. 26, 1948, in Cambridge, England, the youngest of three children
of Brinley and Irene (Born) Newton-John. Her mother was the daughter of the Nobel Prize-winning
physicist Max Born. Her Welsh-born father had been an MI5 intelligence officer during World War II
and afterward served as headmaster at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys.

When Ms. Newton-John was 6, her family immigrated to Melbourne, Australia, where her father worked
as a college professor and administrator. At 14, she formed her first group, Sol Four, with three girls
from school. Her beauty and confidence soon earned her solo performances on local radio and TV shows
under the name “Lovely Livvy.” On “The Go!! Show” she met the singer Pat Carroll, with whom she
would form a duet, as well as her eventual producer, Mr. Farrar, who later married Ms. Carroll.

Ms. Newton-John won a local TV talent contest whose prize was a trip to Britain. While tarrying there,
she recorded her first single, “’Til You Say You’ll Be Mine,” which Decca Records released in 1966.

After Ms. Carroll moved to London, she and Ms. Newton-John formed the duet Pat and Olivia, which
toured Europe. When Ms. Carroll’s visa expired, forcing her to go back to Australia, Ms. Newton-John
stayed in London to work solo.

In 1970, she was asked to join a crudely manufactured group named Toomorrow, formed by the
American producer Don Kirshner in an attempt to repeat his earlier success with the Monkees.
Following his grand design, the group starred in a science-fiction film written for them, and recorded
its soundtrack. Both projects tanked.




Ms. Newton-John tried to expand her acting career with the 1980 musical “Xanadu,”
here in a scene with the actor Michael Beck. Its soundtrack went double platinum.
Credit...Universal/Kobal, via Shutterstock



“It was terrible and I was terrible in it,” she later told The New York Times.

Her debut solo album, “If Not for You,” was released in 1971, its title track a cover of a Bob Dylan song.

After some duds in the United States, the singer released the album “Let Me Be There” (1973), which
led to a Grammy win for best female country vocal performance.

Two key changes in pop music boosted Mr. Newton-John’s career that decade: the rise of “soft rock” in
reaction to the harder genres of the late ’60s, and the mainstreaming — some would say the
neutering — of country music, also epitomized by stars like John Denver and Anne Murray.

The latter trend became an issue in 1974, after Ms. Newton-John was chosen female vocalist of the year
by the Country Music Association over more traditional stars like Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Protests
led to the formation of the fleeting Association of Country Entertainers. Yet, after Ms. Newton-John
recorded her “Don’t Stop Believin’,” album in Nashville in 1976, the friction eased.

The second phase of her career, which began with “Grease,” found further success through a duet with
Andy Gibb, “I Can’t Help It,” followed by an attempt to expand her acting career with the 1980 musical
film “Xanadu,” with Gene Kelly. While the movie floundered, its soundtrack went double-platinum and
boasted hits like “Magic,” (which commanded Billboard’s No. 1 spot for four weeks), and the title song,
recorded with the Electric Light Orchestra.

A campy Broadway show based on the film opened in 2007 to some success.




Ms. Newton-John performing in Chile in 2017, the year she said her cancer had returned
and had metastasized.
Credit...Mario Ruiz/EPA, via Shutterstock



Ms. Newton-John’s smash “Physical” also yielded the first video album to hit the market, which featured
clips for all the album’s tracks. “Olivia Physical” won the Grammy in 1982 for video of the year.

She was paired again with Mr. Travolta in the 1983 movie “Two of a Kind” in an attempt to repeat the
success of “Grease,” but the film disappointed even as its soundtrack proved popular, especially the
song “Twist of Fate.”

Ms. Newton-John was named an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1979.

By the mid-’80s, her career had cooled. For several years, she cut back on work to care for her daughter,
Chloe Rose, by her husband, the actor Matt Lattanzi, whom she had met on the set of “Xanadu” and
married in 1984. They divorced in 1995. In 2008 she married John Easterling, the founder of the
Amazon Herb Company.

In addition to Mr. Easterling, she is survived by her daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi; her sister,
Sarah Newton-John; and her brother, Toby.

In 1992, Ms. Newton-John learned she had breast cancer and advocated for research into the disease.
She continued to release albums and tour but failed to make headway on the charts. She also acted
in movies and television.

In May of 2017, Ms. Newton-John disclosed that her cancer had returned and had metastasized to her
lower back. She published a memoir, “Don’t Stop Believin,’” in 2018.

Ms. Newton-John firmly believed in her audience-friendly approach to music. “It annoys me when
people think because it’s commercial, it’s bad,” she told Rolling Stone. “It’s completely opposite.
If people like it, that’s what it’s supposed to be.”





(26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022)