By age twelve, John knew he wanted to be an actor, having already joined an acting workshop in his hometown. He soon began appearing in local theater and began taking tap lessons from Gene Kelly"s brother Fred. Travolta admits he picked up a lot of moves from TV"s Soul Train, and he ascribes his love for dance to the fact that his high school was fifty percent black. Travolta dropped out of high school at age sixteen to pursue acting full-time. He first gained famed as Vinny Barbarino on the ABC show Welcome Back, Kotter. Travolta"s character was a boorish, mean tempered bully who eventually evolved into sweet and sexy teen idol. Travolta became the teeny-bopper idol of the hour, getting mobbed at mall appearances and recording (and actually selling) three bubble gum records, Can"t Let Go, John Travolta, and Travolta Fever, and even won a Best Male Vocalist award from Billboard. Travolta"s first appearance on the big screen was a bit part in the horror flick The Devil"s Rain, which combined with his performance in a couple of off-Broadway productions led to his casting for Kotter. His first credited big screen role was the role of Billy Nolan in the Brian De Palma thriller Carrie, in 1976. The following year Travolta got the main role as Tony Manero in the film Saturday Night Fever, which is considered to be his breakthrough role. He was nominated for an Academy Award and his character started a disco craze that had entirely too many people dressing in polyester, gold chains and fashioning their hair into duck-ass haircuts. The original white costume that Travolta wears in the movie fetched $145,500 at a Christie"s auction, to give an idea of the impact of the character on the culture of America at that time.

             After the success of Saturday Night Fever, Travolta"s career path started to take a turn for the worse. Although he made a few commercial successes (Grease, Urban Cowboy and Staying Alive, the Sylvester Stallone-directed sequel to Saturday Night Fever) he also made a few movies that were quickly forgotten (Blow Out, Two of a Kind and Perfect).