John Travolta: a career in pictures

As BFI Southbank welcomes John Travolta to the stage to discuss his new film Killing Season, take a look back through some of his most memorable appearances.

Travolta shot to stardom as disco dancer Tony Manero in the 1977 smash hit Saturday Night Fever
He was box-office gold again the following year opposite Olivia Newton-John in the teen musical Grease (1978)
Travolta as greaser Danny Zuko in Grease (1978)
He plays a film sound man out of his depth in intrigue in Brian De Palma’s 1981 thriller Blow Out
Travolta made a late-80s comeback with the talking-baby family comedy Look Who’s Talking (1989)
Quentin Tarantino engineered another comeback for Travolta in his 1994 cult classic Pulp Fiction
Tarantino found excuse to get Travolta dancing again, as the former Saturday Night Fever star takes to the tiles on a night out with Uma Thurman’s gangster’s moll Mia Wallace
In Nora Ephron’s romantic comedy Michael (1996), Travolta plays an angel sent to earth to mend broken hearts
Travolta played opposite Nicolas Cage on different sides of the law in John Woo’s high-octane action thriller Face-Off (1997)
He starred as bad guy Gabriel opposite Hugh Jackson and Halle Berry in the 2001 hacker thriller Swordfish
In his latest film, Killing Season (2013), Travolta plays a former Serbian soldier facing off against Robert De Niro in the wilderness
BFI Player logo

See something different

Free for 14 days, then £6.99/month or £65/year.

Get 14 days free