Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE |
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Newton-John in Sydney, 2012
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Born |
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK |
26 September 1948
Residence | Melbourne, Australia |
Occupation | Singer, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur |
Years active | 1963–present |
Spouse(s) |
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Children | Chloe Rose Lattanzi |
Musical career | |
Genres | Pop, country, soft rock, pop rock |
Instruments | Vocals |
Labels | Uni, MCA, EMI, Pye, Festival |
Website | olivianewton-john |
Olivia Newton-John, AO, OBE (born 26 September 1948) is a British-Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five number-one and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles, and two number-one Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and fourteen of her albums (including two platinum and four double platinum) have been certified gold by the RIAA. She has sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. She starred in Grease, which featured one of the most successful soundtracks in Hollywood history.
Newton-John has been a long-time activist for environmental and animal rights issues. Since surviving breast cancer in 1992, she has been an advocate for health awareness becoming involved with various charities, health products and fundraising efforts. Her business interests have included launching several product lines for Koala Blue and co-owning the Gaia Retreat & Spa in Australia.
Newton-John has been married twice. She is the mother of one daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi, with her first husband, actor Matt Lattanzi. Her second husband is John Easterling.
Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, to Irene Helene (née Born), the eldest child of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born and Welsh father, Brinley "Bryn" Newton-John. Her mother's family had left Germany before World War II to avoid the Nazi regime (Newton-John's maternal grandfather was Jewish and her maternal grandmother was of paternal Jewish ancestry). She is a third cousin of comedian Ben Elton. Her maternal great-grandfather was jurist Victor Ehrenberg and her matrilineal great-grandmother's father was jurist Rudolf von Jhering. Newton-John is the youngest of three children, following brother Hugh, a doctor, and sister Rona, an actress who was married to Grease co-star Jeff Conaway from 1980 until their divorce in 1985. Newton-John's father was an MI5 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park who took Rudolf Hess into custody during the Second World War. In 1954, when she was six, Newton-John's family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, where her father worked as a professor of German and as Master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne.