Inside Olivia Newton-John's life – Grease fame, music ban and tragic cancer battle

Olivia Newton-John, Hollywood actress and musician, has tragically died of breast cancer aged 73 years old at her ranch in California.

Throughout her life she was nominated for two Golden Globe awards and was best known for her role in 1978’s cult classic film Grease.

She also represented the UK during Eurovision back in 1974 with Long Live Love, but lost out at fourth place against ABBA with Waterloo.

READ MORE: John Travolta leads celeb tributes to Olivia Newton-John following death aged 73

In light of her recent passing, take a look back at some of the highs and lows of Olivia’s career.

Grease Fame

Sandy projected Olivia to stardom and her global music sales reached a whopping 100million, making her one of the most successful artists in the modern era.

Olivia was a four time Grammy Award winner and following her role in Grease, she landed five number one singles with another 10 Top Tens that followed.

You’re The One That I Want featuring John Travolta is one of the best selling singles of all time and Physical was Billboard Top 100s single of the 1980s.

Lawsuits

Back in June 2006, the star’s company ON-J Productions Ltd filed for a lawsuit against Universal Music Group.

The lawsuit was made for $1m (£828k) in unpaid royalties which should have been obtained by Newton-John after the Grease soundtrack was released.

A year later in 2007, it was made public that Olivia and UMG had reached a decision and landed on a “conditional settlement”.

She had also had a previous run-in with MCA after she entered a two year, four album deal.

However, Newton-John’s fourth album was released late which led them to extend her contract, so she filed a $10m (£8.3m) lawsuit against them while MCA’s counter asked for $1m (£828k) in damages.

Olivia was banned from working with another service until her five year contract was complete and as a result, companies now change contracts based on albums recorded.

Cancer and activism

Olivia was diagnosed with breast cancer in the early 1990s and shortly after she had to cancel publicity for her newly released album Back To Basics: The Essential Collection.

The actress sadly also received her diagnosis on the same weekend that her father passed away.

She started the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund and spent her life raising awareness of the disease, along with her other activism ventures.

Olivia loved to give back and her charitable streak was present throughout her entire life, often dedicating time and money to those in need in an attempt to raise awareness of certain issues.

She held a concert tour of Japan in 1985 in protest of dolphin fishing, performed at a UNICEF concert and was appointed as ambassador of the UN’s Environment Programme.

Tragic death

After Olivia’s long battle with the disease, her death was announced on her social media profiles by her husband John Easterling.

He told her dedicated fans that she “passed away peacefully” at her ranch in California.

Her heartbroken spouse also wrote: “Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years, sharing her journey with breast cancer,” and told fans that her “healing inspiration and pioneering experience” in the plant medicine field will continue through her foundation.

Many celebrities took to their social media profiles to pay their respects along with her co-star John Travolta, who played Danny Zuko in Grease.

Her former on-screen love interest wrote: “My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better. Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”

READ MORE:

For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here .

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk