Olivia Newton-John Biography |
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Olivia Newton-John AO OBE (born 26 September 1948) is a Grammy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated English-born Australian pop singer, songwriter and actress. Her highly acclaimed vocal, musical, and acting talents have made her a globally recognized name. She is also a small business entrepreneur, as well as an avid activist in both environmental issues and breast cancer awareness.
Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England. Her parents were Brinley Newton-John and Irene Born (b. 25 May 1914). Irene was the eldest child of Max Born, a Lutheran German Nobel prize-winning physicist, who had fled from Germany with his wife in the 1930s in order to avoid persecution due to his and his wife`s part Jewish heritage. Olivia`s father, the Cardiff-born son of a publican, was an MI5 officer attached to the Enigma machine project at Bletchley Park, and the officer who took Rudolf Hess into custody when he parachuted into Scotland in May 1941. After World War II, he became a professor of German at the UNSW annex at Tighes Hill in Newcastle, Australia. In 1954, aged five, Newton-John, her parents Brin and Irene, and her older siblings Hugh and Rona, emigrated to Melbourne, Australia,[2] where her father had taken a job at Melbourne University as the Master of Ormond College. Early career At 14, Newton-John formed a short-lived all-girl band, Sol Four, with three classmates. She soon became a regular on local Australian radio and television shows including HSV-7`s The Happy Show where she performed as Lovely Livvy. She also appeared on the Go Show where she met her lifelong friends, Pat Carroll and John Farrar. (Carroll and Farrar eventually married.) She entered a talent contest on the television program Sing, Sing, Sing, hosted by 1960s Australian icon Johnny O`Keefe, performing the songs "Anyone Who Had A Heart" and "Everything`s Coming Up Roses". She won the contest and received a trip to England as the prize. Initially, she was reluctant to go, but her mother encouraged her to broaden her horizons. Newton-John was homesick in England as she missed Australia and her then boyfriend, Ian Turpie with whom she co-starred in an independently produced Australian telefilm Funny Things Happen Down Under. This changed when friend Pat Carroll also moved to England. The two formed a duo and toured nightclubs in Europe until Carroll`s visa expired forcing her to return to Australia. Newton-John remained in England to pursue solo work. Newton-John recorded her first single, "Till You Say You`ll Be Mine" b/w "Forever," for England`s Decca Records in 1966. Newton-John was recruited for the group, "Toomorrow" — the brainchild of American producer Don Kirshner, creator of The Monkees. The group recorded an album and starred in a "science fiction musical" both named after the group released in 1970. The project failed and the group was quickly disbanded. |
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BiographyFriends and FamilyHugh [Brother] :: Rona Newton - John [Sister] :: Irene Born [Mother] (Max Born daugher) :: Brin Newton- John [Father] | ||
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