AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) โ Singer Olivia Newton-John, who gained worldwide fame as the high school sweetheart Sandy in the hit movie โGreaseโ, died on Monday after a 30-year battle with cancer. She was 73.
Newton-John โpassed away peacefully at her ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by family and friends,โ said a statement from her husband John Easterling posted on her official social media accounts.
The entertainer, whose career spanned more than five decades, devoted much of her time and celebrity to charities after first being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992.
The British-born and Australian-raised star dedicated a number of albums and concerts to raise funds for research and early detection of the disease, including the construction of a health centre named after her in her adopted home Melbourne.ย
โI donโt like to say โbattledโ,โ a defiant Newton-John told Australiaโs Channel Seven TV in September 2018 after revealing she had been diagnosed with cancer for a third time.ย
โI like to say โwin overโ, because โbattledโ sets up this anger and inflammation that you donโt want.โ
โYouโre the one that I wantโ
Newton-John is best-known for starring in the 1978 musical โGreaseโ alongside John Travolta, as the-girl-next-door Sandy, who trades her ankle-length skirt and prim and proper hair for skin-tight blackย pants and a perm.
The high school sweetheart-turned-bad girl resonated with audiences worldwide, and continues to capture hearts decades after the movie was released.ย
โMaking it was fun but you never know with movies if audiences are going to go with it or not, even if you love it,โ she said in a Forbes interview in 2018.ย
โIt is incredible that it is still going but itโs not even just that, itโs showing no signs of stopping. You say โSandy andย Dannyโ and people instantly know what youโre talking about.โ
Grease remained the highest-grossing musical for three decades, with Newton-John and Travolta maintaining a close relationship long after the film was made.
โShe was my favourite thing about doing Grease,โ Travolta said in an interview to mark the filmโs 40 anniversary in 2018.
There was no one else โin the universeโ who could play Sandy, he said of Newton-John, who turned 29 during the making of Grease and later revealed she had to be convinced by Travolta to take up the role after self-doubts that she was too old to play a teenager.ย
โIf you were a young man in the 70sโฆ, if you remember that album cover withย Olivia with that blue shirt on, with those big blue eyes staring at you,โ Travolta recalled.ย
โEvery boyโs, every manโs dream was: โoh I would love for that girl to be my girlfriendโ.โ
Her career would span from singer and actor, to author and philanthropist in the coming decades, with her passion for cancer research at the forefront, championing natural therapies, including medicinal cannabis in the treatment of cancer.
She performed into her late 60s, until her latest diagnosis, including a two-year residency in Vegas, a 2015 tour with Australian music legend John Farnham and even recording a Clubย Dance track at 67 with her daughter Chloe Lattanzi.
โI have done everything, and the icing on the cake as well,โ she said, reflecting on her career.ย
โSo I feel grateful for anything that happens now.โ