#Kelly Preston was more than John Travolta’s loyal wife: her most iconic roles
“#Kelly Preston was more than John Travolta’s loyal wife: her most iconic roles”
But the 57-year-old mother-of-three had a prolific and decades-long acting career of her own — which saw her appear in more than 70 movies and TV shows alongside Hollywood greats such as Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Twins,” Kevin Costner in “For Love of the Game” and Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire.”
Born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 13, 1962, Preston began her foray into show business at the age of 20 when she was cast as a troubled teen on CBS’s daytime soap opera “Capitol” in 1982 while still going by the moniker Kelly Palzis, which is her adoptive father’s last name.
Preston took the name after her birth father drowned when she was three-years-old and her mother, Linda, remarried Peter Palzis.
After living in Iraq, Preston and her family moved to Australia where she was discovered at 16 by a fashion photographer, which led to modeling gigs and commercials. Little did she know, the talented teen had also already come neck-and-neck with another future Hollywood heavyweight, Brooke Shields, while auditioning for the part of Emmeline in the 1980 hit “The Blue Lagoon.”
After returning to the US, Preston finished high school in Hawaii and wound up studying acting at the University of Southern California, however, she later dropped out.
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Preston made her film debut in the 1983 thriller “10 to Midnight” starring Charles Bronson, in which she played a college student. She followed that up with a scene-stealing role in John Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s hot-rod thriller “Christine” the same year.
Soon after, Preston went on to land a string of teen rom-com roles including her first prominent gig as Marilyn McCauley, the romantic love interest in 1985’s “Mischief,” then starring as Deborah Anne Fimple, a gorgeous but dim-witted teen in “Secret Admirer” alongside Lori Loughlin, followed by “SpaceCamp” in 1986 playing a ditzy girl with a photographic memory named Tish.
By 1988, she was showing off her underrated comedy chops in Ivan Reitman’s “Twins” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Preston then met Travolta while filming 1988’s “The Experts,” but only after dating a queue of A-list celebrities, including Charlie Sheen (who accidentally shot her in the arm in 1990) and George Clooney.
The two married at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris on Sept. 5, 1991 during a ceremony officiated by a French Scientology minister. To this day, the pair are considered one of Scientology’s most famous members.
In 1996, Preston landed what widely recognized as her most notable role as Avery Bishop in “Jerry Maguire,” starring Tom Cruise and directed by Cameron Crowe.
In a particularly iconic scene, Preston, who plays Cruise’s girlfriend in the film, punches Cruise in the face three times.
She went on to appear in other recognizable movies in the late 90’s and early 2000’s such as “Nothing to Lose,” “Jack Frost” and as the girlfriend of Travolta’s character “Terl” in “Battlefield Earth.”
Throughout the 2000’s she starred in the films such as “The Cat in the Hat” (2003), “What a Girl Wants” (2003), “Broken Bridges” (2006) and “Old Dogs” (2009) and nabbed several bit parts in TV shows such as “Joey” starring Matt LeBlanc, “Medium” and “CSI: Cyber.”
Leading up to her battle with breast cancer, Preston collaborated again with her husband in 2018 while acting in “Gotti,” based on the life of Gambino mob boss John Gotti, played by Travolta. Preston played his wife, Victoria Gotti.
“We have the friendship and we have the rapport, so you can see the intimacy,” Preston told ET of her experience acting with her husband in the film. “I looked at him and the way he looked at me was so completely… I felt like I was in John Gotti’s arms. It sent chills.”
She added, “For us to be in a movie where we’re playing other people is so much fun, and that’s what we kind of live for — to have that creative experience together,” Travolta, 66, added.
The broken up husband posted a tribute to his wife early Monday on Instagram announcing that “my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer. She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”
The mother left behind 20-year-old daughter Ella and 9-year-old son Benjamin. Preston and Travolta had another son, Jett, who in 2009 died of a seizure at the age of 16 during a family vacation in the Bahamas.
Just before her death, Preston had starred opposite Judi Dench in the movie “Off the Rails” about four friends recreating an inter-rail journey across Europe, which is currently in post-production, according to IMDB.
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