John Travolta delivers emotional tribute to Olivia Newton-John at 2023 Oscars
Written by worldOneFm on March 13, 2023
John Travolta choked up as he delivered a tribute to his late Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John at the Oscars on Sunday.
The actor took to the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to introduce Lenny Kravitz’s In Memoriam performance and pay tribute to film industry personnel who have died in the past year.
“In this industry, we have the rare luxury of getting to do what we love for a living and sometimes getting to do it with people that we come to love. Since tonight is a celebration of the work and the accomplishments of our community in this past year, it is only fitting then that we celebrate the lives of those we lost,” he began.
As he geared up to make a special reference to Newton-John, who passed away in August 2022 at the age of 73, Travolta’s voice cracked and he became visibly emotional.
“Through their immeasurable contributions, each of them left an individual and indelible mark that shared and informed us. They’ve touched our hearts. They’ve made us smile and became dear friends who we will always remain hopelessly devoted to,” he said, to cheers from the audience, before introducing Kravitz.
Newton-John famously sang Hopelessly Devoted To You in their 1978 movie musical Grease. The Australian actress was the first to appear onscreen as Kravitz sang his song, Calling All Angels, at the piano.
The In Memoriam segment also featured visual tributes to Ray Liotta, Louise Fletcher, Robbie Coltrane, Irene Cara, Nichelle Nichols, Burt Bacharach, Angela Lansbury, Gina Lollobrigida, James Caan, Raquel Welch and Travolta’s Look Who’s Talking co-star Kirstie Alley, among others.
Twitter users subsequently called out the Academy for missing the likes of Anne Heche, Tom Sizemore and Charlbi Dean from the tribute.
