'Grease' Star Olivia Newton-John Dies Aged 73

File Photo: Pop star Olivia Newton-John meets fans in Los Angeles in January 2018. | AFP-JIJI
File Photo: Pop star Olivia Newton-John meets fans in Los Angeles in January 2018. | AFP-JIJI
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'Grease' Star Olivia Newton-John Dies Aged 73

File Photo: Pop star Olivia Newton-John meets fans in Los Angeles in January 2018. | AFP-JIJI
File Photo: Pop star Olivia Newton-John meets fans in Los Angeles in January 2018. | AFP-JIJI

Singer Olivia Newton-John, who gained worldwide fame as high school sweetheart Sandy in the hit musical movie "Grease," died on Monday after a 30-year battle with cancer. She was 73.

Newton-John "passed away peacefully at her ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by family and friends," said a statement from her husband John Easterling posted on her official social media accounts.

The multiple Grammy-winning entertainer, whose career spanned more than five decades, including chart-topping songs such as "Physical," devoted much of her time in later years 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 center named after her in her adopted home Melbourne.

"I don't like to say 'battled,'" a defiant Newton-John told Australia's Channel Seven TV in September 2018 after revealing she had been diagnosed with cancer for a third time.

"I like to say 'win over,' because 'battled' sets up this anger and inflammation that you don't want."

No cause of death was given in the family's statement.

- 'Sandy and Danny' -
Newton-John was best known for starring in the 1978 musical "Grease" alongside John Travolta as the-girl-next-door Sandy, who trades her ankle-length skirt and prim and proper hair for skin-tight black 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.

"Making it was fun but you never know with movies if audiences are going to go with it or not, even if you love it," she said in a Forbes interview in 2018.

"It is incredible that it is still going but it's not even just that, it's showing no signs of stopping. You say 'Sandy and Danny' and people instantly know what you're talking about."

Grease remained the highest-grossing musical for three decades, with Newton-John and Travolta maintaining a close relationship long after the film was made.

"My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better. Your impact was incredible. I love you so much," wrote Travolta, in an Instagram post Monday signed "Your Danny, your John!"

Travolta has previously said meeting and working with Newton-John "was my favorite thing about doing Grease."

There was no one else "in the universe" 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.

"If you were a young man in the 70s..., if you remember that album cover with Olivia with that blue shirt on, with those big blue eyes staring at you," Travolta recalled, in an interview to mark the film's 40 anniversary in 2018.

"Every boy's, every man's dream was: 'Oh I would love for that girl to be my girlfriend'."

Australian popstress Kylie Minogue said she had loved and looked up to Newton-John since she was a child.

"She was, and always will be, an inspiration to me in so many, many ways," the singer wrote on Twitter.

- 'Done everything' -
Born in Cambridge, England in 1948, Newton-John was the youngest of three children.

The granddaughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, she immigrated to Melbourne, Australia with her family when she was five.

A passion for music saw her perform in several Australian TV shows as a teenager, before moving to England in the 1960s where she teamed up with fellow Australian performer Pat Carroll on the UK pub and club circuit.

From the 1970s, she would go on to top international charts for decades with songs that stretched into folk, country and pop, earning four Grammys from 12 career nominations.

The 1981 hit song "Physical," which saw Newton-John don a headband and spandex amid an 80s fitness culture boom, demonstrated the dexterity of a performer able to reinvent herself amid cultural change.

Despite her multiple cancer diagnoses, she performed into her late 60s, including a two-year residency in Vegas, a 2015 tour with Australian music legend John Farnham, and even recording a Club Dance track at 67 with her daughter Chloe Lattanzi.

Her philanthropy and passion for cancer research came to the forefront, championing natural therapies including medicinal cannabis in the treatment of cancer.

"I have done everything, and the icing on the cake as well," she said, reflecting on her career.

"So I feel grateful for anything that happens now."



‘Doctor Who’ Season Finale Surprises Fans with an Exit and a Familiar Face

Ncuti Gatwa poses on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Ncuti Gatwa poses on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Doctor Who’ Season Finale Surprises Fans with an Exit and a Familiar Face

Ncuti Gatwa poses on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Ncuti Gatwa poses on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. (Reuters)

A familiar face to “Doctor Who” fans is rejoining the long-running British sci-fi series as Ncuti Gatwa exits the lead role after two seasons.

In Saturday’s season finale, Gatwa’s Time Lord regenerated and fans got a glimpse of Billie Piper, who played the character Rose Tyler for 35 episodes between 2005 and 2013. Tyler was a companion to versions of the doctor played by Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant.

Producers are keeping Piper's new role secret for now.

“Just how and why she is back remains to be seen,” the BBC said in a statement after the finale aired.

“It’s an honor and a hoot to welcome her back to the TARDIS, but quite how and why and who is a story yet to be told,” showrunner Russell T Davies said in a statement.

Piper said “Doctor Who” has provided some of her best memories and she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to come back.

“It’s no secret how much I love this show, and I have always said I would love to return ... but who, how, why and when, you’ll just have to wait and see,” she said.

If Piper does indeed become the Doctor, she would be the third woman to fill the famous shoes.

The Rwanda-born, Scotland-raised Gatwa, 29, was the first Black actor to helm the show, but he wasn’t the first Black Doctor — Jo Martin played “Fugitive Doctor” in several episodes. Gatwa took over the role from Jodie Whittaker in 2023.

Whittaker was the 13th Doctor and the first woman to play the central galaxy-hopping, extraterrestrial Time Lord who regenerates into new bodies, taking over from Peter Capaldi in 2017. Martin was the second woman.

“Doctor Who” first aired from 1963 to 1989 and returned in 2005. In the US, new episodes air on Disney+.