There are two John Travoltas. One is the late 1970s star who rose to the dizzy heights of worldwide fame thanks to his roles in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978). The other is the actor who was reborn from the embers of his cooling popularity thanks to Quentin Tarantino's cult mega-hit Pulp Fiction (1994). Other facets of John Travolta include his membership of the much-questioned Church of Scientology—seemingly the secret of his perseverance against all odds in his road towards permanent fame—and his early image as a dancing and singing idol.

Travolta's first taste of stardom came with his role as Tony Manero in John Badham's Saturday Night Fever. This film followed Travolta's noted appearances in the TV series Welcome Back Kotter, as high-school troublemaker Vinnie Barbarino (1975-6); the TV tearjerker, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976); and in the first adaptation of...