He was one of the most famous stars of the 80s, who surprised the audience not only with his acting but also with his dancing

As a youth, he had a deep interest for flying, but he surprised both himself and others by pursuing a completely different career path.

He talked on the significance of his wife to him and grieved her passing twenty-eight years after they were married.

After a great deal of tragedy, he is content with his kids and his life right now.

The father of this young kid was a tire shop owner and semi-professional football player who grew up in New Jersey. The young man, however, had little interest in pursuing either as a career.

Rather, he had assumed he would work at the airport as a ticket agent or luggage handler, having developed an interest in the field when his high school offered an aviation program. He did not, however, wind up in the aircraft industry.

He now acknowledges that he has never been patient, claiming that he lacked patience as a youngster, a teenager, and an adult. He revealed:

“Tell me to do something else if I hit 25 and I’m not making a mark in this business,” was my type of man.

The young man chose to try acting, much like his mother had done, rather than following in his father’s footsteps or continuing his love of aviation, which he had discovered at the age of fifteen.

Travolta John Grieving Kelly Preston
The young guy in question is John Travolta, who made his Hollywood debut at the age of eighteen. Throughout his career, he starred in numerous hit films, including “Grease,” “Look Who’s Talking,” and “Saturday Night Fever.”

John Travolta and Kelly Preston at the New York Friars Club dinner honoring them as "Man and Woman of the Year" in 1997 | Source: Getty Images

He met Kelly Preston, a fellow actor, during a screen test for a show called “The Experts,” and the two married during his career. Preston disclosed that she was unfaithful to her spouse during the time.

Preston and Travolta first crossed paths in 1989, and by 1991, Travolta had proposed to Preston. Nine months after Travolta’s proposal, the pair tied the knot and enjoyed a blissful 28-year marriage.

Sadly, Preston’s breast cancer death in 2020 marked the end of their love tale. Travolta, who was heartbroken by the passing, gave fans some advice and said:

“Letting someone experience their grief and not adding to it with your own is the most crucial thing you can do to support them during their time of mourning.”

He claimed that he was feeling constricted by the grief of others over his wife’s death and believed that it was imperative to find a private place to grieve.

These days, Travolta is all about making his kids’ lives better and being there for them as much as he can while they adjust to life without their mother. It is a loving parent he is.

How Does Travolta’s Life Currently Stand?
Two years after his wife’s death, Travolta spent Father’s Day with his kids this year. He posted a picture of himself on Facebook with his son, daughter, and dog curled up on the couch. He continued by wishing a happy Father’s Day to all of the “dedicated fathers.”

His admirers showered him with love and support in the comments, praising him as a fantastic father and expressing how nice it is to see him with his kids.

Travolta and Preston raised a lovely family, but they also suffered a great loss when their son passed away while on vacation in the Bahamas. Travolta is a fantastic parent to his two children right now, despite the sadness he has experienced throughout his life.

From Dancing Queen to Mystery: What Made Cynthia Rhodes Leave the Spotlight

When Cynthia Rhodes wasn’t “Staying Alive” on the dance floor with John Travolta, she was “Dirty Dancing” with Patrick Swayze.

Rhodes, who will turn 67 in November 2023, had a great career with famous dance movies from the 1980s. However, she chose to step away from the spotlight at the height of her fame.

Keep reading to find out why this talented actress, singer, and dancer retired so early!

Cynthia Rhodes was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She started her acting career with a small role in the 1980 musical fantasy film **Xanadu**, which starred the late Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly.

Her role as Tina Tech, a dancer in the 1983 film **Flashdance**, led to a bigger part later that year as John Travolta’s love interest in **Staying Alive**, the sequel to **Saturday Night Fever**, directed by Sylvester Stallone.

In 1987, she played her most famous role as Penny Johnson, a dance instructor at a resort hotel in **Dirty Dancing**.

In her role as Penny, Cynthia Rhodes shows off her amazing dance skills with graceful and flashy Mambo moves alongside the late Patrick Swayze. She also shares some very emotional and heartbreaking scenes with him.

Rhodes described her character Penny as having an “edge.” Penny both charmed and shocked viewers as she dealt with a difficult storyline involving a botched illegal abortion.

The film includes a socially relevant subplot about reproductive rights, with Rhodes at the center of it all. This helped position the three lead characters—Swayze as Johnny, Jennifer Grey as Baby, and Rhodes as Penny—for stardom.

“She’s from South Philly and she’s had a rough life,” Rhodes said about her character. “She’s got a sweetness about her, but it’s hidden because she’s been through a lot, and she has sort of put up a wall.” Rhodes added, “In the end, I think she finally realizes that life does go on.”

Life went on for Cynthia Rhodes, but not in the way her fans hoped.

After training for ten hours a day to prepare for her role as Penny, Rhodes found dancing to be “really hard.” She shared, “That’s why I keep saying I’m never going to dance again. I’m tired of dancing. My bones are hurting, and my back hurts all the time.” She added, “Every time I say, ‘That’s it, I don’t want to dance anymore,’ I get another film. I’m not going to turn down work! I feel very fortunate to be in films that involve dancing. But I just want a chance to do some dramatic work without dancing. Just give me a straight acting part.”

In the same year that *Dirty Dancing* was released, the 31-year-old Rhodes, who had many role options and admirers, appeared in the music video for “Don’t Mean Nothing” by Richard Marx. He is also known for the song “Right Here Waiting,” which was famously written for Rhodes in 1989.

In 1989, Rhodes married the Grammy Award-winning singer Richard Marx, and the couple welcomed their first child, Brandon, in 1990. They later had two more sons, Lucas in 1992 and Jesse in 1994.

According to Marx, Rhodes, who had previously trained for the Olympics, decided to retire in 1990 to focus on raising their children. He mentioned that this choice was also due to the “intense physical pain” her dance moves caused her.

“I thought, ‘This won’t last; she’s definitely going to want to come back to work and do films.’ But she found fulfillment in being a mom that completely overshadowed any desire she had to make movies,” Marx, now 59, explained. “Even if you’re her biggest fan, as good as you think she was as a dancer, singer, or actress, you should see her as a mom.”

Getty Images

Rhodes, who began dancing at just three years old, found that she was much happier being a mom and giving her body the rest it needed.

“The thing was, I used to never be sore. In fact, I was a gymnast. Now it’s frustrating… I never used to stretch, but now I have to stretch before I dance. I love to dance, but if I never did it again, I wouldn’t be sorry,” Rhodes said.

Since then, she hasn’t looked back. The last time she appeared on screen was in the 1991 film *Curse of the Crystal Eye.*

The former Hollywood starlet divorced Marx in 2014, and he married MTV’s first Latina host, Daisy Fuentes, the following year.

As for her sons, all three are following in the footsteps of their famous parents. Brandon is now a music producer and singer, while Lucas has made a name for himself as a singer and actor, appearing in TV series like *The Chicago Code*, *The Mob Doctor*, *Chicago P.D.*, and *Parenthood*. The youngest son, Jesse, has joined a metal band and is working on his own music.

Dancing requires a high level of athleticism, so while we miss seeing Cynthia Rhodes, we completely understand why she chose to leave Hollywood.

What are your favorite films featuring her?

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