Olivia Newton-John

Her mother was born and raised in Germany to a German Jewish academic family who came to the UK in 1933 to escape the Nazi regime.

Newton-John's maternal grandfather was German Jewish Nobel Prize–winning physicist Max Born.

Her maternal grandmother Hedwig was the daughter of German Jewish jurist Victor Ehrenberg, and of his Lutheran wife, Helene Agatha von Jhering.

Through Helene Agatha, Newton-John was a descendant of Protestant theologian Martin Luther.

Helene Agatha's own father, Newton-John's great-great-grandfather, was jurist Rudolf von Jhering.

Newton-John's uncle was pharmacologist Gustav Victor Rudolf Born.

Through her Ehrenberg line, Newton-John was a third cousin of comedian Ben Elton.

Newton-John's father was an MI5 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park who took Rudolf Hess into custody during World War II.

After the war, he became the headmaster of the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys and was in this post when Newton-John was born.

Newton-John was the youngest of three children, following her brother Hugh (1939–2019), a medical doctor, and her sister Rona (1941–2013), an actress who was married to restaurateur Brian Goldsmith and was later married to Newton-John's Grease co-star Jeff Conaway (from 1980 until their divorce in 1985).

She also had a half-brother, Toby, and a half-sister, Sarah, both of whom were born of her father's second marriage.

Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was an English and Australian singer and actress.

Olivia Newton-John was born on 26 September 1948 in Cambridge, to Brinley "Bryn" Newton-John (1914–1992) and Irene Helene (née Born; 1914–2003).

Her father was born and raised in Wales to a middle-class family.

In early 1954, when Newton-John was five, her family emigrated to Melbourne, Victoria, on the SS Strathaird.

Her father worked as a professor of German and as the master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne.

Her family attended church while her father served as the head of the Presbyterian college.

Newton-John attended Christ Church Grammar School in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra and then the University High School in Parkville.

Newton-John Went to primary school with Daryl Braithwaite, who also followed a singing career.

At age 14, with three classmates, Newton-John formed a short-lived, all-girl group called Sol Four which often performed at a coffee shop owned by her brother-in-law.

Newton-John originally wanted to become a veterinarian but then chose to focus on performance after doubting her ability to pass science exams.

In 1964, Newton-John's acting talent was first recognised portraying Lady Mary Lasenby in her University High School's production of The Admirable Crichton as she became the Young Sun's Drama Award best schoolgirl actress runner-up.

She then became a regular on local Australian television shows, including Time for Terry and HSV-7's The Happy Show, where she performed as "Lovely Livvy".

She also appeared on The Go!! Show, where she met her future duet partner, singer Pat Carroll, and her future music producer, John Farrar.

(Carroll and Farrar later married.)

In 1965, she entered and won a talent contest on the television program Sing, Sing, Sing, hosted by 1960s Australian icon Johnny O'Keefe.

She performed the songs "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses".

She was initially reluctant to use her prize, a trip to Great Britain, but travelled there nearly a year later after her mother encouraged her to broaden her horizons.

While in Britain, Newton-John missed her then-boyfriend, Ian Turpie, with whom she had co-starred in the 1965 Australian telefilm Funny Things Happen Down Under.

She repeatedly booked trips back to Australia that her mother cancelled.

Other defining hit singles include "If Not for You" and "Banks of the Ohio" (both 1971), "Let Me Be There" (1973), "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" (1974), "Have You Never Been Mellow" (1975), "Sam" (1977), "Hopelessly Devoted to You" (1978; also from Grease), "A Little More Love" (1978), "Twist of Fate" (1983) and, from the 1980 film Xanadu, "Magic" and "Xanadu" (with the Electric Light Orchestra).

With global sales of more than 100 million records, Newton-John established herself as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as one of the highest-selling female Australian artists.

Newton-John, who battled breast cancer three times, was an advocate and sponsor for breast cancer research.

She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included fifteen top-ten singles, including five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200: If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974) and Have You Never Been Mellow (1975).

Eleven of her singles (including two Platinum) and fourteen of her albums (including two Platinum and four 2× Platinum) have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Her signature solo recordings include the Record of the Year Grammy winner "I Honestly Love You" (1974) and "Physical" (1981)—Billboard's highest-ranking Hot 100 single of the 1980s.

In 1978, Newton-John starred in the musical film Grease, which was the highest-grossing musical film at the time and whose soundtrack remains one of the world's best-selling albums.

It features two major hit duets with co-star John Travolta: "You're the One That I Want"—which is one of the best-selling singles of all time—and "Summer Nights".

In 2012, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre opened in her home town of Melbourne.

She also was an activist for environmental and animal rights causes.