Kelly Preston Biography

Kelly Preston was the television and film actress whose roles in films like Jerry Maguire and Twins were sometimes overshadowed by her famous marriage to actor John Travolta.

Kelly Preston was born and raised in Hawaii, and also lived in Iraq and Australia while growing up. She began her career as a model, then moved to Los Angeles and studied acting. After small roles in Christine (1983) and 52 Pick-Up (1986), her first notable performance was in the 1988 comedy Twins, where she played Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s love interest.

She married Travolta in 1991, and then slowed her career to raise their three children: Jett (born 1992, died in 2009), Ella Bleu (b. 2000), and Benjamin (b. 2010). In the late ’90s she returned to the screen as a foxy character actor in films including Jerry Maguire (1996, playing Tom Cruise‘s tough-minded former fiancee), Addicted to Love (1997, with Matthew Broderick) and For the Love of the Game (1999, with Kevin Costner). More recently, she has appeared in the 2003 movie version of Dr. Seuss‘s The Cat in the Hat, played Amanda Byne‘s mom in What a Girl Wants (2003) and Hank Azaria‘s sister in Eulogy (2004), and appeared in the comedy Old Dogs (2009). In 2018 she starred in the crime film Gotti, playing Victoria Gotti, wife of mobster John Gotti (who was played by Travolta).

Kelly Preson died in 2020. John Travolta announced her death on Instagram, saying: “It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer. She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”