Kelly Preston Biography
Summary
"Kelly Kamalelehua Palzis Preston-Travolta" (born October 13, 1962) is an American model and actress best known for being the wife of actor John Travolta since 1991.
Early life
Preston was born "Kelly Kamalelehua Smith" in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Linda, was an administrator of a mental health center, and her father, who worked for an agricultural firm, drowned when Preston was three years old. Preston's adoptive father was Peter Palzis, a personnel director, and her step-father was Lee Carlson. She spent time living in Iraq and Australia as a result of her biological father's work when she was a child. While living in Australia, she attended Pembroke School in Adelaide.
Career
She began her modeling career as a teenager. At sixteen, she was discovered by a fashion photographer who helped her get acting work in commercials and other small parts, which eventually developed into a successful movie career. She is a spokesperson for Neutrogena and appears in print and television ads.
She was featured in the chart-topping Maroon 5 music video, 'She Will Be Loved' in 2004. The video features a love triangle and romantic scenes between Preston and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine.
Personal life
Marriage & family
Her former boyfriends include George Clooney and Charlie Sheen. After living with Sheen for one year (and receiving a very large diamond ring from him), she ended the relationship in 1990 shortly after an incident in which Sheen accidentally shot her in the arm. She was married to Kevin Gage from 1986 to 1988.
She is currently married to John Travolta. They have a son, Jett Travolta (b. April 13, 1992), and a daughter, Ella Blue Travolta (b. April 3, 2000). Travolta married Kelly Preston twice. Their first wedding (September 5, 1991) was performed by a French Scientologist minister, but it was later declared legally invalid. They married again within the month. Both Preston and Travolta are Scientologists, and Preston appeared in the film "Battlefield Earth" (produced by Travolta, based on the novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard).
Health research
Recently, she has taken up the issue of overmedication and children. Preston has advocated that schools are forcing or pressuring students and their families to medicate them for ADD unnecessarily. She has testified before the Florida state legislature encouraging the passage of a bill to ban such practice. A federal law to that effect became law in July 2005, though only schools receiving federal funding are subject to its terms.
She also devotes much of her time as a board member of the Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC), a non-profit organization dedicated to educating parents about environmental toxins and potential health hazards for children with illnesses. She joined after their son Jett was diagnosed with Kawasaki syndrome, an illness that she suggests affects children and results in severe allergies and asthma attacks.
Filmography
"10 to Midnight" (1983)
"Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn" (1983)
"Christine" (1983)
"Mischief" (1985)
"Secret Admirer" (1985)
"SpaceCamp" (1986)
"52 Pick-Up" (1986)
"Amazon Women on the Moon" (1987)
"A Tiger's Tale" (1988)
"Love at Stake" (1988)
"Spellbinder" (1988)
"Twins" (1988)
"The Experts" (1989)
"Run" (1991)
"The Perfect Bride" (1991) (TV)
"Only You" (1992)
"The American Clock" (1993) (TV)
"Cheyenne Warrior" (1994) (direct-to-video)
"Love Is a Gun" (1994)
"Double Cross" (1994)
"Mrs. Munck" (1995)
"Little Surprises" (1995) (TV)
"Waiting to Exhale" (1995)
"Citizen Ruth" (1996)
"From Dusk Till Dawn" (1996)
"Curdled" (1996)
"Jerry Maguire" (1996)
"Addicted to Love" (1997)
"Nothing to Lose" (1997)
"Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's" (1997) (documentary)
"Holy Man" (1998)
"Junket Whore" (1998) (documentary)
"Jack Frost" (1998)
"For Love of the Game" (1999)
"Battlefield Earth" (2000)
"Welcome to Hollywood" (2000) (documentary)
"Daddy and Them" (2001)
"View from the Top" (2003)
"What a Girl Wants" (2003)
"The Cat in the Hat" (2003)
"Eulogy" (2004)
"Return to Sender" (2004) aka Convicted (US video title)
"Sky High" (2005)
"Broken Bridges" (2006)
"Death Sentence" (2007)
Upcoming:
"The Possibility of Fireflies" (2008)
"Old Dogs" (2008)
External links
(Official Kelly Preston homepage)
(Children's Health Environmental Coalition)
(Kelly Preston in Denmark interview (Danish and English))
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Kelly Preston.
