You’re the gong that I want
Grease star who won us all over as sexy Sandy – then made her mark as a cancer campaigner – is a Dame
IT is more than 40 years since she sang You’re The One That I Want with John Travolta in the hit film musical Grease.
Now Olivia Newton- John has been recognised in today’s New Year’s Honours by being made a dame.
The 71-year-old heads a list of showbusiness figures to be honoured by the Queen that includes filmmakers Sam Mendes and Steve McQueen, actress Wendy Craig, TV presenter Floella Benjamin, Queen drummer Roger Taylor and singer Billy Ocean.
Speaking about her award for services to charity and entertainment, Dame Olivia said she was ‘grateful beyond words’.
The singer, who was born in Cambridge but has spent most of her life in Australia, said the honour had filled her with pride in her British roots.
‘I am extremely excited, honoured and grateful beyond words to be included with such an esteemed group of women who have received this distinguished award before me. I am very proud of my British ancestry and so appreciative to be recognised in this way.’
Dame Olivia, the granddaughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, moved to Australia when she was six after her father Wilfred, a former MI5 officer who worked on the Enigma project, became a professor at the University of Melbourne.
She rose to fame as a singer in the 1970s, launching her career in the UK and representing Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest. She had three UK No 1 singles and sold more than 100million albums.
But the pinnacle of her career came in 1978 when she starred as Sandy opposite Travolta in Grease, one of the most successful films ever.
Dame Olivia has dedicated much of her life to cancer awareness – she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, resulting a partial mastectomy and chemotherapy.
The illness returned in 2013, when she underwent a second round of treatment, and in 2017.
James Bond director Sam Mendes is knighted, as is London- born Steve McQueen, the first black filmmaker to win a best picture Oscar.
Sir Sam, 54, who has directed two of Daniel Craig’s 007 films and won an Oscar for American Beauty, said yesterday: ‘ I’m amazed, delighted and extremely proud.
‘I have stood on the shoulders of so many collaborators and colleagues over the last 30 years – actors, writers, designers, producers, technicians – to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude.’
McQueen, 50, won the best picture Academy Award for his 2013 movie 12 Years A Slave.
Wendy Craig, 85, who starred in the sitcoms Butterflies and Not In Front Of The Children, is made a CBE, as is East-Enders star Rudolph Walker, 80.
Queen drummer Roger Taylor, 70, becomes an OBE and soul singer Billy Ocean, 69, is made an MBE. Days after the death of his father, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody, 43, receives an OBE for services to music and charity.
TV presenter Gabby Logan, 46, is awarded an MBE for promoting women in sport and broadcasting. Lib Dem peer Floella Benjamin, 70, host of children’s shows Play School and Play Away, has been made a dame for services to charity.
Another former Play Away presenter, actor Derek Griffiths – who most recently played Freddie Smith in Coronation Street – gets an MBE for services to drama and diversity.
Radio 1’s longest- serving presenter, Annie Nightingale, 79, receives a CBE, while novelist Rose Tremain, 76, is made a dame.
Giles Terera, 43, who won an Olivier Award for playing Aaron Burr in the hit West End musical Hamilton, is made an MBE for services to theatre.
There is an MBE for Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 20, the cellist who played at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding last year.
Ibrahim Yousaf, at 13 the youngest person on the list, is awarded a British Empire Medal for raising thousands of pounds for his community in Oldham.
Officials hailed this year’s list for its diversity, with women receiving more than half of the awards and 44 per cent of the higher honours. Some 9.1 per cent of recipients are from a black and minority ethnic background. The Government has made the awards more representative of society following years of rows about cronyism.
‘Amazed, delighted and extremely proud’