TEARS FOR KELLY
Travolta’s wife dies at only 57
Kelly Preston, who starred in “Jerry Maguire” and was married to fellow film star John Travolta, died of breast cancer Sunday, her husband said. She was 57.
“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,” Travolta wrote on Instagram Monday.
“She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many. Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered.”
The couple, who wed in 1991, have two children, 20-year-old daughter Ella and 9-year-old son Benjamin.
Preston and Travolta had another son, Jett, who died of a seizure at the age of 16 during a 2009 family vacation in the Bahamas.
“I have never met anyone as courageous, strong, beautiful and loving as you,” Ella wrote of her mom on Instagram.
“Anyone who is lucky enough to have known you or to have ever been in your presence will agree that you have a glow and a light that never ceases to shine and that makes anyone around you feel instantly happy. Thank you for being there for me no matter what.”
Born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Oct. 13, 1962, Preston entered show business at the age of 20 when she was cast as a troubled teen on the CBS daytime soap opera “Capitol.” She was billed as Kelly Palzis in the 1982 gig, her adoptive father’s last name.
As a result of Peter Palzis’ agricultural firm’s work, she spent her childhood years in Iraq before the family moved to Australia and she was discovered by a fashion model at 16. That led to modeling gigs and commercials, as well as losing an audition for the 1980 hit film “Blue Lagoon” to fellow future star Brooke Shields.
Soon after, Kelly took the last name Preston.
Her feature-film debut came in the 1983 thriller “10 to Midnight,” starring Charles Bronson, in which she played a college student. She followed that up with a scene-stealing role in John Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s thriller “Christine.”
Preston went on to land a string of teen rom-com roles, including her first prominent gig, as Marilyn McCauley, the romantic interest in 1985’s “Mischief,” then starring as Deborah Anne Fimple, a gorgeous but dimwitted teen in “Secret Admirer” alongside Lori Loughlin. That was followed by “SpaceCamp” in 1986, in which where she played Tish, a ditzy girl with a photographic memory.
By 1988, she was showing off her comedy chops in Ivan Reitman’s “Twins,” alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.
She met Travolta while they were filming the 1989 thriller “The Experts.” The two married at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris on Sept. 5, 1991, in a ceremony officiated by a French Scientology minister.
To this day, the couple are considered two of Scientology’s most famous members.
In 1996, Preston landed a careerhighlight role in the Oscar-winning romantic comedy “Jerry Maguire” — as the soon-to-be ex-fiancée of Tom Cruise’s titular sports agent.
In a particularly memorable scene as their relationship falls apart, she punches Cruise in the face three times.
Preston went on to co-star in the 1998 holiday hit “Jack Frost” and acted again with Travolta two years later, as the girlfriend of his aliencommander character, Terl, in the sci-fi flick “Battlefield Earth,” based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
In the 2000s, she starred in “The Cat in the Hat” (2003), “What a Girl Wants” (2003), “Broken Bridges” (2006) and “Old Dogs” (2009), and nabbed several bit parts in TV shows such as “Friends” spinoff “Joey” and “CSI: Cyber.”
Leading up to her battle with cancer, Preston collaborated once more with her husband, in 2018’s “Gotti,” his long-in-the-works biopic of Gambino mob boss John Gotti. She played his wife, Victoria Gotti. “We have the friendship and we have the rapport, so you can see the intimacy,” she told “Entertainment Tonight” of acting with her husband in the film.
“I looked at him and the way he looked at me was so completely . . . I felt like I was in John Gotti’s arms. It sent chills.”
Travolta added at the time, “For us to be in a movie where we’re playing other people is so much fun, and that’s what we kind of live for — to have that creative experience together.”
Just before her death, Preston had starred opposite Judi Dench in the movie “Off the Rails,” about four friends recreating an railroad journey across Europe, which is currently in postproduction, according to IMDb.
Three weeks ago, she posted a photo to her Instagram account with Travolta and their children to celebrate Father’s Day.
“Happy Father’s Day to the best one I know, we love you,” she wrote.
Travolta, in his statement, announced that he will be taking time off “to be there for my children who have lost their mother.”