Kelly Preston Biography

KELLY PRESTON

Date of Birth: October 13, 1962

Born and raised in Hawaii, Kelly Preston also lived in Iraq and Australia where she began to do commercials and developed an interest in advertising. After finishing high school, she moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at UCLA to study acting. Television work followed: Hawaii Five-O, Capitol, The Renegades, For Love and Honor, Quincy and Tales from the Crypt.

The '80s brought with it some leading roles for her in film: Secret Admirer, Mischief, Spacecamp (where she met her first husband Kevin Gage), and Twins, opposite Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Her first marriage only lasted a few years, but in 1989, while on the set of The Experts, she met her current husband, John Travolta.

In the '90s, Kelly worked on various projects. She starred in the films Only You (1992), Citizen Ruth (1996) with Laura Dern, From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) with George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, the Oscar-winning Jerry Maguire (1996) with Tom Cruise, and For the Love of the Game (1999) with Kevin Costner.

The following decade brought with it more work on the big screen. Kelly appeared in the comedies What a Girl Wants (2003) with Amanda Bynes and View from the Top (2003) with Gwyneth Paltrow, the family-friendly comedy Sky High (2005) with Kurt Russell, and the thriller Death Sentence (2007) with Kevin Bacon.

In 2010, she starred in the drama The Last Song with Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth and Greg Kinnear, and the crime biopic Casino Jack alongside Kevin Spacey. Six years later, she returned to TV for work on three episodes of CSI: Cyber.

Kelly played Victoria Gotti in Gotti (2018), a biopic of the infamous crime boss. Her husband John Travolta stepped into the role of John Gotti.

Together, John and Kelly had a son named Jett who was born in 1992, but he tragically died in 2009 after suffering a seizure in the Bahamas while vacationing with his family. The couple also has a daughter named Ella Bleu, born in 2000, and a son Benjamin Hunter, born in 2010.

After keeping her breast cancer diagnosis and treatments quiet for two years, Kelly died at age 57 on July 12, 2020.

Filmography:

Gotti (2018)
Casino Jack (2010)
The Last Song (2010)
Old Dogs (2009)
Death Sentence (2007)
Broken Bridges (2006)
Sky High (2005)
Return to Sender (2004)
Eulogy (2004)
The Cat in the Hat (2003)
What a Girl Wants (2003)
View From the Top (2003)
Daddy and Them (2001)
Battlefield Earth (2000)
Bar Hopping (2000)
For Love of the Game (1999)
Jack Frost (1998)
Holy Man (1998)
Nothing to Lose (1997)
Addicted to Love (1997)
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Citizen Ruth (1996)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Curdled (1996)
Waiting to Exhale (1995)
Little Surprises (1995)
Mrs. Munck (1995)
Double Cross (1994)
Love Is a Gun (1994)
Only You (1992)
Run (1991)
The Experts (1989)
Twins (1988)
Spellbinder (1988)
Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
Love at Stake (1987)
A Tiger's Tale (1987)
52 Pick-Up (1986)
SpaceCamp (1986)
Mischief (1985)
Secret Admirer (1985)
10 to Midnight (1983)
Christine (1983)
Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983)