Olivia Wants to be Another Doris Day
She wants to be another Doris Day, and she wants to save the dolphins from extinction by the Japanese. Two rather heady goals for 28-year-old Olivia Newton-John, and two she's really doing something about.
Towards the dolphins, Olivia, along with other singers like Helen Reddy, has cancelled tour appearances in Japan, where fisherman regularly slaughter millions of dolphins.
I would not be comfortable appearing in a country where they have permitted the destruction of such beautiful and intelligent mammals.
Olivia said recently.
As for wanting to be Doris Day. Olivia is already blonde, freckled and squeaky-clean.
And she can sing up a storm. The only missing attribute is being American. Olivia was born in Cambridge, England and raised in Melbourne Australia, and although she retains her down under
accent, people tend to think of her as American as Apple Pie
.
Music has always been in Olivia's veins. Her father, before deciding on a career in academics, studied opera, and there was always music in the Newton-John house. She remembers Ray Charles, Joan Baez, and Nina Simone as being strong influences, and despite her father's position as headmaster of Ormond College, and her grandfather's Nobel Prize in physics, Olivia chose a musical career rather than college.
When she was 16, she won a talent contest and the prize was a trip to London. She never went back. She was part of a duo with another Australian singer, Pat Carroll, and when Pat went home, Olivia stuck it out alone. Her first single, Bob Dylan's If Not For You
was an instant smash in England, and she began winning every European singing award given out. She won her first Grammy in 1973 for Let Me Be There
Best Female Country Vocalist
and an award from the Country Music Association sent her well on her way to stardom in the U.S. Since then, she's one four more Grammys and countless number of other music honors.
In June, Olivia made her screen debut in Grease
, with John Travolta. She adored working on the film, and with John, and her role as a 50's teenager was close to what it really was for her.
She had always wanted to make movies, and in fact, had made one in England that she prefers not to talk about (it was called Toomorrow,
and was never released here), but it was just a question of waiting for the right script. Grease
was it.
I had a ball doing Grease,
Olivia says. Now I'm dying to do another picture, but this time without music because it's something I've never done before.
Olivia lives in Malibu, not far from where much of the movie was filmed, with her horses and her dogs. There's no man in her life at the moment, although Lee Kramer, with whom she lived for five years is still in the picture. Their on-again-off-again romance is on-again right now. Olivia doesn't mind. She's just too busy with her concerts, and her movies.
Twelve years ago, all I wanted to do was get married and have kids,
she says. Now, she loves working so much marriage is just not one of her immediate priorities.
Olivia's worked hard at combatting the just another pretty face
title critics tend to give her. Hopefully, her role in Grease
will prove she can act as well as sing. and she'll be well on her way to Doris Daydom.