Her father worked as a professor of German and as the master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne. In early 1954, when Newton-John was five, her family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, on the SS Strathaird. Newton-John was the youngest of three children, following her brother Hugh (1939–2019), a medical doctor, and her sister Rona (1941–2013), an actress who was married to restaurateur Brian Goldsmith and was later married to Newton-John's Grease co-star Jeff Conaway (from 1980 until their divorce in 1985). After the war, he became the headmaster of the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys and was in this post when Newton-John was born. Newton-John's father was an MI5 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park who took Rudolf Hess into custody during World War II. Through her Ehrenberg line, Newton-John was a third cousin of comedian Ben Elton. Olivia's uncle was pharmacologist Gustav Victor Rudolf Born. Helene Agatha's own father, Newton-John's great-great-grandfather, was jurist Rudolf von Jhering. Through Helene Agatha, Olivia was a descendant of Protestant theologian Martin Luther. Her maternal grandmother Hedwig was the daughter of German Jewish jurist Victor Ehrenberg, and of his Lutheran wife, Helene Agatha von Jhering.
Newton-John's maternal grandfather was German Jewish Nobel Prize–winning physicist Max Born Born was practising Lutheranism before being officially baptised as a Lutheran in March 1914, before Irene's birth. Her mother was born in Germany and had come to the UK with her family in 1933 to escape the Nazi Regime. Her father was born in Wales to a middle-class family. Newton-John was born on 26 September 1948 in Cambridge, England, to Brinley "Bryn" Newton-John (1914–1992) and Irene Helene (née Born 1914–2003). She also was an activist for environmental and animal rights causes. Newton-John, who battled breast cancer three times, was an advocate for breast cancer research. Other defining hit singles include " If Not for You" and " Banks of the Ohio" (both 1971), " Let Me Be There" (1973), " If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" (1974), " Have You Never Been Mellow" (1975), " Sam" (1977), " Hopelessly Devoted to You" (1978 also from Grease), " A Little More Love" (1978), " Twist of Fate" (1983) and from the 1980 film Xanadu, " Magic" and " Xanadu" (with the Electric Light Orchestra). Her signature solo recordings include the Record of the Year Grammy winner " I Honestly Love You" (1974) and " Physical" (1981)- Billboard's highest ranking Hot 100 single of the 1980s. It features two major hit duets with co-star John Travolta: " You're the One That I Want"-which is one of the best-selling singles of all time-and " Summer Nights". In 1978, Newton-John starred in the musical film Grease, which became the highest-grossing musical film ever at the time and whose soundtrack remains one of the world's best-selling albums of all time. With global sales of more than 100 million records, Newton-John is one of the best-selling music artists from the second half of the 20th century to the present. Eleven of her singles (including two Platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two Platinum and four 2× Platinum) have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included five number-one hits and many other Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200: If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974) and Have You Never Been Mellow (1975). Dame Olivia Newton-John AC DBE (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist.
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