CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Australians of all ages are today mourning the first woman they were hopelessly devoted to, Olivia Newton-John.
Colloquially known as ‘The Neutron Bomb’ in her home country of Australia, the singer/actor gained worldwide fame as the high school sweetheart Sandy in the 1978 hit movie. “Grease”.
A statement released by the family confirmed that Newton-John “passed away peacefully at her ranch in Southern California, surrounded by family and friends” this morning, after a 30-year battle with cancer. She was 73.
The entertainer, whose career spanned more than five decades, devoted much of her time and celebrity to charities after first being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992.
Aside from her decorated career as a touring singer, Newton-John is best known as the star of everyone’s favourite musical alongside John Travolta, where she played the girl-next-door ‘Sandy’ who trades her ankle-length skirt and ponytail hair for the skin-tight black pants and a perm, in a whirlwind romance with the tough but charming Danny Zuko.
Right across the country today, secretly tender bad boys are today breaking out their leather greaser jackets and pomade, in tribute to the only woman who could lure them away from the life of street racing at brawling at the drive-thru.
Office buildings, worksites and schoolyards are today full of the secretly tender bad boys decked out in leather – as they send off their first true love.
Universally adored and timeless, both Grease and Newton-John will be continue to be loved by little girls singing into their hairbrushes, and little boys who wish Sandy went to their school.
