Kelly Kamalelehua Smith (October 13, 1962 – July 12, 2020), known professionally as Kelly Preston, was an American actress. She appeared in more than 60 television and film productions, including Mischief (1985), Twins (1988), Jerry Maguire (1996), and For Love of the Game (1999). She married John Travolta in 1991, and collaborated with him on the comedy film The Experts (1989) and the biographical film Gotti (2018). She also starred in the films SpaceCamp (1986), The Cat in the Hat (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Sky High (2005), and Old Dogs (2009).
Early life
Kelly Kamalelehua Smith[1][2] (the middle name "Kamalelehua" means "garden of lehuas" in Hawaiian)[3][4] was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Linda, was an administrator of a mental health center. Her father, who worked for an agricultural firm, drowned when she was four years old.[5][6][7] Her mother subsequently married Peter Palzis, a personnel director. He adopted her, and she used his name at the start of her acting career.[8] She also had a younger half-brother, Chris Palzis.[8]
While living in Australia, she was discovered at age 16 by a fashion photographer who helped her get work in commercials and other small parts.[8] He arranged her first film audition for the role of Emmeline in The Blue Lagoon (1980), which she lost to the younger Brooke Shields.[13] At that time she changed her last name to Preston.[14]
In 2004, she was in the Maroon 5 music video "She Will Be Loved", which featured a love triangle and romantic scenes between her and Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine. She appeared in the crime thriller Death Sentence (2007), in which she played Helen Hume, the wife of Kevin Bacon's character Nick. In 2008, she was cast in a television pilot called Suburban Shootout,[19] and had a short term recurring role in Medium.[19]
She was a spokeswoman for Neutrogena, appearing in its print and television ads.[21][22]
Her final red carpet appearance came at the New York City premiere of her husband's motion picture Gotti in 2018.[23]
Her final film role was in the comedy-drama Off the Rails, which was released in late July 2021 in the UK.
Personal life
Preston was married to actor Kevin Gage from 1985 until their divorce in 1987.[24] She also had a relationship with George Clooney in the late 1980s.[24][8]
Preston was briefly engaged to Charlie Sheen in 1990,[8][25] but ended the relationship shortly after an accidental gun discharge left shrapnel in her body.[25][26] In a 2011 interview with TMZ, Preston said that Sheen did not shoot her.[27][28]
Preston met John Travolta in 1987 while filming The Experts.[29] They married in 1991, traveling to Paris on an Air FranceConcorde for a wedding ceremony at the Hotel de Crillon (on the Place de la Concorde) on September 5, 1991. However, a second ceremony was required because the first, performed by a French Scientologyminister (both Preston and Travolta were Scientologists), was considered invalid. The second ceremony took place on September 12, 1991, in Daytona Beach, Florida.[30] Preston and Travolta had three children: son Jett, daughter Ella Bleu,[31] and a second son, Benjamin.[32] Preston remained a Scientologist until her death.[33]
On January 2, 2009, Jett Travolta died at the age of 16 while the family was vacationing in the Bahamas.[37][38] His death was attributed to a seizure.[39]
On January 23, 2009, three people were arrested in the Bahamas in connection with a multimillion-dollar extortion plot against Travolta and Preston concerning the circumstances of their son's death.[40] One of the men, Obie Wilchcombe, a member of the Bahamian Parliament and former Bahamian Minister of Tourism, was described as a "close friend" of Travolta and Preston.[40] Two others allegedly involved were an EMT named Tarino Lightbourne and a Bahamian senator named Pleasant Bridgewater. Bridgewater was charged with abetment to extort and conspiracy to extort and resigned from the Senate as a result of the allegations.[40][41] Travolta and Preston confirmed longstanding speculations when they testified that their son had autism and suffered regular seizures.[42] The first trial ended in a mistrial.
After a second jury had been selected, the Travoltas elected to drop the case and all charges against the defendants were dismissed.[43]
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