Early years

Kelly Kamalelehua Smith was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother Linda, was an administrator of a mental health center and her father, who worked for an agricultural firm, drowned when Preston was only three years old. Her mother married Peter Palzis, a personnel director, who subsequently adopted her; she used his name when she first began her acting career until 1984. She has a younger half-brother, Chris Palzis. As a child, she spent time living in Iraq and also in Australia, where she attended Pembroke School in Adelaide. She went on to Punahou School and studied drama and theater at the University of Southern California.

Career

While living in Australia, Preston was discovered at 16 by a fashion photographer who helped her get work in commercials and other small parts, and organized Preston's first film audition in 1980 for the role of Emmeline in The Blue Lagoon (1980), which she lost to the younger Brooke Shields. At that time she changed her last name to Preston.

Her first prominent film roles came in 1985, firstly as Marilyn McCauley in romantic comedy teen flick Mischief and then as the beautiful but shallow Deborah Ann Fimple in another teen romantic comedy, Secret Admirer. Other notable roles included SpaceCamp (1986), Twins (1988) with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, Avery Bishop in Jerry Maguire (1996) with Tom Cruise and Kate Newell in Holy Man (1998) with Eddie Murphy and Jeff Goldblum.

She played the girlfriend of her husband, John Travolta's, character "Terl" in the 2000 film Battlefield Earth, and received "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 21st Golden Raspberry Awards for her role in the film. In 2005 she appeared as the flying, superheroine mother of the protagonist in the film Sky High.

Preston was featured in the chart-topping Maroon 5 music video, "She Will Be Loved" in 2004. The video features a love triangle and romantic scenes between Preston and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine. In 2008, she was cast in a television pilot for a potential show called Suburban Shootout. She had a short term recurring role on Medium.

In 2008, Preston starred in the Lifetime movie The Tenth Circle, directed by Peter Markle. The film was shot in Nova Scotia and featured Ron Eldard, Brittany Robertson, Michael Riley, Jamie Johnston and Geordie Brown.

She is a spokeswoman for Neutrogena since 2005 and appears in print and television advertisements. Preston played Victoria Gotti in the upcoming John Gotti biopic Gotti: In The Shadow of my Father.

Personal life

Preston was married to actor Kevin Gage from 1985 until their divorce in 1987. She also had a relationship with George Clooney, who gave her Max, a pet pig that he kept after the couple split up. She was briefly engaged to Charlie Sheen in 1990, but ended the relationship shortly after he accidentally shot her in the arm.

John Travolta

Preston first met John Travolta in 1987 while filming The Experts. They married in 1991, traveling to Paris on an Air France Concorde for a wedding ceremony at the Hotel de Crillon (close to Place de la Concorde) on September 5, 1991. However, a second ceremony was required because the first, performed by a French Scientology minister (both Preston and Travolta are Scientologists), was considered invalid. This second ceremony took place on September 12 in Daytona Beach, Florida. They had three children: son Jett (April 13, 1992 - January 2, 2009), daughter Ella Bleu (born 2000), and son Benjamin (born 2010).

Son's illness and death

Preston's son Jett Travolta was described as suffering from Kawasaki disease as an infant and had a history of seizures. In 2003, Preston appeared on the Montel Williams show to promote L. Ron Hubbard's Purification Rundown, which she credited with helping her son.

On January 2, 2009, Jett Travolta died while the family was on a holiday vacation in The Bahamas. His death was attributed to a seizure. In September 2009, Travolta and Preston confirmed longstanding speculations when they testified that their son had autism and suffered regular seizures. This revelation came during their testimony at the trial resulting from an extortion attempt related to their son's death.

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. 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. 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.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	10 to Midnight	Doreen
1983	Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn	Dhyana
1983	Christine	Roseanne
1985	Mischief	Marilyn McCauley
1985	Secret Admirer	Deborah Anne Fimple
1986	SpaceCamp	Tish Ambrosé
1986	52 Pick-Up	Cini
1987	Love at Stake	Sara Lee
1987	Tiger's Tale, AA Tiger's Tale	Shirley Butts
1987	Amazon Women on the Moon	Violet	Segment: "Titan Man"
1988	Spellbinder	Miranda Reed
1988	Twins	Marnie Mason
1989	Experts, TheThe Experts	Bonnie
1991	Run	Karen Landers
1992	Only You	Amanda Hughes
1994	Double Cross	Vera Blanchard	Video
1994	Love Is a Gun	Jean Starr
1994	Cheyenne Warrior	Rebecca Carver
1995	Mrs. Munck	Young Rose
1995	Waiting to Exhale	Kathleen
1996	Citizen Ruth	Rachel
1996	From Dusk till Dawn	Newscaster Kelly Houge
1996	Curdled	Kelly Hogue
1996	Jerry Maguire	Avery Bishop
1997	Addicted to Love	Linda
1997	Nothing to Lose	Ann Beam
1998	Holy Man	Kate Newell
1998	Jack Frost	Gabby Frost
1999	For Love of the Game	Jane Aubrey
2000	Battlefield Earth	Chirk
2001	Daddy and Them	Rose
2003	View from the Top	Sherry
2003	What a Girl Wants	Libby Reynolds
2003	Cat in the Hat, TheThe Cat in the Hat	Joan Walden
2004	Eulogy	Lucy Collins
2004	Return to Sender	Susan Kennan
2005	Sky High	Josie Stronghold / Jetstream
2006	Broken Bridges	Angela Delton
2007	Death Sentence	Helen Hume
2008	Struck	Trista	Short film
2009	Old Dogs	Vicki
2010	Last Song, TheThe Last Song	Kim
2010	Casino Jack	Pam Abramoff
2014	Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father	Victoria Gotti	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Hawaii Five-O	Wendy	Episode: "For Old Times Sake"
1982	Capitol	Gillian McCandless	TV series
1983	Lone Star	Redhead	TV film
1983	Quincy, M.E.	Ginger Reeves	Episode: "On Dying High"
1983	Renegades, TheThe Renegades	Lisa Primus	Episode: "Back to School"
1983	CHiPs	Anna	Episode: "Things That Go Creep in the Night"
1983-1984	For Love and Honor	Mary Lee	Regular role (12 episodes)
1984	Riptide	Sherry Meyers	Episode: "The Hardcase"
1984	Blue Thunder	Amy Braddock	Episode: "The Long Flight"
1990	Tales from the Crypt	Linda	Episode: "The Switch"
1991	Perfect Bride, TheThe Perfect Bride	Laura	TV film
1993	American Clock, TheThe American Clock	Diana Marley	TV film
1994	Cheyenne Warrior	Rebecca Carver	TV film
1996	Little Surprises	Ginger	TV short
2000	Bar Hopping	Bebe	TV film
2004	Joey	Donna Di Gregorio	Episodes: "Joey and the Dream Girl: Parts 1 & 2"
2005	Fat Actress	Quinn Taylor Scott	Recurring role (4 episodes)
2008	Suburban Shootout	Camilla Diamond	Unsold TV pilot
2008	Medium	Meghan Doyle	Recurring role (4 episodes)
2008	Tenth Circle, TheThe Tenth Circle	Laura Stone	TV film
2013	Adopted	Karey	TV film
2013	Stafford Project, TheThe Stafford Project	Tabitha	Episode: "White Secret"
2016	CSI: Cyber	Greer Latimore	Recurring role (3 episodes)

Awards/Nominations

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Production	Result
2001	Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Supporting Actress	Battlefield Earth	Won
2004	Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Supporting Actress	Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat	Nominated
2010	Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Supporting Actress	Old Dogs	Nominated

Charities

Kelly Preston supports the following charitable causes: Education, Health Education, Children, Environment, Cancer, AIDS.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]