RIP: Spellbinder and Christine star Kelly Preston has passed away

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

We have some very sad news to share this morning, as John Travolta revealed on Instagram that his wife Kelly Preston has passed away after a two year battle with breast cancer. She was 57.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer. She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many. My family and I will forever be grateful to her doctors and nurses at MD Anderson Cancer Center, all the medical centers that have helped, as well as her many friends and loved ones who have been by her side. Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered. I will be taking some time to be there for my children who have lost their mother, so forgive me in advance if you don’t hear from us for a while. But please know that I will feel your outpouring of love in the weeks and months ahead as we heal. All my love, JT

A post shared by John Travolta (@johntravolta) on

Preston earned 72 screen credits over the course of an acting career that lasted 40 years, and while she isn't typically thought of as a genre actress she did work on several horror projects. The first was the 1983 Charles Bronson thriller 10 TO MIDNIGHT, in which she played one of the young nurses that gets menaced by the madman Bronson was after in that film. That same year, Preston appeared in her most popular horror film, John Carpenter's adaptation of the Stephen King novel CHRISTINE.

She went on to be in both the witchcraft comedy LOVE AT STAKE and the more serious take on witchcraft, SPELLBINDER (WATCH IT HERE). She was in an episode of Tales from the Crypt that was directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, her co-star in the 1988 film TWINS. In 1996, she made a cameo as a newscaster in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, and played that same character in the thriller CURDLED, which was executive produced by Quentin Tarantino. In 2007, she appeared in James Wan's DEATH SENTENCE.

Her work in the sci-fi realm includes SPACECAMP, BATTLEFIELD EARTH, METALSTORM: THE DESTRUCTION OF JARED-SYN, and the spoof AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON. Among her many other notable credits are MISCHIEF, SECRET ADMIRER, 52 PICK-UP, RUN, JERRY MAGUIRE, Sam Raimi's FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, and SKY HIGH.

Preston and Travolta met while making the 1989 comedy THE EXPERTS and were married in 1991. The couple most recently shared the screen in 2017's GOTTI. They had three children together; tragically, their son Jett passed away in 2009 at just 16 years old.

This news is tough to process, it's shocking that Preston has passed away at such a young age. We send out heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, and fans.
 

Source: Variety

About the Author

Cody is a news editor and film critic, focused on the horror arm of JoBlo.com, and writes scripts for videos that are released through the JoBlo Originals and JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channels. In his spare time, he's a globe-trotting digital nomad, runs a personal blog called Life Between Frames, and writes novels and screenplays.