KELLY PRESTON

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(13 October 1962 - 12 July 2020)

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The American actress and model Kelly Preston, who has died aged 57 from breast cancer, was born in Honolulu, raised in Iraq and Australia and studied theatre in Southern California. At 16, she became a model, leading to appearances on TV in Hawaii Five-O, Quincy M.E., CHiPs and For Love and Honor, etc. Her first film was 10 to Midnight (1983) with Charles Bronson, then John Carpenter’s Christine, Secret Admirer and A Tiger’s Tale, both with C. Thomas Howell, SpaceCamp with Kate Capshaw and John Frankenheimer’s 52 Pick-Up. Ivan Reitman’s Twins brought her international fame and she continued working in films and television, with From Dawn to Dusk, Citizen Ruth, Jerry Maguire, Addicted to Love, Holy Man and Jack Frost her more interesting films. She appeared with her second husband John Travolta in Battlefield Earth and worked until 2018 on projects including Eulogy, Return to Sender, Death Sentence, Old Dogs and Gotti, both with Travolta, and Last Song with Miley Cyrus. She first married and then divorced the actor Kevin Gage. With Travolta, Kelly has three children, daughter Ella Bleu, son Benjamin and son Jett who died in 2009 aged 27. Preston was a great supporter of education, drug reform and other charities.

MICHAEL DARVELL

 
Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

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