On the cusp of super-stardom JOHN TRAVOLTA reportedly “fell in love” with an actress who was 15 years older than him as they co-starred together. Within a year John was a household name and DIANA HYLAND was dead.
Diana, 37, who had starred on the TV series “Peyton Place” and recently guested on “Happy Days” as The Fonz’s girlfriend, played the mother of “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” a TV movie about a disease prone teen who was kept in a bubble.
The titular “Boy”, was young John Travolta, 22, making the leap from TV stardom on “Welcome Back Kotter” to full-fledged film sensation. But something funny happened on the way to fame – the two actors playing mother and son fell suddenly in love.
In NATIONAL ENQUIRER issue December 28, 1976, Travolta gushed, “I’m madly in love with Diana, pure and simple!”