Opinion: Olivia Newton-John's life was always more than what it seemed https://ift.tt/msJIne8 I was pretty disappointed the first time I saw Olivia Newton-John out of character. An inauspicious opening to a eulogy perhaps, but let me explain: It was 1998, and I was 10 years old. The cast of "Grease" had reunited for a special tribute 20 years after the movie's original release, and I'd spotted Newton-John, who died this week at 73, on TV doing the publicity rounds. To my horror, she was no longer an A-line skirt-wearing teen (I also had no idea that she was 28 when the movie was filmed), and there was no Alice band in her hair.