Whether you recognize him as a sharp-tongued hit man or a singing high school dirtbag with a heart of gold, virtually everyone knows the name John Travolta.

He made a name for himself on the popular sitcom Welcome back, Kotter, The young Travolta made the leap into mainstream film and became a prominent movie star almost immediately thanks to his early leading roles Saturday Night Fever And Fat.

While Travolta may be better known for these two films, the actor has appeared in dozens of films throughout his career. Unsurprisingly, some of these films – including his late ’70s films and early ’90s work – are far better than a handful of his other works over the years.

From decade-defining musicals to beloved comedic crime films, here are some of the greatest films starring Oscar-nominated icon John Travolta.

Fat

In the late 1950s, an Australian student (Olivia Newton-John), newly enrolled at a local high school, reacquaints herself with her summer love (John Travolta), a seemingly sensitive young man who disguises himself as a street-tough villain boys hidden.

Few musicals are as popular worldwide as Fatthe greatest film to star either Travolta or his on-screen love, Olivia Newton-John. Travolta is extremely charismatic as the greaser Danny. He portrays a young man who is easily exposed to social pressure and whose reputation conflicts with his crush on Newton-John’s heroine.

Saturday Night Fever

Depressed by the grim reality of his lower-class Brooklyn environment, a 19-year-old (Travolta) takes refuge in the glamor and glitz of disco, which is his greatest hobby.

Apart from fat, Saturday Night Fever is certainly the film with which Travolta is most closely associated – simply because of his impressive dance moves. Backed by an upbeat soundtrack from the disco-tinged Bee Gees, Travolta makes dancing on a neon-lit club floor not only stylish, but a truly enchanting sight.

pulp Fiction

Presented in a non-linear format, pulp Fiction tells the interconnected stories of two hitmen (Samuel L. Jackson and Travolta) caught up in a job gone wrong, an eventful dinner with a gangster’s wife (Uma Thurman), a boxer (Bruce Willis) who refuses to take the plunge to do, and a pair of thieves (Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer) rob a small café.

The film that revived Travolta’s then rapidly declining career, Pulp Fiction, also fueled the careers of Quentin Tarantino, Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman. An imaginative and original crime anthology, the success of everything that followed for Travolta can be directly attributed to the popularity of this film.

Blow out

Jack Terry (Travolta) works as a sound effects designer in Philadelphia. One evening, while recording background noise for a film he’s working on, Jack happens to witness a fatal car accident. But the longer he listens to the recording of the incident, the more unsure he becomes about whether it was even an accident.

Unlike the three films mentioned above Blow out contains barely a trace of Travolta’s usual humor. trading laughter for chills and thrills, Blow out is instead a suspenseful psychological thriller led by a frazzled-looking and paranoid Travolta as he tries to figure out what really happened that fateful night.

Face/Off

To thwart a terrorist attack, an FBI agent (Travolta) undergoes a surgical procedure to swap faces with a psychopathic criminal mastermind (Nicolas Cage).

If you ever needed proof of Travolta’s versatility, this is the film for you. It takes tremendous talent for an actor to play a character who in turn plays another character, but Travolta pulls it off with ease. Travolta plays first the no-nonsense, vendetta-driven FBI agent and then his sadistic, unhinged adversary, offering two performances in one.

Get Shorty

When he travels to Los Angeles to collect his gambling debts, a Miami-based loan shark (Travolta) finds that the film industry is very similar to his current criminal career and instead decides to use his skills to become a Hollywood producer become.

Faithful adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel of the same name, Travolta’s character in Get Shorty – the film fanatic Chili Palmer – could be considered Travolta’s most colorful protagonist. Able to switch between hot-headed emotion and cool efficiency depending on the situation, the 1995 film cemented Travolta’s return to Hollywood after his career-saving role in pulp Fiction.

Primary colors

Henry Burton (Adrian Lester) works as a political strategist hired to join the campaign for Southern Democrat and presidential candidate Jack Stanton (Travolta). During the election campaign, Burton’s political idealism is shaken when Stanton’s campaign is confronted with scandalous allegations.

Loosely based on the campaign and presidency of Bill Clinton, Primary colors features more than just Travolta doing his best Clinton impersonation. Instead, he brings a lot of outward warmth and affection to his portrayal as Stanton, coupled with the possibly sinister lifestyle he may harbor beneath the surface.

A civil lawsuit

Jan Schlichtmann (Travolta) is a driven lawyer who risks his law firm and his reputation fighting two megacorporations that he believes have contaminated his Massachusetts town’s water supply, causing widespread health problems among residents (including fatal cases of leukemia).

A civil lawsuit is perhaps the most star-studded film on this list, featuring such talented actors as Robert Duvall, James Gandolfini, Dan Hedaya and John Lithgow. A testament to Travolta’s star power: Despite the numerous actors he appears alongside in the film, Travolta himself is never overwhelmed and occupies the screen with his tenacious portrayal of Schlichtmann.

Urban cowboy

After moving to Houston and marrying a young woman (Debra Winger) he met at a bar, a young rural Texas man (Travolta) protects his marriage from a recently paroled convict (Scott Glenn), who fell in love with the man’s marriage wife.

A relatively early role, seeing Travolta wearing a cowboy hat and a southern accent just two years after Grease must have been a strange experience for audiences at the time. But Travolta’s performance was extremely poised and marked one of his first major forays into more dramatic roles.

Hairspray

A 1960s teenager (Nikki Blonsky) is baffled by the lack of representation in her favorite dance show and meets with her friends to find ways to incorporate the show.

It’s not often that you see a remake that’s just as entertaining as the original film it’s based on. Hairsprayis, however, one such film that features just as many lively musical numbers, colorful performances, and talented character actors as its predecessor. This is particularly true of Travolta’s performance as Edna Turnblad, the endlessly anxious mother of Blonsky’s protagonist, who steals every scene she appears in.

Bolt

Bolt (Travolta) is a White Swiss Shepherd who stars in a popular TV series in which he is credited with superpowers. Believing he has these powers in real life, Bolt sets out to find his co-star (Miley Cyrus), who he believes has been kidnapped by nefarious forces.

Bolt It may not be one of the best or most popular Disney films, but it is almost certainly one of the most underrated. This description also applies to Travolta’s vocal performance as Bolt – a character who is coddled by his superiors and has never seen the real world. Through his eyes, it is almost as if we are seeing the wonders and dangers of his settings for the first time.

Carrie

Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a shy, withdrawn teenager who is bullied by her classmates in high school and abused by her religious fanatical mother (Piper Laurie). When Carrie discovers that she has psychic powers, she uses her abilities to exact revenge on her tormentors, culminating in a tragic night at her school’s prom.

Travolta plays the role of the goofy friend of high school bully Chris (Nancy Allen) in the film and admittedly doesn’t have much screen time Carrie. However, he uses what little he is given to sheer perfection, clashing with Allen’s Chris in an almost comedic performance in this otherwise depressing Stephen King adaptation.