Kelly Preston, the actress best known for her role as the fiancée of Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire, died Sunday. She was 57.
The actress’s husband, John Travolta, shared the news on Instagram Monday. “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,” he wrote. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”
Born October 13th, 1962, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Preston studied acting at the University of Southern California and began her career with minor roles on television shows like, For Love and Honor. In 1985, she landed her first major movie role with the teen comedy Mischief.
Preston’s breakthrough came a few years later when she portrayed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love interest in the 1988 comedy film Twins. That same year, Preston met Travolta while they worked on the film The Experts. The couple would marry in 1991.
Preston worked steadily on various film and TV projects during the early Nineties, before landing Jerry Maguire in 1996. It wasn’t a huge role, but Preston made the most of it, particularly a scene where she tells off Cruise’s Maguire with a few punches to the face and a knee to the gut after he unceremoniously dumps her.
In addition to Jerry Maguire, Preston portrayed Jane Aubrey in 1999’s For Love of the Game, and made a cameo appearance in the 2000 sci-fi film Battlefield Earth, starring Travolta. Her final film role was in the Travolta-helmed Gotti, in 2018, as the wife to Mafia boss John Gotti. To prepare for the role, Preston met with the real-life Victoria Gotti and formed a relationship with her.
“We sat there for hours, just talking and eating,” Preston said at a press meeting during the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. “I spent the whole day with her family. I also had an email relationship with her, and she would tell me everything.”
Preston is survived by Travolta and their children, Ella Bleu and Benjamin. Their eldest son, Jett died in 2009 at age 16 after having a seizure.
