Kelly Preston

Kelly Kamalelehua Smith[1] (the middle name "Kamalelehua" means 'garden of lehuas' in Hawaiian - a lehua being a well-known Hawaiian flower[2][3]) was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother Linda was an administrator of a mental health center. Her father, who worked for an agricultural firm, drowned when Preston was three years old.[4][5] Her mother subsequently married Peter Palzis, a personnel director. He adopted Preston, and she used his name from the beginning of her acting career until 1984.[6][7] She has a younger half-brother, Chris Palzis.[6]

As a child, Preston lived in Iraq, and also Australia, where she attended Pembroke School in Adelaide. She then attended Punahou School in Honolulu, and studied drama and theater at the University of Southern California.[8]

While living in Australia, Preston was discovered at 16 by a fashion photographer who helped her get work in commercials and other small parts.[6] He arranged her first film audition for the role of Emmeline in The Blue Lagoon (1980), which she lost to the younger Brooke Shields.[9] At that time she changed her last name to Preston.[10]

Her first prominent film roles came in 1985—first as Marilyn McCauley in romantic comedy teen flick Mischief; then as the beautiful but shallow Deborah Ann Fimple in another teen romantic comedy, Secret Admirer. Other notable roles included SpaceCamp (1986), Twins[11] (1988) with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, Avery Bishop in Jerry Maguire (1996) with Tom Cruise, Jane Aubrey in For Love of the Game with Kevin Costner and Kate Newell in Holy Man (1998) with Eddie Murphy and Jeff Goldblum. In 1997, she starred in Nothing to Lose, which co-starred Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence, although Lawrence and Preston did not receive screen credit.

Preston played the girlfriend of her husband John Travolta's character "Terl" in the 2000 film Battlefield Earth,[12] and received "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 21st Golden Raspberry Awards for her role in the film.[13] In 2005, she appeared as the protagonist's flying, superhero mother in the film Sky High.

In 2004, Preston was in the Maroon 5 music video "She Will Be Loved", which featured a love triangle and romantic scenes between Preston and Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine. In 2007, Preston appeared in the crime thriller Death Sentence, in which she played Helen Hume, the wife of Kevin Bacon's character Nick. In 2008, she was cast in a television pilot called Suburban Shootout,[14] and had a short term recurring role in Medium.[14]

In 2008, Preston starred in the Lifetime television film The Tenth Circle, directed by Peter Markle. It was shot in Nova Scotia and featured Ron Eldard, Britt Robertson, Michael Riley, Jamie Johnston and Geordie Brown.[15]

Preston has been a spokeswoman for Neutrogena since 2005, appearing in its print and television ads.[16]

Preston was married to actor Kevin Gage from 1985 until their divorce in 1987. She also had a relationship with George Clooney.[6] She was briefly engaged to Charlie Sheen in 1990,[6][17] but ended the relationship shortly after he allegedly shot her in the arm.[17][18] In a 2011 interview with TMZ, Preston claimed that Sheen did not shoot her.[19]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kelly Preston.

• Kelly Preston on IMDb
• Kelly Preston at AllMovie
• Kelly Preston at Rotten Tomatoes