The singer and actor Olivia Newton-John, who has died aged 73 after suffering from cancer, had a ready riposte for anyone who called her “Miss Goody Two-Shoes from Australia”. Despite her Melbourne accent, she had been born in the UK, in Cambridge, and therefore – as she informed a US television audience in 1980 – she was technically “Miss Goody Two-Shoes from England”.
Either way, the quip was not far off the truth. Through a career that included 100m album sales and a starring role in Grease (1978), one of the most successful musicals in film history, she was the entertainer least likely to court controversy. Though she had passionate views, most notably on the environment and cancer research, she rarely expressed strong opinions on other subjects or engaged with negative criticism.
