Olivia Newton-John, granddaughter of Jewish Nobel laureate, dies at 73

(JTA) — Olivia Newton-John, the iconic pop singer of the 1970s and ’80s, died at her home in Southern California Monday of the breast cancer she had battled for three decades. She was 73.

Newton-John was most famous for her starring role as Sandy Olsson, alongside John Travolta’s Danny Zuko, in the 1978 musical “Grease,” and as the singer of the 1982 hit song “Physical.”

Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, to Brinley Newton-John and Irene Born, the daughter of Max Born, a Jewish Nobel laureate and one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Born, who was a friend of Albert Einstein, move...