Finola Hughes Makes Rare Public Appearance 42 Years After ‘Staying Alive’

Staying Alive icon Finola Hughes bundled up for a laid-back outing in Los Angeles this past week.

The soap icon, 66, cloaked herself in an olive green pea coat, grey sweater, white ankle boots and a tan suede hat.

Textured black messenger bag looped across her chest, Hughes was a vision of fall fashion as she ran errands solo on Wednesday.  

The British actress famously starred opposite John Travolta in the 1983 film Staying Alive, the sequel to the legendary Saturday Night Fever. 

She was the beautiful dancer who captured Travolta’s heart, a role she nabbed early in her impressive acting career. 

Not only did she sizzle on the big screen but she became a force to be reckoned with in the world of soap operas with long-time roles in All My Children and General Hospital.

Hughes’ small screen success also consisted of leading roles in the hit series Charmed and Blossom.  

The fashionista also demonstrated her style prowess as the host of the reality makeover show, How Do I Look?

This past year saw Hughes mark a major milestone – 40 years since she first appeared on General Hospital.

‘It’s literally crazy,’ she told Soap Opera Digest. ‘Forty years since you saw the whites of my eyes the very first time?! Wow.’

The anniversary also marked four decades living in the United States for Hughes. 

‘It’s 40 years in America, so that’s part of the celebration. I’ve been back and forth [from the show], but the character has always been a mainstay of mine, and somewhere I’ve always found parts of myself,’ she said.

‘I love playing Anna, I really do.’

While the world may be more familiar with her acting skills, Hughes initially gravitated towards dance as a kid. 

‘I went to a school and then a college of performing arts, so from the age of 10, I was acting — I would get different jobs and I would go off and do a little TV series or whatever — but I never took it seriously,’ she told Soap Opera Digest. 

‘Dance was what I really had an affinity for. When it came time for me to transfer up to the college, they asked me if I would go into the acting side. And in my mind, I was like, “No! I have to do dance now, while I’m 16 or 17,” whatever age that I was. So I went and did that. But I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t always loved acting. I just didn’t concentrate on it. My mind was just on dance.’

Hughes’ dancing skills came in handy when she tried out for the role of Laura in the Sylvester Stallone directed film Staying Alive.

Auditions consisted of her learning the routine before dancing with Travolta himself. 

She got the part the same day she tried out for the role. 

‘Sly [Stallone] was there, and then they sort of said, “Yeah, you’ve got the role,”‘ she told Remind. ‘They told me right there.’

Hughes had high words for both her co-star and director.

‘He was the sweetest,’ Hughes, who was in Los Angeles for the first time at the time of filming Staying Alive, said of Travolta. ‘He’s just lovely. He was so supportive and so kind and kind of took me under his wing a little bit because I’d never been to Hollywood and he really looked after me. He made sure that I was taken care of, and he just is great.’

Of Stallone, she gushed: ‘He was fantastic, very spontaneous.’

‘He likes things to be spontaneous, and I think that was good for me because I didn’t know how to do that,’ she continued. ‘I didn’t really know how to do anything. I’m being completely honest — I had no idea what I was doing, and John would sort of give me little clues. I think they were always trying to loosen me up, so they would surprise me sometimes. They understood that they were working with a complete newbie.’ 

But Hughes didn’t have the same praise when it came to her own acting ability. 

‘I think my acting sucked,’ she said. ‘I was up for a Razzie Award [for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst New Star], which I now know is kind of in good standing.’