Danny DeVito

• 1. Introduction

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  Danny DeVito walked into an audition for the sitcom Taxi and did something that astonished the people who had created it. He asked them, in blunt language, who had written the script. Then he threw the pages onto the table. That nerve got him the part. Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. was born on the 17th of November 1944. He is known for his short stature, his raspy voice and his distinct accent. He is also a director, a producer and a stage actor. How did a man who once styled hair for a living end up helping to make some of the best-known films of his era? Why did so many projects he chased never reach an audience? And what keeps him working, decades later, on a cable sitcom set in Philadelphia?

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• 2. Jersey Beginnings

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  Raleigh Fitkin-Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital in Neptune Township, New Jersey, is where DeVito was born. His father, Daniel DeVito Sr., ran a small business, and his mother was Julia, born Moccello. He grew up with two older sisters in Asbury Park. His family traces its roots to San Fele in Basilicata and to the Arbëresh Albanian community of Calabria.

  At 14, DeVito persuaded his father to send him to boarding school. The stated goal was to keep him out of trouble. He graduated from Oratory Preparatory School in Summit, New Jersey, in 1962.

  A chair at his sister's salon was his next workplace, where he worked as a beautician. When one of his clients died, her family asked him to do her hair for the funeral. That request turned into part-time work as a morgue cosmetologist, styling the hair of the dead.

  His search for a professional makeup instructor led him somewhere unexpected. It brought him to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1966. In his early theater days he performed with the Colonnades Theater Lab at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. He also appeared in plays produced by the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective, alongside his future wife, Rhea Perlman.

  Professional work followed in 1969, when he acted off-Broadway in two plays. They were Shoot Anything With Hair That Moves and The Man with the Flower in His Mouth.

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• 3. Taxi and the Big Screen

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  Dreams of Glass, a drama released in 1970, gave DeVito his feature film debut. Lady Liberty followed in 1971, then Hurry Up, or I'll Be 30 in 1973 and Deadly Hero in 1975. In 1975 he also played Martini in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, directed by Milos Forman. DeVito already knew the part, because he had played Martini in the 1971 off-Broadway production.

  In 1977, DeVito appeared on Starsky & Hutch as John "John John the Apple" DeAppoliso, in an episode called The Collector. A year later came the role that made him famous. On Taxi he played Louie De Palma, the short but domineering dispatcher at the fictional Sunshine Cab Company. The series ran from 1978 to 1983. His performance won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. It also won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a series, miniseries or television film.

  Terms of Endearment arrived in 1983, with DeVito as Vernon Dalhart. He acted alongside Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson, under director James L. Brooks. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1984 he played Ralph, a comic rogue, in Romancing the Stone with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. He came back for the sequel, The Jewel of the Nile, in 1985. That same busy 1984 also included the crime comedy Johnny Dangerously.

  Bette Midler and Judge Reinhold co-starred with him in Ruthless People in 1986. That year he also voiced a character called Grundle King in My Little Pony: The Movie. In 1987 director Barry Levinson cast him in Tin Men as a rival salesman to the character played by Richard Dreyfuss. He later worked opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in two comedies, Twins in 1988 and Junior in 1994.

  In 1990, DeVito and Rhea Perlman played a couple named Vic and Paula in The Earth Day Special, a program that commented on the state of the environment. The next year he acted with Gregory Peck in Other People's Money. In 1991 and 1992 he also voiced Herb Powell in two episodes of The Simpsons.

  Also in 1992, director Tim Burton cast him as the villain Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin, in Batman Returns. His co-stars were Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken. In 1993 he played a single father in the comedy-drama Jack the Bear.

  Get Shorty, a gangster comedy, came out in 1995. In 1996 he played Swackhammer in Space Jam, a mix of live action and Looney Tunes animation. He also reunited with Burton for Mars Attacks!, whose cast included Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Martin Short and Natalie Portman.

  The year 1997 brought three very different jobs. In The Rainmaker he played Deck Shifflet. In L.A. Confidential he played Sid Hudgens, the editor of a sleazy tabloid called Hush-Hush, who gets tips about celebrity arrests ahead of time. That film, with Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He also voiced Phil, a physical trainer, in Disney's Hercules. Leonard Klady of Variety praised the voice work, singling out DeVito's trainer and the acid wit of James Woods as the villain.

  Living Out Loud, with Helen Hunt and Queen Latifah, came in 1998. In 1999 he reunited with Kevin Spacey in The Big Kahuna and played Dr. Hornicker in Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, starring Kirsten Dunst. He also hosted the last Saturday Night Live episode before the year 2000.

  Man on the Moon, also from 1999, was personal. DeVito produced it and co-starred in this biographical drama about the unusual life of Andy Kaufman, his former Taxi co-star. Jim Carrey played Kaufman.

  Comedies kept coming in the early 2000s, among them Drowning Mona, Screwed, What's the Worst That Could Happen?, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Anything Else and Be Cool. He also acted in the dramas Heist in 2001 and Big Fish in 2003. In 2004 he earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for playing a stripper on Friends. Two years after that nomination, he would join a cable sitcom set in Philadelphia.

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• 4. The Director's Chair

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  The Ratings Game, in 1984, marked DeVito's debut as a director. Two years later he directed and starred in The Wedding Ring, an episode of Steven Spielberg's anthology series Amazing Stories. His character buys an engagement ring for his wife, played by his real-life wife, Rhea Perlman. When the ring goes on her finger, she is possessed by its former owner, a murderous black widow.

  Throw Momma from the Train, in 1987, was his first feature as director. He starred in it with Billy Crystal and Anne Ramsey. His own performance earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.

  In 1989 he reunited with his Jewel of the Nile co-stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. He directed The War of the Roses and acted alongside them. In 1992 he directed and produced Hoffa, a biographical drama starring Jack Nicholson, and played Bobby Ciaro in it.

  Roald Dahl's 1988 children's novel Matilda became DeVito's next adaptation, released in 1996. He directed it and also served as narrator. He played Harry Wormwood, the villainous used-car dealer father, opposite his wife Rhea Perlman as the mother. Critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "There is never a moment (except toward the happy ending) that we sense DeVito is anything other than quite serious about this material. He goes with Dahl's macabre vision."

  Short films have run through his career as well. The Sound Sleeper appeared in 1973 and Minestrone in 1975. Then came a burst of five in 2010 and 2011: Oh Those Lips, Evil Eye, Poison Tongue, Skin Deep and Nest of Vipers. The eighth, Curmudgeons, came in 2016, and DeVito produced and appeared in it as well.

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• 5. Films That Never Happened

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  A 13-million-dollar offer was on the table in 1997 for DeVito to star in and direct Mystery Men. Negotiations broke down over who would produce the soundtrack. "It was a big deal for me," DeVito said. "I really wanted it, so I walked away from the project."

  That same year he was in talks to direct two crime dramas, The Little Things, with Robert De Niro then set to star, and The Crowded Room, with Leonardo DiCaprio. Both were eventually made in the 2020s, without DeVito.

  In 1998 he committed to star in and direct two films. Barthe, for TriStar, was about an alien who falls in love, and The Man Who Came to Dinner was a remake for DreamWorks. In 1999 he was attached to star, direct and produce Sugar's Sweet Science of Bruising, a spec script by Jason Keller for New Line Cinema. For two years after that he was attached to Michael Petroni's Revelations, a supernatural religious thriller that was to star George Clooney. Rewrites delayed it.

  Death to Smoochy in 2002 and Duplex in 2003 were made back-to-back. Before Duplex came out, DeVito agreed to direct a remake of the 1942 film I Married a Witch for Tom Cruise and Columbia Pictures. He then pursued a different idea after an offer from HBO. Trump vs Wynn, written by Rick Cleveland, chronicled the rivalry between Donald Trump and Steve Wynn to build a casino in Atlantic City. DeVito met both men, who protested the film, and he dropped out.

  A sitcom pilot called Queen B, which he directed for Imagine TV in 2005, was not picked up. In 2009 he was reported to be directing and producing Crazy Eddie, a biopic of electronics king Eddie Antar. A life rights deal made with Antar kept the film from being made. He turned instead to St. Sebastian, an apocalyptic horror thriller that finished post-production in 2012 but has not been released. A comedy called Honeymoon with Dad never went into production.

  Since 2008 DeVito has been attached to direct The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, which he adapted himself. Morgan Freeman, Pierce Brosnan and Saoirse Ronan were to star. Production stopped when Freeman was seriously injured in a car accident two weeks before filming was due to begin. In February 2013 DeVito said he was looking for a new young actress and scouting locations in Ireland. A restart was expected in July 2014. The release date still reads TBD.

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• 6. Jersey Films

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  Jersey Films was founded in 1991 by DeVito and Michael Shamberg. Stacey Sher soon joined them as an equal partner. The company produced Pulp Fiction in 1994 and Get Shorty in 1995. Gattaca followed in 1997 and Erin Brockovich in 2000. DeVito was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Erin Brockovich. Later credits include Garden State in 2004 and Freedom Writers in 2007. In 2019 the company optioned the screen rights to Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, a book by Dan Fagin.

  Television was another outlet, through his company Jersey Television. It produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, along with the film spin-off Reno 911!: Miami and a revival on Quibi.

  In 2006 he began a partnership with Morgan Freeman's company ClickStar, for which he hosts a documentary channel called Jersey Docs. He was also interviewed for Revenge of the Electric Car, where he discussed his interest in electric vehicles and his ownership of them.

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• 7. Frank Reynolds and the Stage

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  The start of Season 2 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is where the character of Frank Reynolds is introduced. DeVito joined the cast in 2006. He plays Frank opposite Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson and Charlie Day, and the role earned him a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actor in a musical or comedy series. DeVito has said he loved the show and found it outrageous from the start. That same year he starred with Matthew Broderick in the Christmas comedy Deck the Halls.

  A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame arrived in 2011, honoring his work in television. In 2012 he voiced the title character in the animated version of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax.

  Around the Japanese release of the Nintendo 3DS game Detective Pikachu, dedicated Pokémon fans gathered 40,000 signatures. Their petition asked that DeVito be the English voice of the title character. He declined to audition, saying he was unfamiliar with the franchise.

  In April 2012, DeVito made his West End debut as Willie Clark in a revival of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys, alongside Richard Griffiths. Previews at the Savoy Theatre in London began on the 27th of April 2012. The play opened on the 17th of May and ran a limited 12-week season until the 28th of July.

  In 2014 he played a fictional version of himself in the music video for One Direction's song "Steal My Girl". Then came Broadway. His debut there was Gregory Solomon in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Arthur Miller's The Price, opposite Mark Ruffalo and Tony Shalhoub. Previews began at the American Airlines Theatre on the 16th of February 2017. It opened on the 16th of March, for a limited run through the 7th of May. Marilyn Stasio of Variety wrote that DeVito held the audience in the palm of his hand. She praised his comic touch, including a long egg-eating gag, and the down-to-earth wisdom he brought to the family arguments. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

  Wiener-Dog, Todd Solondz's anthology film, included him in its ensemble in 2016. In 2018 he guest starred on the Netflix comedy The Kominsky Method, opposite Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin. He voiced Dorgle in the animated film Smallfoot that year. In 2019 he reunited with Tim Burton to play Max Medici in Disney's live-action Dumbo, alongside Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton and Eva Green. He also played Eddie Gilpin in Jumanji: The Next Level, with Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan. The film was a box office and critical success.

  In 2020 he voiced Bob, a stray dog, in The One and Only Ivan. In 2021 he played Charlie Goldman in the HBO biographical drama The Survivor. That year he also wrote a 12-page story about the Penguin and Catwoman for the comic anthology Gotham City Villains. His 2023 included Haunted Mansion, Chris Pine's directorial debut Poolman, the animated Migration and a return to Broadway in Theresa Rebeck's play I Need That.

  A sandwich shop gave him one more job. DeVito lived a few miles from the original Jersey Mike's and ate there often. That habit led him to become the chain's first celebrity spokesman, in commercials that began to air in September 2022.

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• 8. Rhea and Home

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  A rare genetic disorder called multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, or Fairbank's disease, explains DeVito's short stature. It affects bone growth.

  On the 17th of January 1971, Rhea Perlman went to see a friend in the single performance of a play called The Shrinking Bride. DeVito was in the cast. They moved in together two weeks later and married on the 28th of January 1982. They have three children, Lucy, Grace and Jacob.

  Perlman and DeVito have acted together several times, including on Taxi. In October 2012, after 30 years of marriage and more than 40 years together, they separated. They reconciled in March 2013. They separated again in March 2017 but stayed on amicable terms, and Perlman said they had no intent of filing for divorce. In 2019 she told interviewer Andy Cohen that they had become closer friends after the separation than they were in their final years as a couple.

  A 14,579-square-foot house in Beverly Hills, California, was their home after they bought it in 1994. They sold it in April 2015 for 24 million US dollars. They still own a bungalow near Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and a multi-residence compound on Broad Beach in Malibu. For getting away from Los Angeles, they also frequented a home in Interlaken, New Jersey.

  In 2005, his son Jacob introduced him to the music of Mike Patton. DeVito became a big fan of Patton's various projects. He collaborated with Patton on a music video and has attended several of his concerts. Perlman contributed an introductory voiceover to an album by Mr. Bungle, one of Patton's bands. In 2016, DeVito even placed music by Patton's band Faith No More on an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

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