Danny DeVito

Danny DeVito
DeVito at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. November 17, 1944 (1944-11-17) (age 66) Neptune, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, producer
Years active	1970–present
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse	Rhea Perlman (1982–present) 3 children

Daniel Michael "Danny" DeVito, Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, director, and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC TV series Taxi (1978–1983), for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.

DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman, founded Jersey Films, a production company known for films such as Pulp Fiction, Garden State, and Freedom Writers. DeVito also owns Jersey Television, which produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!. DeVito and Perlman also starred together in his 1996 film Matilda, based on Roald Dahl's children's novel. He currently stars as Frank Reynolds on the FX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Early life

DeVito was born in Neptune, New Jersey, the son of Julia, a homemaker, and Daniel Michael DeVito, Sr., who owned several small businesses, including a dry cleaning store, a dairy outlet, a luncheonette, and a pool hall.^[1][2] DeVito is of Italian descent and was raised a Roman Catholic,^[3] growing up in Asbury Park.^[4] He boarded at Oratory Preparatory School, in Summit, New Jersey, graduating in 1962, and subsequently trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1966.

Film acting career

DeVito played Martini in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, reprising his role from the 1971 off-Broadway play of the same name. He gained fame in 1978 for playing Louie De Palma, the dispatcher for the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, on the hit TV show Taxi. After Taxi ended, DeVito began what became a successful movie career, starting with roles in 1983's Terms of Endearment, and as the comic rogue in the romantic adventure Romancing the Stone, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. All three actors reprised their roles in the 1985 sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. In 1986, DeVito starred in Ruthless People with Bette Midler and Judge Reinhold, and in 1987, he made his feature directing debut with the dark comedy Throw Momma from the Train, in which he starred opposite Billy Crystal and Anne Ramsey. Two years later, DeVito reunited with Douglas and Turner in The War of the Roses, which he directed and co-starred in.

Movie poster for Batman Returns (1992), featuring DeVito as the Penguin

DeVito's other notable work during this time includes Other People's Money, with Gregory Peck, director Barry Levinson's Tin Men, as a competitive rival salesman to Richard Dreyfuss's character, two co-starring vehicles with Arnold Schwarzenegger (the comedies Twins and Junior), and playing villain The Penguin in director Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992). It is said that Jack Nicholson convinced DeVito to play the Penguin,^[5] after Nicholson enjoyed great success as The Joker in the original Batman from 1989. Rather than portraying the villain as a suave and sophisticated gangster, as he was in the comics, DeVito played him as a deformed psychopath.

Although generally a comic actor, DeVito expanded into dramatic roles with The Rainmaker, Hoffa (1992), which he directed and in which he co-starred with Jack Nicholson, L.A. Confidential, The Big Kahuna, and Heist (2001), as a gangster nemesis to Gene Hackman's character.

DeVito has a passion for documentaries: In 2006, he began a partnership with Morgan Freeman's company ClickStar, on which he hosts a documentary channel called Jersey Docs.

Producing

DeVito has become a major film and television producer. Through Jersey Films, he has produced many films, including Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Erin Brockovich (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture), Gattaca, and Garden State.

In 1999, DeVito produced and co-starred in Man on the Moon, a movie about the unusual life of his former Taxi co-star, Andy Kaufman. DeVito also produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, as well as the movie spin off Reno 911!: Miami.

Directing

DeVito has directed the following motion pictures:

• Throw Momma from the Train (1987)
• The War of the Roses (1989)
• Hoffa (1992)
• Matilda (1996)
• Death to Smoochy (2002)
• Duplex (2003)
• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (2011)

His films often have a bizarre, neo-surrealistic sensibility and gallows humor, though these elements were absent in the straightforward Hoffa biopic. The approach served him well at times, especially in The War of the Roses, a commercial and critical success, as well as Matilda, where it matched the style of Roald Dahl's story of a young girl and a strict teacher; however, his last two films, Death to Smoochy and Duplex, have not been as successful.^[6]

Television and voice over work

In 1986, DeVito directed and starred in an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In the black comedy episode from season two, titled "The Wedding Ring", DeVito acquires an engagement ring for his wife (played by his real-life wife, actress Rhea Perlman). When the ring is slipped on his wife's finger, she becomes possessed by the ring's former owner, a murderous black widow.

In addition to his Taxi work, DeVito voiced Herb Powell, Homer Simpson's half-brother, on two episodes of The Simpsons. In 1997, he was the voice of the goatman Philoctetes in the film Hercules.

In 1999, DeVito hosted the last Saturday Night Live episode before the year 2000. He earned a 2004 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for an episode of Friends, following four Emmy nominations (including a 1981 win) for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, for Taxi. In 2006, DeVito joined the cast of the FX Networks television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Frank Reynolds.

Personal life

DeVito married actress Rhea Perlman in 1982. They have three children: Lucy Chet DeVito (born March 1983), Grace Fan DeVito (born March 1985) and Jacob Daniel DeVito (born October 1987). The family lives in Beverly Hills, California, and has a vacation home in Interlaken, New Jersey.^[7] His daughter Lucy starred as Anne Frank in a production of Anne Frank at the INTIMAN Theatre in Seattle, Washington, in 2008.

DeVito is an outspoken Democrat, and a supporter of the OneVoice Movement, a non-profit organization that strives to help moderate Israelis and Palestinians to take a more assertive role in resolving their conflict. He is also a member of the steering committee of the Friends of the Apollo, along with his wife, and filmmaker Jonathan Demme.^[8]

DeVito co-owns a restaurant called DeVito South Beach in Miami Beach, Florida.

Filmography

References

External links

• Danny DeVito on Twitter
• Danny DeVito at the Internet Movie Database
• Danny DeVito at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Danny DeVito at TV.com
• Danny DeVito's Guest DJ Set on KCRW KCRW Guest DJ Set