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Danny DeVito

Danny DeVito has built a screen career around a rare combination of comic timing, restless energy and a willingness to make abrasive characters genuinely entertaining. Born on November 17, 1944, in Neptune Township, New Jersey, he trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts after working as a beautician at his sister’s salon. Early theatre work eventually led to the role of Martini in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which he had previously played off-Broadway. His major television breakthrough came as Louie De Palma, the domineering dispatcher on Taxi. The performance earned DeVito both a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe, while establishing the confrontational comic presence that would carry easily into movies. During the 1980s, he moved between supporting parts and larger comic roles, appearing in Terms of Endearment, Johnny Dangerously, Romancing the Stone and its sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. Ruthless People, Twins and The War of the Roses gave him further opportunities to play men driven by greed, resentment or sheer exasperation. DeVito has also shaped films from behind the camera. He made his feature-directing debut with Throw Momma from the Train, in which he starred alongside Billy Crystal and Anne Ramsey, then directed and starred in The War of the Roses with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. His work as a producer includes Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Erin Brockovich and Garden State. As an actor, he can fit into heightened worlds without losing his own distinct rhythm. In Batman Returns, he played Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin, while the 1990s also brought appearances in Last Action Hero, Mars Attacks!, Space Jam and Men in Black. His voice work as Phil in Disney’s Hercules turned the familiar DeVito mix of impatience and warmth into animated form. Whether playing a schemer, a reluctant partner, a villain or a fed-up authority figure, DeVito tends to make every scene feel a little less predictable.