Daniel Michael DeVito Jr., ( də-VEE-toh; born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. Known for his short stature, raspy voice, distinct accent, and energetic comedy roles, he gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series Taxi (1978–1983), which won him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. Since 2006, he has played Frank Reynolds on the FX/FXX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
DeVito is known for his film roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Terms of Endearment (1983), Romancing the Stone (1984), The Jewel of the Nile (1985), Ruthless People (1986), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Twins (1988), The War of the Roses (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Jack the Bear (1993), Junior (1994), Matilda (1996), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Big Kahuna (1999), Big Fish (2003), Deck the Halls (2006), When in Rome (2010), Wiener-Dog (2016), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). He has voiced roles in such films as Disney's Hercules (1997), The Lorax (2012), Smallfoot (2018), and Migration (2023).
In 1991, DeVito and Michael Shamberg founded production company Jersey Films. Soon afterwards, Stacey Sher became an equal partner. The production company is known for films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Garden State (2004) and Freedom Writers (2007). He would later create a second production company, Jersey Films 2nd Avenue, with his daughter, Lucy, and son, Jake. DeVito also owned Jersey Television, which produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!. DeVito and wife Rhea Perlman starred together in his 1996 film Matilda, based on Roald Dahl's children's novel. DeVito was also one of the producers nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture for Erin Brockovich (2000).
From 2012 to 2013, DeVito played Willie Clark in the West End revival of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. He made his Broadway debut as Gregory Solomon in the revival of Arthur Miller's The Price (2017), earning a Tony Award nomination for his performance. He returned to Broadway in the Theresa Rebeck play I Need That (2023).
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Early life and education
DeVito was born at Raleigh Fitkin-Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital in Neptune Township, New Jersey. He is the son of Daniel DeVito Sr., a small business owner, and his wife Julia (née Moccello). He grew up in a family of five, with his parents and two older sisters. He is of Southern Italian descent; his family is originally from San Fele, Basilicata, as well as from the Italo-Albanian community of Calabria. He was raised in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He lived a few miles away from the original Jersey Mike's location and would eat there frequently, which would inspire him to become the sub shop's first celebrity spokesman in a line of commercials that began airing in September 2022.
DeVito was raised as a Catholic. When he was 14, he persuaded his father to send him to boarding school to "keep him out of trouble", and graduated from Oratory Preparatory School in Summit, New Jersey, in 1962. While working as a beautician at his sister's salon, his search for a professional makeup instructor led him to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA), where 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. Along with his future wife, Rhea Perlman, he appeared in plays produced by the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective.
Career
Acting
Before he became an actor, Danny DeVito worked as a beautician at his sister's salon in New Jersey. When a client of his died, her family asked him to do her hair for her funeral, and he subsequently became a part-time morgue cosmetologist, styling the hair of the deceased. DeVito started his career acting off-Broadway in the plays Shoot Anything With Hair That Moves and The Man with the Flower in His Mouth both in 1969. DeVito played Martini in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest directed by Milos Forman, reprising his role from the 1971 off-Broadway play of the same title. He had his feature film debut in the drama Dreams of Glass (1970). Early film roles include Lady Liberty (1971), Hurry Up, or I'll Be 30 (1973) and Deadly Hero (1975).
In 1977, DeVito played the role of John "John John the Apple" DeAppoliso in the Starsky & Hutch episode "The Collector". DeVito gained fame in 1978 playing Louie De Palma, the short but domineering dispatcher for the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, on the hit TV show Taxi. For his performance, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. He got the role by astonishing the show's creators during the audition when asking them "Who wrote this shit?" then throwing the script on the table.
After his breakthrough on the sitcom Taxi, DeVito devoted more effort to a growing successful film career. He took a supporting role as Vernon Dalhart in the James L. Brooks directed comedy-drama Terms of Endearment (1983) acting alongside Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson. The film earned critical acclaim as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The following year, he acted in the crime comedy Johnny Dangerously (1984) and took the role as the comic rogue Ralph in the romantic adventure Romancing the Stone (1984), starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner; and its sequel, The Jewel of the Nile (1985). In 1986, DeVito starred in Ruthless People with Bette Midler and Judge Reinhold and also voiced the character Grundle King in My Little Pony: The Movie. In 1987, he acted in director Barry Levinson's Tin Men, as a rival salesman to Richard Dreyfuss' character. DeVito also acted opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the comedies Twins (1988) and Junior (1994).
In 1990, he and Rhea Perlman played the couple Vic and Paula, commenting on the state of the environment in The Earth Day Special. The following year, he played Lawrence ("Larry the Liquidator") Garfield in Other People's Money (1991) with Gregory Peck. In 1991 and 1992, DeVito voiced Herb Powell in The Simpsons episodes "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" and "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?". In 1992, he portrayed the villain Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin in director Tim Burton's Batman Returns acting opposite Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken. That same year, he directed and produced the biographical drama film Hoffa starring Jack Nicholson. He also acted in the film, portraying Bobby Ciaro. In 1993, he played a single father in the comedy-drama film Jack the Bear.
Directing
DeVito has directed eight short films between 1973 and 2016, five of which were released across 2010 and 2011. These are The Sound Sleeper (1973), Minestrone (1975), Oh Those Lips (2010), Evil Eye (2010), Poison Tongue (2011), Skin Deep (2011), Nest of Vipers (2011), and Curmudgeons (2016).
DeVito made his directorial debut in 1984 with The Ratings Game. In 1986, he directed and starred in the black comedy "The Wedding Ring", a season 2 episode of Steven Spielberg's anthology series Amazing Stories, where his character acquires an engagement ring for his wife (played by DeVito's real-life wife, actress Rhea Perlman). When the ring is slipped on his wife's finger, she is possessed by the ring's former owner, a murderous black widow. In 1987, he made his feature-directing debut with the dark comedy Throw Momma from the Train, in which he starred with Billy Crystal and Anne Ramsey. For his performance, he earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination.
DeVito reunited with Jewel of the Nile co-stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in 1989 when he directed and starred alongside them in The War of the Roses. In 1996, he directed Matilda (1996), a film adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1988 classic children's novel of the same name. He also served as the Narrator and played the villainous used-car dealer father Harry Wormwood opposite his wife Rhea Perlman. 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." The following year, he was in talks to direct the crime drama The Little Things with Robert De Niro at that time set to star, and The Crowded Room with Leonardo DiCaprio. Both projects were eventually realized in the 2020s, but without DeVito's involvement.
In 1997, DeVito was in talks for a $13-million deal to both star in and direct Mystery Men, but 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."
In 1998, he committed to star in and direct both the sci-fi film Barthe for TriStar, about an alien who falls in love, and a remake of The Man Who Came to Dinner for DreamWorks. In 1999, DeVito was attached to star, direct, and produce Jason Keller's spec script Sugar's Sweet Science of Bruising for New Line Cinema.
Producing
DeVito founded Jersey Films in 1991, producing films like Hoffa (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Get Shorty (1995), Erin Brockovich (2000)—for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture—Gattaca (1997), and Garden State (2004).
DeVito also produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!, the film spin-off Reno 911!: Miami, and the revival on Quibi.
In 2019, his company Jersey Films optioned the screen rights to make a film of Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, by Dan Fagin.
He would later create a second film and television production company, Jersey Films 2nd Avenue, with his daughter, Lucy, and son, Jake. The company has produced the animated television series Little Demon and upcoming thriller comedy film Drag (2026).
Personal life
DeVito stands at 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m) tall. His short stature is the result of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED or Fairbank's disease), a rare genetic disorder that affects bone growth.
On January 17, 1971, DeVito met Rhea Perlman when she went to see a friend in the single performance of the play The Shrinking Bride, which also featured DeVito. They moved in together two weeks later and married on January 28, 1982. They have three children: Lucy, Grace, and Jacob.
Perlman and DeVito have acted together several times, including in the television show Taxi and the feature film Matilda (where they played Matilda's parents). They separated in October 2012, after 30 years of marriage and over 40 years together, then reconciled in March 2013. They separated for a second time in March 2017, but remained on amicable terms. Perlman stated they had no intent of filing for divorce. In 2019, Perlman told interviewer Andy Cohen that she and DeVito have become closer friends after their separation than they were in their final years as a couple.
DeVito and Perlman had resided in a 14,579-square-foot (1,354 m2) house in Beverly Hills, California, that they purchased in 1994; they sold the property for US$28 million in April 2015. They still own a bungalow near Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and a multi-residence compound on Broad Beach in Malibu. They also frequented a home they owned in Interlaken, New Jersey, to get away from Los Angeles.
DeVito has mentioned being a big fan of singer Mike Patton's various musical projects, being introduced to his work through his son Jacob in 2005. DeVito collaborated with Patton on a music video and has attended several of his concerts, with Perlman contributing an introductory voiceover to an album by Mr. Bungle, one of Patton's bands. In 2016, DeVito also included music from Patton's band Faith No More on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Acting credits and accolades
DeVito has an extensive film career, dating back to the early 1970s.
Selected works: