Danny DeVito

The hairdresser who didn't fit the mold

Danny DeVito is four feet, eleven inches tall. That measurement shaped his career before he could read his first professional script in New York. In the 1960s he worked at his sister's hair salon in New Jersey, but he knew his place was at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. There he met Michael Douglas, and that friendship became the engine behind much of the commercial cinema of the 1980s.

His physique kept him away from the leading-man roles that dominated the industry at the time. So he decided to harness a nervous, cynical energy that nobody else had on the off-Broadway circuit. In 1975 he played Martini in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and repeated the role on the big screen under Milos Forman's direction. It was his first real big break in prestige cinema.

And the gamble paid off.

Mass recognition came with the series Taxi in 1978. His character, Louie De Palma, was a loud, despicable, and strangely magnetic taxi dispatcher who earned him an Emmy and a Golden Globe. But DeVito didn't want to be limited to the funny sidekick who takes jokes from the tall leads. He had a far more aggressive business and creative vision than most of his castmates.

The director's chair and total control

In the late eighties he decided the best way to get the roles he wanted was to create them himself. In 1987 he directed Throw Momma from the Train, and two years later he made The War of the Roses. In the latter, he dissected the breakdown of a marriage with a bitter edge that caught critics of the time off guard. He used black humor as a precision tool to portray greed and heartbreak in the American middle class.

He founded the production company Jersey Films and from that office changed the rules of independent filmmaking. In 1994 he financed Pulp Fiction when other studios were afraid of the Quentin Tarantino script. He also backed projects such as Gattaca and Erin Brockovich. His ability to spot other people's talent proved as sharp as his instinct for physical comedy.

DeVito never feared commercial failure.

In 1996, he directed and starred in Matilda. The film was not a box office hit during its release, but the home video market turned it into a cult favorite for an entire generation. The actor played Harry Wormwood with a mix of stupidity and malice that perfectly balanced the story's fantasy. By then, he was already one of the most powerful men in Hollywood behind the camera.

The acid reinvention on television

Many actors at his level would have sought a comfortable retirement in roles as a lovable grandfather. But in 2006 he joined the cast of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to play Frank Reynolds. The FX series gave him the chance to explore a wild, grotesque side that few performers his age would dare to touch. He stripped down, covered himself in paint, and pushed the limits of political correctness for nearly two decades.

His work pace did not slow down over the years. In 2012 he lent his voice to The Lorax, and in 2019 he took part in the version of Dumbo by Tim Burton. His professional relationship with Burton goes back a long way (especially thanks to his role as the Penguin in 1992) and has remained strong over time. DeVito has always preferred characters with physical or moral deformities to the dull normalcy of conventional heroes.

He's still looking for risk in every contract.

In 2023 he appeared in the movie Poolman, and in 2024 he returned to the shadowy world with a role in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. At eighty years old, he keeps a busy schedule that includes voice-over projects and Broadway stage productions alongside his daughter Lucy DeVito. His net worth is estimated at over 80 million dollars from his production rights.