14 Danny DeVito Now-You-Know Facts

14 A True Story Won Him An Emmy

Danny DeVito won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 1981 for a Taxi episode that was based on his real-life experience. DeVito told L.A. Mag, “The story about my pants. That’s my story. Once I got to this size, I stopped growing, but I wasn’t skinny. So, I couldn’t go to a store and get clothes right off the rack. So, I used to have to go to the large boys’ department. I told Ed and Jim this story. We put that in the show. It’s always good to draw from your life if you can.”

13 His Best Friend Is Michael Douglas

Michael Douglas or “Mikey D” as DeVito calls him, was DeVito’s roommate while both actors attended acting school in the 1960s. Danny has said, “Michael did the laundry,” and Michael said, “"Danny was sloppy. No, really, he was a great roommate.  It was a magical time, We were getting paid to act!" The two have gone on to co-star in four movies together.

12 He Once Worked As A Hair Stylist

DeVito told L.A. Mag, “When I was about 17, my oldest sister, 16 years older, opened a beauty salon, and said, ‘Why don’t you come to work for me?’ She sent me to beauty school; I learned how to do it. At first, she started giving me all the old ladies. So there was a lot of dyeing and a lot of dying. She called me Mr. Dan. And it was a performance, in a way. I did all kinds of hairstyles, shampoos and sets. If anybody’s in the business in those days, they know what I’m talking about. Pin curls, permanent waves, shampoo sets.”

11 He Was Really Gobblin’ That Fish In Batman Returns

That disgusting scene in Batman Returns where The Penguin rips apart and eats what appears to be a raw fish? Yeah, that was no prop fish, Danny told Andrew Goldman, “Salmon. Yeah, I ate the fish. And people said, ‘You ate a raw fish?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ Like nobody’s ever had sushi? It’s the same thing.” 

10 He And Arnold Took No Salary While Filming Twins

Twins was on such a shoestring budget that both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito agreed to be paid after the movie came out, meaning their paycheck depended entirely on how well the movie did. Well, the movie made $111.9 million dollars domestically, which is around $250 million in today’s market, so the two actors made out pretty damn well.

9 His “Drunk” Appearance On The View

Tabloids ran with this story for years that DeVito had appeared on the view noticeably intoxicated after a night out with George Clooney. He said the reason he was loopy owed to “that seventh limoncello.” DeVito later told an interviewer, however, that he really wasn’t all that drunk, he was just making a joke. 

8 He Is A Member Of The SNL 5 Timers Club

Danny’s hosting gigs came on May 15, 1982; October 15, 1983 (alongside his wife Rhea Perlman); December 5, 1987; December 3, 1988; January 9, 1993; and December 11, 1999. DeVito says he received a commemorative clock for joining the five timer’s club and that if they asked him to host again he would do it in a second.

7 He Is A Talented And Active Director

Danny also has a gift for directing, considering he directed three episodes of Taxi, Throw Mama From The Train, Death To Smoochy with Edward Norton and Robin Williams, and of course his magnum opus Matilda, in which he also starred.

6 He Lied About Saving Michael Douglas’s Life

Danny DeVito told The Talk in 2018 a story about how he saved Michael Douglas’s life on the set of Romancing The Stone, when a venomous snake bit the actor’s hand. He said, “I always heard the best thing to do is suck the poison out, right away, so I did. I grabbed his hand and I sucking , I’m spitting all over the place, and I say, ‘Boy, it’s a good thing this didn’t bite you on the balls, man; you would be a dead man.’” During Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector interview, he revealed that he made the whole story up, and it was based on an old joke he had heard.

5 He Has Appeared In Over 140 Projects

Danny DeVito is a true lover of the arts. According to IMDB, he's appeared in roughly 142 different projects over the years and owns his own production company, Jersey Films. Some projects you may not have known he produced: RENO 911, Garden State, Man On The Moon, Pulp Fiction, and Along Came Polly.

4 He Originally Moved To NYC To Learn Makeup

DeVito’s sister eventually wanted her business to branch out into makeup, so she sent Danny to NYC to learn how to do it. Danny said, “I found a woman who said she’d teach me makeup and all about the different Queen Helene products, but I had to enroll in the school where she taught at night. It was the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Now I had never thought about being an actor. I’d never seen a play. I never thought about going on stage.” He said after his first class he knew he wanted to be an actor for the rest of his life.

3 His Breakout Role

Although his first big motion picture was One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, he claims his first “big break” was his role as Louie De Palma, on Taxi. He said he loved the gruff character as soon as he read the script and that during his first audition, “There were Ed Weinberger, Stan Daniels, Dave Davis, and Jim Brooks, all from Mary Tyler Moore. Everybody was sitting down. It was a scary moment. I had the script in hand and I said to them, ‘Nice to meet you. One thing I want to know before we start: Who wrote this sh*t?’ And I threw it on the table. There was a one-second pause. Then Jim Brooks almost died laughing. Basically, it was one of those things where Louis actually walked into their office. From then on, I could say any word I wanted and get a laugh. If I said, ‘And?’ I’d get a laugh. Anything!”

2 He Made His Own Limoncello

After the incident on The View received national attention, DeVito capitalized on the heightened publicity in 2010 and released his own limoncello called Danny DeVito’s Premium Limoncello Original. Critics praised it for being a “notable exception to the general mediocrity of “

1 He Almost Drowned On The Set Of Always Sunny

In the season 11 finale, “The Gang Goes to Hell: Part Two” a scene takes place in which the gang all hold hands as the room fills to the top with water. Charlie Day said that unfortunately, "Danny's incredibly buoyant, like a buoy," which meant the stunt team had to weigh him down so he wouldn’t continually float to the top. Day continued, "And when the shot was over and we were all trying to get back to the surface for air, we all quickly got through the water but because we weighed him down, he sort of got halfway and was going nowhere. And that look of panic in his eyes of like, 'This is the end, these guys killed me.'" Danny added, "It was a good experience. I have lived a good life and it flashed before my eyes in that scene."

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Top Image: FX