Danny DeVito’s favourite Danny DeVito movies: “That was a wonderful experience”
If there’s one person in the public eye who has spent a lifetime disproving the phrase ‘It’s the size that counts’, that person may well be Danny DeVito. Despite his diminutive stature, the New Jersey native has spent decade after decade appearing in some of the most iconic TV shows and movies in history, very quickly forcing audiences to forget his small appearance, standing at five feet no inches, with the sheer weight of his performance.
Never one to shy away from leaning in to the comedy potential of being on the short side – bear witness to his amazing turn as a stripper-for-hire in Friends – DeVito gained his serious acting chops on the stage in the late 1960s, including in a theatre production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
His performance as ‘Martini’ landed him the same role in the 1975 movie alongside Jack Nicholson, widely thought of as one of the greatest films of all time. But comedy seemed to be where DeVito truly excelled, and that was borne out when he won an Emmy and Golden Globe for the sitcom Taxi, in the role he landed in the most iconic fashion imaginable by throwing the script down on the table in the audition and demanding, “Who wrote this shit?”
After that TV success, DeVito was suddenly one of the most successful and recognisable actors working in Hollywood. He would regularly be cast in blockbusters like Romancing the Stone with Michael Douglas and Terms of Endearment, again with Nicholson, in a 1983 movie that swept the board when award season rolled around.
But for many people, the film that best pairs DeVito’s success and the feel of the 1980s as a decade has to be Twins. It saw DeVito star opposite action legend Arnold Schwarzenegger as physically opposite brothers, who hilariously are apparently so different looks-wise as a result of some kind of genetic laboratory experiment. Despite a nonsensical plot, the comedy was an enormous success; the ‘80s best-loved big guy and short guy teaming up being a no-brainer for any casting director.
That pushed DeVito’s fame even further and landed him another truly iconic role as ‘The Penguin’ in 1992’s Batman Returns, the Tim Burton-directed sequel that also featured Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Keaton. But aside from his work as an actor, DeVito had already been busy behind the camera, as a director of some repute almost from the beginning of his career. Toward the tail-end of the ‘80s he began to direct major movies, many of which were box-office hits.
DeVito is perhaps more proud of those than even the acting roles, once telling Vanity Fair: “Over the years I’ve watched all the movies, several times: [Throw] Momma [From the Train], War of the Roses, Hoffa. Death to Smoochy I’ve watched the most. Matilda, with the kids, I watched a million times.
“Oh, I was working with (fellow film director) Barry Levinson recently, we did a movie called The Survivor. And when we were getting ready to do it, I just threw (1987 comedy) Tin Men on. That was a wonderful experience.”
To modern audiences, DeVito is arguably best known for his incredible work as his character Frank Reynolds in FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, one of the funniest shows in TV history. For some 17 years, DeVito has shown himself entirely committed to the absolutely outrageous insanity of the concept and character, especially in his depraved daily existence living alongside Charlie Day.
Joining the cast in the series’s second season, bringing DeVito in proved to be a masterstroke by the show’s creators, Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton – elevating what was an already amusing sitcom into a genuinely riotous one. Currently in its 17th season and with DeVito now in his 80s, it shows no signs of stopping yet.
