Danny DeVito might not fit the mold of a typical Hollywood star, but his versatile talent has secured him a place in film history. Born 80 years ago on November 17, 1944, in New Jersey, the Italian-Albanian actor started his career working at his sister's hair salon and initially dreamed of becoming a professional makeup artist. He even applied to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York in the 1960s with this goal in mind, only to fall in love with acting while there.
DeVito’s breakthrough came in the following decade, with supporting roles in Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Andy Kaufman’s sitcom Taxi. By the 1980s, he had become one of America’s most beloved comedic actors, starring in classics like Twins and Junior alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, DeVito proved his range by stepping into darker roles, most memorably as the grotesque Gotham villain, the Penguin, in Batman Returns.
While filming Tim Burton’s 1992 superhero film, DeVito fully embraced method acting. Beyond donning heavy prosthetics to embody the Penguin, he took his commitment further—right down to what he ate on set.
In a 2019 interview with The Telegraph, DeVito stunned the journalist by revealing what he actually ate during the infamous scene where the Penguin devours a fish:
"Raw fish," he confirmed.
"Oh yes, it was real fish—mackerel. Fresh, of course. Movie stars only eat fresh fish! Don’t try to give us two-day-old fish—bring it straight from the market," he joked. However, in a 2020 interview with Los Angeles Magazine, DeVito recalled the fish differently:
"It was salmon. Yeah, I ate the fish. People ask, ‘Did you really eat raw fish?’ and I say, ‘Yeah, like no one’s ever eaten sushi before. It’s the same thing.’" Growing up in New Jersey, he explained, raw fish wasn’t an unusual delicacy for him.
Batman Returns marked DeVito’s first collaboration with Tim Burton, with whom he later worked on films like Big Fish (where he didn’t eat any fish!) and, most recently, Burton’s new horror-comedy, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
In addition to his thriving film career, the 80-year-old actor never said goodbye to television after Taxi, for which he won an Emmy in 1981. From his unforgettable turn as a striptease dancer on Friends to his iconic role as Frank in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which he joined in 2006, DeVito remains a small-screen favorite. In recent years, he also reunited with his longtime friend and former roommate, Michael Douglas, in a guest role on The Kominsky Method.
Happy 80th Birthday, Danny DeVito!
