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One of the entertainment industry's most successful filmmakers, DANNY DEVITO (Producer)wrote, directed and produced several short films in his early Hollywood years, but his emergence as a filmmaker was finally recognized in 1987, when he directed and starred in Throw Momma From The Train. That success was followed two years later with The War of the Roses. Both films revealed a distinctive DeVito trademark in their use of darker comedic themes.
In 1992, DeVito added yet another dimension. With producer Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, he formed Jersey Films, and then directed and starred with Jack Nicholson in Hoffa for 20th Century Fox. Reality Bites was the company's first feature, on which DeVito served as producer, followed by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which won the coveted Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and received seven Academy Award* nominations.
Jersey has produced the motion pictures: Get Shorty, starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo and DeVito; Sunset Park, starring Rhea Perlman; Feeling Minnesota, starring Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz; Fierce Creatures, which reunited the cast of A Fish Called Wanda; Matilda, directed by and starring DeVito, Perlman and Mara Wilson; Gattaca, starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman; Out of Sight, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez; and Living Out Loud, starring DeVito and Holly Hunter.
Jersey recently released Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey, DeVito and Courtney Love. DeVito also stars in the upcoming Drowning Mona, a film produced by Jersey Shores (a division of Jersey Films), which is set for release in 2000. Other upcoming films in which DeVito appears, include Screwed, The Big Kahuna and The Virgin Suicides.
DeVito achieved prominence as the star of the hit television series Taxi, and later starred in such films as: Junior, Renaissance Man, Batman Returns, Jack the Bear, Other People's Money, Twins, Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, Wise Guys, Ruthless People and Tin Men.
Two films co-starring DeVito have won the Academy Award for Best Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Terms of Endearment.
DeVito attended Our Lady of Mt. Carmel grammar school and Oratory Prep School in Summit, New Jersey, but appeared in only one school play, as St. Francis of Assisi. After graduation, he pursued several odd jobs-always with the idea of acting in the back of his mind.
Finally, he applied to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and was accepted, graduating two years later. Unable to find work he headed for Hollywood and after years of being unemployed, returned to New York, where he was cast in one of three one-act plays presented together under the title The Man With The Flower In His Mouth.
Other stage performances followed in rapid succession, including Down The Morning Line, The Line of Least Existence, The Shrinking Bride and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. The last play shaped Danny's future, for three years later Michael Douglas, who had attended one performance, asked DeVito to re-create his role in the award-winning film version, starring Jack Nicholson. It was the role that brought DeVito his first national recognition.
After years of hard work on the stage and in such films as Goin' South, Lady Liberty, Scalawag and Hurry Up or I'll be 30, DeVito became an overnight success.
In 1975, under a grant from the American Film Institute, DeVito and Perlman wrote and produced Minestrone, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and has been translated into five languages. Later they wrote and produced a 16mm black-and-white short subject, The Sound Sleeper, which won first prize at the Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association competition. They appeared together in five episodes of Taxi.
DeVito directed himself and Perlman in an episode of Amazing Stories (1985) for Steven Spielberg and directed and starred with Perlman in The Ratings Game (1984), a biting satire of the television industry.
DeVito and Perlman developed their own company, New Street Productions. Their first two projects, What A Lovely Way to Spend An Evening (based on an experience DeVito had as a teenager in Asbury Park) and The Selling of Vince DeAngelo, were directed by DeVito for cable.
Winner of the coveted Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for his acting, DeVito also directed multiple episodes of Taxi.
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