His career began with the part of Martini in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (reprising his role from the 1971 off-Broadway play). After Taxi, DeVito continued what became a successful movie career, beginning with a role in 1983's Terms of Endearment and as the comic rogue in the 1984 romantic adventure Romancing the Stone, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. All three reprised their roles in the 1985 sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. In 1986, he was in Ruthless People with Bette Midler and Judge Reinhold. In 1987, DeVito made his feature directing debut on dark comedy Throw Momma from the Train, in which he additionally starred, opposite Billy Crystal and Anne Ramsey. Two years later DeVito reunited with Douglas and Turner to direct and star with them in The War of the Roses.
Other notable work during this time includes Other People's Money with legend Gregory Peck, director Barry Levinson's Tin Men as a competitive salesman to Richard Dreyfuss, two co-starring vehicles with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the comedies Twins and Junior, and the villain The Penguin in director Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992). It is said that Jack Nicholson convinced DeVito to play The Penguin since Nicholson enjoyed great success as The Joker in the original Batman from 1989. Rather than portraying The Penguin as a suave and sophisticated gangster as he was in the comics, DeVito portrayed the Penguin as a deformed psychopath.
Although generally a comic actor, DeVito expanded into drama with such movies as Renaissance Man (1994) as Army Professor Bill Rago; The Rainmaker, (1997) as Deck Shifflet, a former insurance assessor; Hoffa (1992), which he directed and in which he co-starred with Jack Nicholson; L.A. Confidential as a sleazy reporter (1997); The Big Kahuna as a compassionate salesman Amos Calloway (1999); and Heist (2001), as a gangster nemesis to Gene Hackman.
DeVito grew up with a great passion for documentaries. And so in 2006, he began a partnership with Morgan Freeman's company ClickStar, where he hosts a documentary channel called Jersey Docs.
In addition to acting, DeVito has become a major film and television producer. Through his production company, Jersey Films, he has produced many movies, including Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Erin Brockovich, Gattaca,and Garden State. DeVito has also produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!.
In 1999, DeVito produced and co-starred in Man On The Moon, a movie about the unusual life of his former Taxi co-star, Andy Kaufman.
DeVito has directed six motion pictures, Throw Momma From the Train (1987), The War of the Roses (1989), Hoffa (1992), Matilda (1996), Death to Smoochy (2002), and Duplex (2003). He is set to direct his seventh feature, 2007's I Married a Witch, which will star Tom Cruise & Famke Janssen.
His films tend to have a bizarre, neo-surrealistic sensibility and gallows humor, though this was absent in the straightforward Hoffa biopic. This approach served him well at times, especially in The War of the Roses which was a commercial and critical success, however his last two films have not been anywhere as successful.[1]
In addition to his Taxi work, DeVito has voiced Herb Powell Homer Simpson's half-brother, on two episodes of The Simpsons. He earned a 2004 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, an episode of Friends, following four Emmy nominations (including a 1981 win) for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, for Taxi. In 2006, DeVito joined the cast of the FX Networks television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
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