By Penny Bancroft
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series Taxi (1978–1983), which won him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. He plays Frank Reynolds on the FXX sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005–present).
He is known for his film roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Terms of Endearment (1983), Head Office (1985), Ruthless People (1986), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Twins (1988), The War of the Roses (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Jack the Bear (1993), Junior (1994), Matilda (1996), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Big Kahuna (1999), Big Fish (2003), Deck the Halls (2006), When in Rome (2010), Wiener-Dog (2016), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). He has voiced roles in such films as Hercules (1997), The Lorax (2012), and Smallfoot (2018).
DeVito and Michael Shamberg founded Jersey Films. Soon afterwards, Stacey Sher became an equal partner. The production company is known for films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Garden State (2004), and Freedom Writers (2007). DeVito also owned Jersey Television, which produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911! DeVito and wife Rhea Perlman starred together in his 1996 film Matilda, based on Roald Dahl‘s children’s novel. DeVito was also one of the producers nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture for Erin Brockovich (2000).
From 2012 to 2013 he played Willie Clark in the West End revival of Neil Simon‘s The Sunshine Boys. He made his Broadway debut as Gregory Solomon in the revival of Arthur Miller‘s The Price (2017), earning a Tony Award nomination for his performance. He returned to Broadway in the Theresa Rebeck play I Need That (2023).
DeVito stands 4 feet 10 inches (1.47 metres) tall. His short stature is the result of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (Fairbank’s disease), a rare genetic disorder that affects bone growth.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
From a word of five letters, take two and leave one.
Stone. Alternate answers include: Clone, Drone, Prone, Phone
Died
- Queen Mary I of England –
- Auguste Rodin (sculptor) –
- Roger Peckinpaugh (baseball player) –
- Immanuel Velikovsky (author) –
- Esther Rolle (actress) –
- Dick O’Neill (actor) –
- Abba Eban (statesman, dominated Israeli diplomacy for decades) –
- Irving Brecher (comedy writer) –
Born
- George Grote (historian) –
- August Wilhelm Ambros (composer) –
- Grace Abbott (American reformer) –
- Lee Strasberg (director) –
- Isamu Noguchi (sculptor) –
- Stanley Cohen (biochemist) –
- Rock Hudson (actor) –
- Bob Mathias (decathlon athlete) –
- Gordon Lightfoot (singer) –
- Martin Scorsese (director) –
- Tom Seaver (baseball player) –
- Danny DeVito (actor) –
- Sophie Marceau (actress) –
- Daisy Fuentes (model & television host) –
- Raquel Castro (actress) –
Events
- The U.S. Congress met for the first time in the Capitol, Washington, D.C.–
- Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer sighted Antarctica–
- First U.S. postage stamp of American eagle issued–
- Douglas C. Engelbart patented the computer mouse–
- A turkey was plucked in 1 minute 30 seconds, setting world record–
- Arnold Schwarzenegger inaugurated as Governor of California–
- The soap opera All My Children taped its 9,000th episode–
- The world’s oldest champagne (salvaged from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea) was uncorked and sampled. Wine experts date the bottles as being from the early 19th century.–
Weather
- Remarkable aurora borealis shows were seen throughout the United States–
- A tornado touched down in Cass County, Indiana–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
