There's just something about Danny DeVito that makes him extremely likable, even if
he's playing a less-than-savory individual on screen.
However, despite all the joy he brings us, DeVito has lived a life that's been touched
by tragedy, sorrow, and hardship.
Here are some heartbreaking details about Danny DeVito.
Certainly the most talked-about physical attribute of Danny DeVito is his stature — he's one
of the most noticeably small actors in Hollywood, standing around 60 inches tall.
CelebHeights reported that he once said:
"On a really good day, I'm five feet short.
It's pretty difficult for me to play anything but the little guy."
But the reason behind DeVito's height is medical.
According to Yahoo!
News, the beloved actor was born with Fairbank's disease, also known as multiple epiphyseal
dysplasia, or MED.
The National Institutes of Health characterizes the condition as a musculoskeletal disease,
which affects and inhibits the development of growth of bone and cartilage.
In addition to below-average adult height, people with MED are also more likely to suffer
from early-onset arthritis, pain in the joints, curvature of the spine, and difficulty walking.
According to a Rolling Stone profile, DeVito was never teased or bullied over his height
while growing up, and although it has limited the variety of roles available to him, he
thinks it was more of a help than a hindrance when he was first auditioning.
He told The Guardian:
"Because I wasn't so average.
Early on, when I'd go in for a part, people would go, 'Oh, I got two Shakespeare parts
like that."
According to Biography, when Danny DeVito was born in 1944, it was into an already sizable
family from Asbury Park, New Jersey, coping with challenges both common and unique.
DeVito's mother Julia DeVito was 40 years old at the time of his birth, and the parent
of two teenage daughters.
In other words, Danny's arrival was something of a surprise.
She bluntly told Rolling Stone in 2015:
"I didn't want him, but I'm so proud of him."
Meanwhile, Danny DeVito's father, Daniel DeVito, Sr., bopped around different low-to-moderately
paying jobs to support the family, including operating a candy store, a dry cleaners, and
a pool hall.
The elder DeVito also dealt with alcoholism, which made for a fraught family dynamic.
The actor said:
"My father had a drinking problem and was sick in that way.
And my father was a sweet man during the day.
But as soon as he had a drink, he went off the deep end.
I felt vulnerable."
His father's alcohol addiction was only partially what led Danny DeVito to leave home at 14,
when he convinced his parents to send him off to boarding school.
That way, he could escape heroin, which had been encroaching into Asbury Park in the late
1950s and ensnaring some of DeVito's friends.
There were other temptations, too.
He explained to The Guardian:
"What we were doing in those days were stolen pharmaceuticals.
One of my good friends wound up dying in prison.
It wasn't an uncommon thing."
Danny DeVito landed his first major film role in the 1975 adaptation of Ken Kesey's mental
hospital-set novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Here, DeVito actually reprised the role of Anthony Martini, which he originated in the
story's off-Broadway production — so it was a part he held close to his heart, and
one for which he was willing to put himself through a series of exhausting and painful
challenges.
To prepare for — and be respectful of — the role of a mentally ill man who endures frightening
hallucinations, DeVito spent time observing the residents of a facility on New York's
Wards Island.
He told the New York Post in 2017:
"I was pulling bits from them, stuff that wasn't in the book.
And Martini was shot down into the sea during World War II, so I always pictured the water
rising in the room.
That's why I always sat on my legs in the chair — 'cause in his mind, the water's
rising."
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was shot at the Oregon State Hospital, with the institution's
director, Dr. Dean R. Brooks, playing the fictional administrator, Dr. Spivey.
During production, DeVito suffered a mental health episode, developing such severe separation
anxiety from his then-girlfriend, Rhea Perlman, that he came up with an imaginary friend to
keep himself company.
According to the Independent, DeVito sought out and received treatment from Dr. Brooks.
In 2006, Danny DeVito appeared on "The View" to promote the movie "Deck the Halls," but
the most memorable takeaway from the interview was that DeVito was drunk — he'd admittedly
been out with pal George Clooney chugging limoncello the night before and hadn't sobered
up yet.
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, this led to DeVito launching his own limoncello
brand, with the booze naturally leading the actor into the restaurant business.
He'd met Florida restaurant businessman David Manero, and with a third partner, they opened
DeVito South Beach in Miami — after spending $7.5 million to renovate a building and creating
an expensive menu to generate an average ticket of $75 per person.
DeVito liked to show up at the restaurant and greet customers, but by 2010, the venture
was in deep trouble.
According to The Palm Beach Post, when Manero couldn't repay the hefty loans incurred over
DeVito South Beach, he unloaded his ownership over other restaurants in his portfolio.
That same year, employees sued the restaurant's management, alleging they were getting stiffed
on paychecks and their cut of tips.
According to the Miami New Times, a server snuck onto the restaurant's computers and
reportedly found proof of the slight.
NBC Miami also reported that DeVito, and DeVito South Beach, faced code violations from Florida
health inspectors.
The actor ultimately cut his losses and bailed, splitting from his business partners and leaving
a restaurant that shut down for good in 2011.
With all of the other drama and hardship he's experienced, it seemed like Danny DeVito at
least had a rock-solid relationship to count upon as the foundation of his life.
According to HuffPost, DeVito began a relationship in 1970 with fellow actor Rhea Perlman — best
known for her Emmy-winning stint on "Cheers," and for co-starring with DeVito in "Matilda".
12 years later, the pair got hitched and eventually had three kids together.
As one of the longest-lasting dual celebrity marriages in notoriously flaky Hollywood,
it sadly still didn't last forever: In 2012, after more than 40 years together as a couple,
DeVito and Perlman separated.
The next year, the pair got back together, but the second act didn't last, and they broke
up once more in 2017.
As of 2019, DeVito and Perlman have remained officially unattached to one another.
However, their lives are so intertwined — as it often goes with couples who wait until
much later in life to get divorced — that it makes things complicated.
On "Watch What Happens Live," Perlman said that she and DeVito are friendlier now than
in their last few years as a couple, explaining:
"Because all the tense stuff is gone."
She added that they talk to each other often and, quote, "really agree on almost everything
important."
DeVito agreed, telling People:
"We're friends.
We're happy.
Everybody's happy."
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