Danny DeVito's Star Unveiled on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Danny DeVito received the 2,445th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, honoring a career that started slowly but ultimately resulted in success in front of and behind the camera.

The ceremony was held in connection with the Sept. 13 release of the DVD of the sixth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the FX comedy in which DeVito co-stars as the ne'er-do-well co-owner of a Philadelphia bar.

"The question is, do I get to take this home or do we leave it here?'' DeVito joked. "Or do I move into this store over here, and every day I come and polish it?''

Putting a new twist on the tradition of having the honoree be the first person to step on the sidewalk star, DeVito took off a shoe and sock and stood on his star with a bare foot.

The star was installed at 6906 Hollywood Blvd. in front of store.

Born Nov. 17, 1944, in Asbury Park, NJ, the diminutive DeVito took a job as a cosmetician at his sister's beauty salon after graduating from high school in 1962. A year later, he enrolled at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts so he could learn more about cosmetology.

While at the academy, he fell in love with acting and decided to pursue a career in it. After years of unemployment in both New York and Hollywood, one of his professors cast DeVito in the starring role of a one-act play for $60 a week.

He would go on to appear in several other off-Broadway productions, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as delusional mental patient Anthony Martini, a role he reprised in the 1975 Academy Award-winning film.

DeVito's first high-profile role was as the caustic dispatcher Louie De Palma on Taxi, which ran on ABC from 1978-82 and NBC in the 1982-83 season.

DeVito received four Emmy nominations as outstanding supporting actor in a comedy or variety series, winning the award in 1981.

DeVito's film credits include Batman Returns as the Penguin; Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile and The War of the Roses with his longtime friend Michael Douglas; Twins and Junior opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger; Terms of Endearment; Ruthless People; Tin Men; Hoffa; and Matilda.

He directed Throw Momma from the Train; The War of the Roses; Hoffa; Matilda; Death to Smoochy; and Duplex.

DeVito's movie producing credits include best picture nominee Erin Brockovich; Pulp Fiction; Get Shorty; Man on the Moon; Gattaca; and Garden State.

— City News Service