While he may be short in stature, Danny DeVito’s acting resume is enormous. His career spans more than five decades and includes iconic sitcoms such as Taxi and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and blockbuster movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Romancing the Stone, Batman Returns, and Jumanji: The Next Level. Recently, however, rumors of the beloved actor’s passing have been circulating online. Are they true? Is Danny DeVito still alive? Here’s the scoop.
How Did The Rumors Begin?
Rumblings of the Emmy-winner’s death first surfaced in a 2021 Facebook post promoting an article on the website Conservativetears.com. Leading with the headline “Danny DeVito, Beloved Actor, and Avid Trump Supporter, Dead at 74,” the post went on to report that the Throw Momma From the Train star had passed away after “battling an undisclosed illness for some time.”
However, you only have to read to the next paragraph to see that this article is anything but legit. “A spokesman for the cats said they were pleased that Mr. DeVito had alerted the building manager that he believed he was dying, allowing paramedics to remove his body before the family got hungry,” it reads.
The post goes on to reveal itself as a pure and very intentional piece of clickbait, saying: “Danny was best known for being a funny little bastard, but for the sake of this article we’ll also point out his love for Trump and all things Trump says because that’s really all the audience that stopped reading after the first sentence then clicked a shiny ad care about.”
While it’s obvious this report is a joke if you read the actual post, it’s not as easy to tell on Facebook. Instead of clicking through to the article, people clearly just read the headline and took it as fact. More than 100 people commented on the post, sending sincere condolences such as, “Oh no! How sad! I loved him! Thank you for all your great movies Danny! May you RIP Sir!”
Is Danny DeVito Dead?
Luckily for his friends, family, and fans, Danny DeVito is still very much alive. He’s currently starring in the 15th season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and is busy making the upcoming movie, Haunted Mansion, with Owen Wilson, Rosario Dawson, and Tiffany Haddish.
That said, the 77-year-old actor come close to death back in 2016 while filming an episode of Always Sunny. According to co-star Charlie Day, DeVito nearly drowned while working on a special underwater sequence with the rest of the cast. “Danny’s incredibly buoyant, like a buoy,” Day told Conan O’Brien. “It was hard to get him down, so we really had to weigh him down to get the shot where we’re all holding hands. When the shot was over and we were all trying to get back to the surface for air, we all quickly got through the water but because we weighed him down, he sort of got halfway and was going nowhere. And that look of panic in his eyes of like, ‘This is the end, these guys killed me.'”
Fortunately, DeVito survived and wasn’t too upset about the near-miss. “It was a good experience,” he said in an interview with Extra. “I’ve lived a good life and it flashed before my eyes in that scene.”