Theresa Scialla: Age, Family, Career and Bio

Theresa Scialla, born Theresa DeVito on April 2, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York, was an American government worker and the middle sibling of actor Danny DeVito. She spent most of her life in Monmouth County, New Jersey, working as an inventory management specialist at Fort Monmouth, a U.S. Army communications research installation, before retiring in 1988. Theresa passed away on July 1, 2014, at her home in Interlaken, New Jersey, at the age of 80, remembered by family and colleagues alike as a devoted mother, grandmother, and woman of deep Catholic faith.

Quick Bio

Who Was Theresa Scialla?

Theresa Scialla was an American woman best known as the elder sister of actor and filmmaker Danny DeVito, who achieved global fame as Louie De Palma in Taxi and through film roles spanning more than five decades. She lived entirely outside public life, building an independent career and family in Monmouth County, New Jersey, while her younger brother became one of Hollywood’s most recognisable character actors.

Her public profile exists almost entirely because of her family connection. Yet the facts of her own life, drawn from her published obituary and colleague tributes, reveal a person of genuine substance: a long-serving civil service professional, a devoted mother and grandmother, and a woman whose faith and warmth earned her the description “an angel” from multiple people who knew her independently. Other profiles of figures who shaped famous careers from behind the scenes can be found across xxbrits.uk’s latest.

There is also a specific career connection between Theresa and Danny’s path into entertainment. After Danny graduated from Oratory Prep School in 1962, his first job was as a cosmetician at his sister’s beauty salon in New Jersey, the same role that led him to enrol at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts when a client died and her family asked him to style her hair for the funeral. Theresa’s salon, in that narrow sense, was part of the chain of events that put Danny DeVito on a stage.

Early Life and Background

Childhood and Family

Theresa DeVito was born on April 2, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York, the second of three children born to Daniel Michael DeVito Sr. and Julia DeVito, an Italian-American Catholic family that subsequently moved to Asbury Park, New Jersey, where all three children were raised.

The DeVito family’s heritage traced back to San Fele in the Basilicata region of southern Italy and to the Arbëresh Albanian community of Calabria, a dual ancestry that gave the family a distinct cultural identity rooted in two overlapping southern European traditions. Faith, food, and close community bonds defined daily life. Their mother Julia was a homemaker known for cooking traditional regional Italian dishes including fennel, broccoli rabe, and dandelion greens, recipes that formed the heart of the family kitchen and which Danny has referenced in interviews about his childhood.

Their father Daniel Sr. was a small business owner. Over his working life he ran several ventures including a candy shop on Springwood Avenue in Asbury Park, a dry cleaning shop, a dairy outlet, a diner, and a pool hall. He also accepted bets on horse races from home in later years. He died in 1982. Their mother Julia passed away in 1990.

Theresa was the middle child. Her older sister Angela DeVito Lucia preceded her in the birth order, and Danny DeVito, born November 17, 1944, was the youngest by approximately ten years. All three children attended local Catholic schools and were raised with a strong emphasis on church participation, family loyalty, and mutual support.

Education

Theresa’s education has not been publicly confirmed beyond her upbringing in the Catholic school system of Asbury Park and Neptune, New Jersey. No university or college affiliation appears in any public record connected to her name.

Her subsequent career in government inventory management at Fort Monmouth implies post-secondary qualification or vocational training in logistics or administration, but no specific institution has been named in any source. Her younger brother Danny attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel grammar school and Oratory Prep School in Summit, New Jersey, the private boarding schools their father chose when Asbury Park’s environment became less stable during Danny’s teenage years.

Career

The Beauty Salon

Before her government career, Theresa ran a beauty salon in New Jersey, a business that played a direct role in her younger brother Danny’s path into entertainment.

After Danny DeVito graduated from Oratory Prep School in 1962, he took a job as a cosmetician at Theresa’s salon. A client at the salon died, and her family asked Danny to style her hair for the funeral. That experience prompted him to enrol at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York the following year, originally to study cosmetology further. At the academy, he discovered acting and abandoned the original plan entirely. The salon Theresa operated thus sits, indirectly, at the origin of one of American cinema’s most distinctive careers.

Fort Monmouth: Government Career

Theresa Scialla worked as an inventory management specialist at Fort Monmouth, a major U.S. Army research and development installation in Eatontown, New Jersey, focused on military communications technology. She served in that role from at least 1976 until her retirement in 1988.

Fort Monmouth was established in 1917 and served for decades as the Army’s primary centre for communications and electronics research. Working there required precision, accountability, and the kind of consistent professional reliability that inventory management demands at a military facility. Theresa held her position through more than a decade of service before retiring.

A former colleague left a tribute on Theresa’s memorial page in 2016, recalling her as one of their earliest friends at the Fort Monmouth Commissary from as far back as 1976, and describing her as “so kind and a wonderful person.” That firsthand account from a workplace colleague confirms the warmth that appears across multiple independent tributes to her character.

Fort Monmouth was officially closed by the U.S. Army in 2011, three years before Theresa’s death, as part of a broader base realignment process. Theresa had already been retired for more than two decades by that point, having left the installation in 1988 after a long career.

Location Management Credit

Theresa holds a single film credit on record: a location management role on The Sound Sleeper (1973), a short film directed by her brother Danny DeVito.

The Sound Sleeper was DeVito’s directorial debut as a filmmaker, and Theresa’s involvement in a location management capacity represents a brief, family-connected moment of proximity to the film industry rather than a professional entertainment career. Her full working life remained grounded in New Jersey and in government service.

Connection to Danny DeVito

Theresa and Danny shared a childhood on Second Avenue in Asbury Park and maintained a close family bond throughout their lives, despite the vast difference in their public profiles.

Danny DeVito, born November 17, 1944, became one of American television and cinema’s most recognisable actors, winning a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his role as the abrasive taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in Taxi (1978 to 1983) and building a parallel career as a film director and producer. He co-founded Jersey Films in 1991, producing titles including Pulp Fiction (1994) and Erin Brockovich (2000), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Since 2006 he has played Frank Reynolds on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Danny’s affection for his New Jersey roots, and for his family there, is well documented. In a New Jersey Monthly interview, he described the two houses he owns in Interlaken, where his sisters and their families lived, as a place he returned to whenever he wanted, knowing there would be pasta, cold cuts, good bread, and good cheese waiting. That reference to his sisters in the context of Interlaken confirms what Theresa’s obituary also records: she lived in Interlaken in her final years, in a home Danny owned. A memorial tribute from a community member noted the loss to Danny directly, writing that “sisters are very special,” a small but public acknowledgement of how his sister’s death affected him personally.

Their mother Julia also had a brief screen presence: she appeared as Gabriella De Palma in two episodes of Taxi and in a role on Gimme a Break!, a family connection to Danny’s television world that Theresa herself never replicated. Profiles of other siblings of famous figures are covered regularly across xxbrits voices.

Personal Life

Relationships

Theresa DeVito married Fred Scialla and took his surname, becoming Theresa Scialla. Her husband Fred Scialla is not referenced in her obituary as a survivor, which indicates he predeceased her, though no date or details of his death have been publicly confirmed.

Her marriage produced two children: her daughter Judy Page and her son Fred Scialla III. Judy married James Page and lived in Interlaken at the time of Theresa’s death. Fred Scialla III predeceased his mother, one of two family losses noted in Theresa’s obituary alongside her sister Angela and her parents.

Family

Theresa is survived, according to her published obituary, by her daughter Judy Page and son-in-law James Page of Interlaken; grandchildren Kate Page and Tara Aho and her husband David; niece Nancy Gallo; nephew Peter Lucia; her brother Danny DeVito and his then-wife Rhea Perlman; and DeVito’s children Lucy DeVito, Gracie DeVito, and Jake DeVito.

Rhea Perlman, Danny DeVito’s wife of over 30 years, is listed as a sister-in-law in the obituary. Danny and Rhea separated in 2012 but have not officially divorced and have reconciled at various points. The obituary’s inclusion of Rhea reflects the family’s enduring ties regardless of the couple’s relationship status at the time.

Theresa was interred at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Neptune Township, New Jersey, a short distance from Asbury Park where she grew up. Profiles of similar figures who remained close to famous siblings while maintaining independent lives include Leslie Knipfing, the sister of actor Kevin James, and Dorrie Hall, the sister of Diane Keaton.

Achievements and Milestones

Theresa Scialla’s achievements were those of a private life lived with consistency and purpose: a long government career, a family raised with strong values, and a reputation for warmth and kindness that outlasted her death by years in the tributes of those who knew her.

• Operated a beauty salon in New Jersey in the early 1960s, the same salon where Danny DeVito worked as a cosmetician before enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
• Served as an inventory management specialist at Fort Monmouth, U.S. Army, New Jersey, from at least 1976 until her retirement in 1988.
• Contributed to her brother’s directorial debut as location manager on The Sound Sleeper (1973).
• Raised two children in Interlaken, New Jersey, within the same Monmouth County community where she and Danny grew up.
• Described in her obituary as “an extraordinary mother, grandmother, sister and friend,” language that reflects her central importance to those around her.
• Remembered by multiple independent tributes on her memorial page as “an angel,” a consistent characterisation from people who knew her in different contexts.

Interesting Facts About Theresa Scialla

Theresa Scialla’s beauty salon was the direct catalyst for Danny DeVito’s acting career: without her salon and the client who died there, DeVito would likely never have enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1963.

• Theresa was the middle child of three, born approximately ten years before Danny DeVito, making her closer in age to their parents’ generation than to her youngest sibling.
• The DeVito family’s Italo-Albanian heritage, tracing specifically to the Arbëresh community of Calabria, is an unusual and often-overlooked detail in Danny DeVito’s biographical record that Theresa shared.
• Danny DeVito owned the houses in Interlaken where both his sisters and their families lived, a practical expression of his loyalty to his New Jersey roots and his family that continued throughout his Hollywood career.
• Fort Monmouth, where Theresa worked, was the same Army installation that developed the technology used in the first transatlantic satellite communication in 1962, one year before she likely began her career there.
• Theresa’s mother Julia appeared on Taxi, the show that made Danny DeVito famous, under the character name Gabriella De Palma, a family cameo that Danny arranged for his mother.
• Theresa died at home in Interlaken, the same small borough where Danny has maintained a family residence for decades, meaning she spent her final years within the same close family geography she had always inhabited.