Career beginnings Perlman began her acting career with a small role as an attendant in the
off-off-Broadway play
Dracula Sabbat, which ran from September 1970 to June 1971. In 1972, she played a bit role in the film
Hot Dogs for Gauguin. That same year she appeared in
Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective's production of
Up – An Uppity Revue, along with her future husband,
Danny DeVito. One of Perlman's first notable parts was a recurring role on the television show
Taxi as Zena, the sweet girlfriend of
Louie De Palma (played by DeVito). Following that, she had a role in a small play portraying a much tougher character. Producers
Glen and Les Charles saw Perlman in that play, which led to her landing the role as wisecracking barmaid
Carla Tortelli on their sitcom
Cheers in 1982.
Cheers The series struggled with ratings in its first season, but by the time it ended in 1993, it was one of the most popular and successful sitcoms of all time, winning 20 Emmy awards out of a total 95 nominations. Perlman won the
Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy four times: in 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1989. Over her 11 seasons on
Cheers, Perlman was nominated for an Emmy every year but 1992, becoming the
Cheers star to have the most wins and nominations. She was also nominated for a
Golden Globe for
Best Supporting Actress six times, more than anyone else in that category. In 2011, NBC named Carla Tortelli as one of the greatest TV characters of all time. In 1986, Perlman starred in an episode of
Steven Spielberg's
Amazing Stories titled "The Wedding Ring," which also starred DeVito as her character's husband.
Motion pictures In the 1990s, Perlman starred in several TV movies and motion pictures. In 1992, she starred in the made-for-TV-movie, ''
To Grandmother's House We Go'' opposite
Ashley Olsen and
Mary-Kate Olsen, playing the wife of
Jerry Van Dyke's character; the couple kidnapped the Olsen Twins' characters, hoping to cash in on ransom before Christmas. Other TV films in which Perlman starred included the dramas
A Place to Be Loved and
In Spite of Love. Her motion picture roles included
There Goes The Neighborhood (1992),
Canadian Bacon (1995),
Carpool (1996),
Sunset Park (1996), and
Matilda (1996). Perlman had a cameo in the film
10 Items Or Less (2006), and also starred in the 2007 independent film
Love Comes Lately. In 1994, Perlman voiced 9-Eye in
The Timekeeper, a
Circle-Vision show at the
Magic Kingdom in
Tomorrowland. She later starred in the 1996 sitcom
Pearl as the title character and was featured on the 2001 TV drama
Kate Brasher. Among Perlman's notable guest appearances was on the fourth-season premiere of
Becker, which starred
Cheers co-star
Ted Danson. She also appeared in a 2000 television film
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale, in which Perlman impersonated
Jackie Kennedy. That same year, Perlman portrayed a therapist called Dr. Parella in the film
Secret Cutting, which follows the story of a young girl named Dawn who
self-injures. In 2007, Perlman appeared as Bertha in the West End of London in the comedy
Boeing Boeing. The following year, she starred in the
Hallmark Channel original movie,
The Christmas Choir, and appeared in ''
Beethoven's Big Break'' as
Patricia Benji. In 2009, Perlman appeared as Tanya's mother on the series
Hung for
Home Box Office Networks. Two years later, Perlman had a guest appearance as Mittens in one episode of
Wilfred. In 2009, Perlman and her daughter
Lucy DeVito starred in the
off-Broadway play
Love, Loss, and What I Wore, adapted by
Nora and
Delia Ephron, at the
Westside Theatre.
Writing Perlman is the author of the illustrated children's book series
Otto Undercover, whose six books to date (as of the middle of May 2012) are
Born to Drive, Canyon Catastrophe, Water Balloon Doom, Toxic Taffy Takeover, The Brink of Ex-stink-tion, and
Brain Freeze. ==Personal life==