His original name is Tshering Phintso Denzongpa became famous as Danny from Bollywood. He was born on 25th Feb 1948 in Sikkim. He got admission to Armed Force Medical College Pune and went there to study Medicine but his interest was in Art. When he came to know about Pune Film & Television Institute, he shifted to an acting course.
Jaya Bhaduri was his classmate, who suggested him to change his name to 'Danny'.He also became a good friend of Amitabh Bachchan, they used to play tennis together in the early 70s. He got his first role in Zaroorat(1972) but got his major break in Gulzar's Mere Apne (1971), where he had a positive role. He had his first played an antagonist in B.R.Chopra's Dhundh (1973), where he played the role of a crippled and frustrated husband.
He is also a good singer, he was first given a chance to sing, 'Mera Naam Aao' by S.D. Burman in the film Yeh Gulistan Hamara in 1972. later he sang in a few films. He has sung with Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle.
With Asha Bhosle, he sang a duet "Suno Suno Kasam Se" in the Hindi film Kala Sona in 1975 picturized on him, became a hit, He also sang with Mohammad Rafi "Mujhe Doston Tum Gale Lagaa Lo" from Naya Daur 1978, in the same film he sang a duet with Kishore Kumar "Botal Khaali Hone To Do"
He has sung a Nepali duet with Asha Bhosle, "Aage aage topai ko gola pachhi pachhi machinegun barara" in 1976. This song was shown by Danny to Rajesh Khanna who liked the song tremendously. Then Rajesh Khanna requested R.D. Burman to compose the song – "Sang Mere Nikle The Sajan" from the 1981 film Phir Wohi Raat, which was directed by Danny himself
His most applauded negative characters are in Bandish (1980) as Kapil Kumar, Phir Wahi Raat as "Ashok", Dharm Aur Qanoon (1984), as SP "Kader", Kanoon Kya Karega (1984), as "Raghuvir Singh", Andar Baahar (1984), as "Shera", Oonche Log (1985), as "Thakur Maan Singh", Aandhi Toofan (1986), as "Balbir" Bhagwaan Dada (1986), as "Gangwaa", Agneepath (1990), as "Kancha Cheena", Hum (1991), as "Bakhtawar", Ghatak: Lethal, as "Kaatya", Krantiveer (1994), as "Chatur Singh", Pukar, (2000) as "Abhrush" and Indian, as "Shankar Singhania". He was pitted against Pran in the film Sanam Bewafa, Paap Ki Duniya, Gurudev and 1942: A Love Story. His command over the Urdu language came in handy in films such as Sawan Kumar's Sanam Bewafa and Mukul Anand's Khuda Gawah.
In recent years he appeared in Jai Ho (2014), co-starring Salman Khan and Bang Bang (2014), co-starring Hrithik Roshan.
He was nominated 5 times as the Best Villain and 5 times as Best Supporting actor and won it twice in Sanam Bewafa(1992) and Khuda Gawah(1993). He was also given Padamshri by Govt of India.