Known for his combination of storytelling and illusion, his performance, in a career spanning more than 40 years, have earned 11 Guinness World Records,[3] a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame[4] and a knighthood by the French government.

[22] At 18, Copperfield enrolled at New York City's Jesuit-based Fordham University, but, three weeks into his freshman year, he left to play the lead role in the musical The Magic Man in Chicago.

At age 19, he created and headlined for several months the first "Magic of David Copperfield" show at the Pagoda Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii, with the help of sound and lighting designer Willy Martin.

One of his most famous illusions occurred on television on April 8, 1983: A live audience of 20 tourists was seated in front of a giant curtain attached to two lateral scaffoldings built on Liberty Island in an enclosed viewing area.

Copperfield, with help from Jim Steinmeyer[28] and Don Wayne, raised the curtain before lowering it again a few seconds later to reveal that the space where the Statue of Liberty once stood was empty.

A helicopter hovered overhead to give an aerial view of the illusion and the statue appeared to have vanished, with only the circle of lights surrounding it still present and visible.

[34][35] In 1996, in collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola, David Ives, and Eiko Ishioka, Copperfield's Broadway show Dreams & Nightmares broke box office records in New York at the Martin Beck Theatre.

[36] Reviewer Greg Evans described the sold-out show in Variety magazine: "With a likable, self-effacing demeanor that rarely comes across in his TV specials, Copperfield leads the audience through nearly two hours of truly mind-boggling illusions.

Copperfield climaxes his show with a flying routine, seven years in the making, that defies both logic and visual evidence, he could probably retire just by selling his secrets to future productions of Peter Pan".

On April 5, 2009, Copperfield made his first live TV appearance for some time when he entertained the audience at the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards with two illusions.

First, he made singer Taylor Swift appear inside an apparently empty translucent-sided elevator as it was lowered from the ceiling; he then sawed her in half in his Clearly Impossible illusion.

[47][48] In January 2011 Copperfield joined the cast of the feature film Burt Wonderstone with Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini and Olivia Wilde.

The show featured many aspects of Copperfield's personal life and family—with tours of his island home and Las Vegas conjuring museum—and a sampling of his illusions and magic effects.

During the interview, he and his girlfriend Chloé Gosselin, a French fashion model, announced their engagement and appeared together briefly with their young daughter, strolling down the beach on the island.

[55][56] Copperfield notes that his role models were not magicians, that "My idols were Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Orson Welles and Walt Disney ... they took their individual art forms and they moved people with them...

[58] Copperfield owns the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, which houses the world's largest[59] collection of historically significant magic memorabilia, books and artifacts.

Begun in 1991 when Copperfield purchased the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, which contained the world's largest collection of Houdini memorabilia,[2] the museum comprises approximately 80,000 items, including Houdini's Water Torture Cabinet and Metamorphosis Trunk, Orson Welles' Buzz Saw illusion, and automata created by Robert-Houdin.

[69] Copperfield has said that the islands may contain the Fountain of Youth, a claim that resulted in him receiving a Dubious Achievement Award from Esquire magazine in 2006.

[83] On December 17, 2008, during a live performance in Las Vegas, a 26-year-old assistant named Brandon was sucked into the spinning blades of a 12 feet (3.7 m) high industrial fan that Copperfield walks through.

Since 2016, Copperfield has campaigned for Congressional Resolution 642, which would “recognize magic as a rare and valuable art form and national treasure".

[96] On August 25, 2000, Copperfield unsuccessfully sued Fireman's Fund Insurance Company for reimbursement of a $506,343 ransom paid to individuals in Russia who had commandeered the entertainer's equipment there.

[105] In 2018, a lawsuit alleging that a British tourist and audience member Gavin Cox was injured during a November 2013 performance, was resolved in Copperfield's favor.

[106] In August 2024, David Copperfield was sued by the board of the Galleria condominium in Manhattan, New York, for $2.5 million connected to the negligence and damage of his unit that threatens the building's structural integrity.

[109][110] In January 2010, the Bellevue City Prosecutor's Office brought misdemeanor charges against Carroll for prostitution and allegedly lying to police in another case.

[118] In May 2024, The Guardian published an investigation in which 16 women accused Copperfield of engaging in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior, with the alleged incidents spanning a time range from the late 1980s to 2014.

"[120] In 1993 at a Berlin celebrity gala Copperfield met German supermodel Claudia Schiffer when he brought her on stage to participate in a mind-reading act and his flying illusion, and in January 1994 they became engaged.

During the engagement, Schiffer sometimes appeared on stage with Copperfield to act as his special guest assistant in illusions including being sawn in half.

[137] In March 1982, Copperfield founded Project Magic,[138] a rehabilitation program to help disabled patients regain lost or damaged dexterity skills by using sleight of hand as physical therapy.

Copperfield made an appearance on Oprah Radio in April 2008 to talk with host Dr. Mehmet Oz about how magic can help disabled people.

[140] Copperfield organized relief efforts after Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas in 2019, using his own plane to fly in supplies.