Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 19:41, 21 September 2006

Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, producer, and musician (he sings, and plays the guitar). After becoming a successful stand-up comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member, he went on to become a major Hollywood actor and has starred in seven $100 million films. While he is best known for his comedic roles, he has also had success in serious roles in the films Spanglish and Punch-Drunk Love.

Biography

Early life

Sandler was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish American parents, Stan and Judy Sandler. He has three older siblings, Scott, Liz and Val. Adam was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, attending Manchester Central High School.

Career

In the mid to late 1980s, Sandler portrayed Theo Huxtable's friend Smitty on The Cosby Show (1985–1989). He also was a performer for the MTV game show Remote Control, on which he made appearances as the characters "Trivia Delinquent" or "Stud Boy."

Sandler started performing in comedy clubs by spontaneously taking the stage at a club in Boston. He was then discovered by comedian Dennis Miller, who caught Sandler's act in Los Angeles. Miller immediately recommended him to Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels. Sandler was hired as a writer for SNL in 1990 and became a featured player the following year, quickly making a name for himself by performing amusing original songs on the show, including "The Chanukah Song". He left the show in 1995 to focus on his acting career.

Sandler's first successful starring role was in 1989 were he starred in the movie Babes Ahoy also known as Going Overboard.In 1995 He came out with Billy Madison, in which he plays a grown man repeating grades 1–12 to earn the right to inherit his father's multi-million dollar hotel empire—and, more importantly, his father's respect. He followed this movie up with other financially successful comedies such as Happy Gilmore (1996) and The Wedding Singer (1998). He was initially cast in the bachelor party themed comedy/thriller Very Bad Things, but had to back out because of his work in other movies at the same time. After The Waterboy (1998), Sandler reached box-office superstardom, where he has remained.

Although most of his earlier films were almost universally despised by movie critics, many of his recent films starting with Punch-Drunk Love have received almost uniformly positive reviews, leading many movie critics to believe that Sandler possesses considerable acting ability that they believed had been previously wasted on poorly written scripts and characters with no development. Audiences have remained faithful to Sandler's slapstick humor to the tune of $100-million-plus grossing movies. Sandler has moved outside the genre of goofball humor to take on more serious parts such as the aforementioned Punch-Drunk Love (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe), and Spanglish.

At one point, Sandler was considered for the part that went to Jamie Foxx in Collateral (2004). He also was one of the finalists along with Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp for the role of Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but Depp in the end got the role. Most recently, he starred in the movie Click (2006), which features some humor typical of his earlier films as well as a serious message about the stresses of everyday life. He will return to more dramatic fare with Mike Binder's Empty City, a drama about a man who lost his entire family in 9/11 and rekindles a friendship with his old college roommate (played by Don Cheadle). His next comedy will be I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, in which he and Kevin James will portray firemen who pretend to be a gay couple in order to receive domestic partner benefits.

Personal life

Sandler, an alumni member of Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity, graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1988. On June 22, 2003, he married model Jackie Titone, whom he had met on the set of Sandler's film Big Daddy. Sandler and Titone worked together again in the Rob Schneider comedy Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, which Sandler executive-produced. They welcomed their first child, a daughter named Lola Marie Titone-Sandler, on May 6, 2006. The child's name has also been reported as Sadie Madison Sandler. She is named after his father and his wife's grandfather.

He also has a nephew, Jared Sandler, who has been in three of his movies.

Though Sandler rarely gives interviews in print, he does post short videos on his website sporadically.

Trivia

• Usually says the word "fuck" at least once in every movie.
• Is rarely in any movie lower than PG-13.
• Named from two of his most popular early films (Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore), the logo for his production company Happy Madison appears at the beginning of Sandler's films produced by Happy Madison; the logo features his late father.
• Sandler played Satan in Dirty Work and the son of Satan in Little Nicky.
• Sandler has never done sequels to any of his movies.
• Since Chris Farley's death, Adam Sandler's movies usually include a reference to Farley.
• He often casts Allen Covert, Blake Clark, Steve Buscemi, Peter Dante, Jonathan Loughran, Rob Schneider, and former SNL players in his films.
• In most of his movies, the leading lady's name starts with a "V" (i.e., Vicki Vallencourt, Veronica Vaughn, Virginia Venit, Vanessa, Valerie).
• Usually his characters love a brand name food (i.e., Hunt's Snack Packs, Subway, Popeye's Chicken, Reese's, Twinkies and others).
• He often plays a character with a bad temper, or a short fuse.
• At one time, Sandler dated actress Alicia Silverstone.
• He is a regular season ticket holder of the New York Yankees and is considered a big fan.
• He starred alongside Drew Barrymore in both The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates.
• Adam's comedy album Stan and Judy's Kid set a record for most albums sold by a comedy album in its first week. It debuted at #16 on the Billboard charts. All three of his previous comedy albums sold at least in the region of a million copies.
• He is a fan of professional wrestling, and most of his self-written films have references to professional wrestling in them. Five professional wrestlers had a role in The Longest Yard due to Sandler's insistence. He was also seen at WWE Wrestlemania 21.
• Sandler made a cameo appearance on an episode of The Price is Right during the "Happy Gilmore Showcase." Host Bob Barker appeared in the movie Happy Gilmore which featured a famous fight scene with Sandler's character.
• He is a huge fan of the band Styx, and will often feature their music in his movies.
• Although he did not attend the Syracuse University, he frequently wears Syracuse orange and blue sweatshirts and t-shirts in his movies.
• Adam had a guest spot as a special audience member in an episode of The Showbiz Show with David Spade.
• Adam was the feature guest on the final episode of John McEnroe's eponymous CNBC talk show, airing in late 2004. McEnroe had appeared in two of Sandler's movies, both times as himself (Mr. Deeds and Anger Management).
• He is often spotted at New York Rangers games.
• He was parodied in the South Park episode AWESOM-O as a simplistic and repetitive filmmaker. The character of Cartman, pretending to be an all-knowing robot, rails off hundreds of movie ideas all featuring Adam Sandler in similar plots; this was a desperate and spontaneous response to movie studio executives asking Cartman the robot for movie ideas that would guarantee large profits.
• Adam Sandler's reportedly favorite saying is "My name is Adam Sandler, and I am shit."
• When he was younger, he wanted to grow up to become a fireman.
• He is good friends with comedian Norm MacDonald, who has appeared in several films Sandler has produced. Sandler subsequently made a cameo appearance in MacDonald's Dirty Work.
• The title character in Happy Gilmore is based on a childhood friend of Sandler's who played hockey and could outdrive most people on the golf course.
• The Old Man Clemons character in Billy Madison was portrayed from Sandler's former assistant principle at Manchester Central High School.
• Sandler wore a Central Pride tee shirt in Anger Management. It is the school shirt of Manchester Central High School.
• Sandler was the guest speaker for Central's graduating class of 2003 and 2004. He had a nephew and a niece graduate in those years, respectively.
• There is an animated short film that has surfaced on the internet called "I Hate Adam Sandler"
• He is a fan of the New York Jets football team and occasionally mentions the team in his films.
• Adam Sandler is a member of the Republican Party. He even performed a song at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
• Sandler featured both former Democratic Party Presidential candidate Al Sharpton in Mr. Deeds and former Republican New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in Anger Managment.

Filmography

1. Going Overboard (1989)
2. Shakes the Clown (1992)
3. Coneheads (1993)
4. Airheads (1994)
5. Mixed Nuts (1994)
6. Billy Madison (1995) (also writer)
7. Happy Gilmore (1996) (also writer)
8. Bulletproof (1996)
9. The Wedding Singer (1998)
10. Dirty Work (1998) (Cameo)
11. The Waterboy (1998) (also executive producer and writer)
12. Big Daddy (1999) (also executive producer and writer)
13. Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) (cameo: voice)
14. Little Nicky (2000) (also executive producer and writer)
15. The Animal (2001) (Cameo) (also executive producer)
16. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
17. Mr. Deeds (2002) (also executive producer)
18. Eight Crazy Nights (2002) (voice) (also writer and producer)
19. A Day with the Meatball (2002) (short subject)
20. The Hot Chick (2002) (Cameo) (also executive producer)
21. Anger Management (2003) (also executive producer)
22. Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003) (documentary) (voice only)
23. Stupidity (2003) (documentary)
24. The Couch (2003) (short film)
25. 50 First Dates (2004)
26. Spanglish (2004)
27. The Longest Yard (2005)
28. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) (cameo)
29. Click (2006) (also producer and writer)
30. Empty City (2006) (currently in pre-production)
31. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2006) (currently in pre-production)
32. Stu the BSB (2006) (currently in pre-production)
33. Crood Awakening (2008) (in production) (voice)

Comedy albums

1. They're All Gonna Laugh at You! (1993)
2. What The Hell Happened To Me? (1996)
3. What's Your Name? (1997)
4. Stan and Judy's Kid (1999)
5. Shhh...Don't Tell (2004)

External links

• Official website
• Adam Sandler Quotes
• Adam Sandler at IMDb
• Adam Sandler at TrikiWiki.com - a wiki devoted to all things celebrity
• "I Hate Adam Sandler" short film.

• 1966 births
• American film actors
• American television actors
• American comedians
• American stand-up comedians
• People from Brooklyn
• Comedy musicians
• Jewish American actors
• Jewish American comedians
• Kids' Choice Awards winners
• Living people
• Musicians
• People from Manchester, New Hampshire
• Saturday Night Live cast members
• Saturday Night Live writers
• Worst Actor Razzie
• Worst Actor Razzie nominees