Adam Richard Sandler (born
September 9, 1966) is an American
actor, comedian, musician, screenwriter
and film producer. He is the
founder of
Happy Madison
Productions, a film production company that also developed the
television series
Rules of
Engagement.
After becoming a
Saturday Night
Live cast member, he went on to star in several Hollywood
feature films that grossed over US$100 million at the box office.
He is best known for his comedic roles, such as in the films
Billy Madison (1995),
Big Daddy (1999), and
Mr. Deeds (2002), though he has
ventured into more dramatic territory.
Early life
Adam
Sandler was born in Brooklyn, New York
, the son of Judy, a nursery school teacher, and
Stanley Sandler, an electrical engineer. Sandler is
Jewish.
When he was five, his family moved to
Manchester, New
Hampshire
, where he attended Manchester
Central High School
. He found he was a natural comic, and nurtured
his talent while at New York University
by performing regularly in clubs and on
campuses. He graduated with a
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in
1988.
Later in his career, he would often draw on his earliest memories
for material for his comedy and movies. The song "Lunchlady Land"
is dedicated to Emalee, the lunchlady at Hayden Dining Hall at New
York University.
In the movie Click, Sandler goes to Lake
Winnipesaukee
, the largest lake in New Hampshire
, where he went to summer camp.
Acting career
In the mid to late 1980s, Sandler played
Theo
Huxtable's friend, Smitty, on
The
Cosby Show (1987–1988). He was a performer for the
MTV game show Remote Control, on which he
made appearances as the characters "Trivia Delinquent" or "Stud
Boy". Early in his career, Sandler performed in comedy clubs,
taking the stage at his brother's urging when he was only 17. He
was discovered by comedian
Dennis
Miller, who caught Sandler's act in Los Angeles. Miller
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, 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 film career.
Sandler's first starring role was in 1989, in the film
Going Overboard. In 1995, he starred in
Billy Madison, in which he
plays a grown, though uneducated, man repeating grades 1–12 to earn
back his father's respect, along with the right to inherit his
father's multi-million-dollar hotel empire. In
At The Movies,
Siskel and Ebert gave the film a very bad
review, and said of Sandler "...Not an attractive screen presence,
he might have a career as a villain or a fall guy or the butt of a
joke, but as the protagonist his problem is he creates the
fingernails on the blackboard" with Siskel adding "...you don't
have a good motivation for the character's behavior". He followed
this film with other financially successful comedies such as
Bulletproof (1996),
Happy Gilmore (1996) and
The Wedding Singer
(1998). He was initially cast in the bachelor-party-themed
comedy/thriller
Very Bad
Things (1998), but had to back out due to his involvement
in
The Waterboy (1998), one of
his first hits.
Although his earlier films did not receive critical praise, his
more recent films, beginning with
Punch-Drunk Love (2002), have received
almost uniformly positive reviews. Some critics concluded that
Sandler possessed considerably more acting ability that they
believed had been previously wasted on poorly written scripts and
characters with no development. Sandler has moved outside the genre
of slapstick comedy to take on more serious parts such as the
aforementioned
Punch-Drunk
Love (for which he was nominated for a
Golden Globe),
Spanglish (2004) and
Reign Over Me (2007). He played a loving
father figure in
Big Daddy
(1999). During filming, he met
Jacqueline
Samantha Titone—his future wife and mother of his daughter—who
was cast as the waitress from The Blarney Stone Bar.
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 (2005). He returned to more dramatic
fare with
Mike Binder's
Reign Over Me (2007), a drama about a man
who loses his entire family in
9/11 and
rekindles a friendship with his old college roommate (played by
Don Cheadle). He starred in the film
I Now Pronounce
You Chuck and Larry (2007) alongside
Kevin James, as a New York City fireman
pretending to be gay to keep up an insurance scam so that his best
friend's children can have benefits. Sandler headlined
You Don't Mess with the
Zohan (2008), a comedy about a
Mossad agent who fakes his own death and moves to the
United States to become a hair stylist. The film was written by
Sandler,
The 40-Year-Old
Virgin writer-director
Judd
Apatow (who was an old roommate of Sandler's when both were
starting out), and
Triumph, the Insult Comic
Dog creator
Robert Smigel,
and was directed by
Happy Gilmore director
Dennis Dugan.
"Like
Will Ferrell, Sandler has layers
of tenderness under layers of irony under layers of tenderness—plus
a floating anger like Jupiter’s great red spot," wrote
David Edelstein of
New York magazine in a review of
You Don't Mess with the Zohan. "Some performers become
stars because we can read them instantly, others—like
Sandler—because we never tire of trying to get a fix on
them."
Sandler recently starred in
Bedtime Stories (2008), a
fantasy film directed by
Bringing Down the House
director
Adam Shankman, about a
stressed hotel maintenance worker whose bedtime stories he reads to
his niece and nephew begin to come true. This marked Sandler's
first family film and first film under the
Walt Disney banner.
Keri Russell and English comedian
Russell Brand co-starred.
In 2009, Sandler starred in Judd Apatow's third directorial feature
Funny People. He played a very
successful stand up comedian who finds out he has a terminal
illness and he takes a young inexperienced comic, played by
Seth Rogen, under his wing. Other
co-stars included
Eric Bana and Apatow's
wife,
Leslie Mann. The film contained
more dramatic elements than Apatow's previous efforts. Filming
began in October 2008 and finished in January 2009. The film was
released on July 31, 2009.
At one point, Sandler was in talks to star in
Quentin Tarantino's World War II film
Inglourious Basterds,
which he confirmed, but he said he will not be in it due to a
scheduling conflict with
Funny
People. In June 2007, it was announced that his production
company,
Happy Madison, had made a
preemptive acquisition for
Mitch Albom's
screenwriting debut.
Sandler's next film will be
Grown Ups, where he will be
teaming up with
Kevin James,
Chris Rock,
Rob
Schneider, and
David Spade (all of
whom have worked with Sandler before but not all in the same film)
for a film about five best friends from high school who reunite 30
years later on the
4th
of July weekend. Other costars include
Salma Hayek (playing Sandler's wife),
Maria Bello (playing James' wife), and fellow
SNL alumni
Maya Rudolph
(playing Rock's wife),
Colin Quinn,
Tim Meadows, and
Norm Macdonald. Sandler and
Dickie Roberts scribe Fred Wolf wrote the script and
Dennis Dugan directed the film. Filming took place over the summer
and it is set to be released on June 25, 2010. Sandler will also
provide the voice of a capuchin monkey in Kevin James'
Zookeeper.
Happy Madison Productions
.jpg/180px-Adamsandler(cannesPhotocall).jpg)
Sandler at Cannes, May 2002
Sandler formed his film production company,
Happy Madison Productions, in
1999, first producing fellow
SNL alumnus
Rob Schneider's film,
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
Happy Madison has produced all of Sandler's subsequent films to
date with the exceptions
Punch
Drunk Love and
Spanglish.
Reign Over Me and
Funny People were produced by Happy
Madison but under the subsidiary label "Madison 23".
Sandler is known for consistently working with a core group of
friends and associates through Happy Madison, frequently casting
fellow
SNL performers in various roles in his films.
Sandler and Happy Madison produced
SNL contemporary
Rob Schneider's vehicles
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
(1999),
The Animal (2001),
The Hot Chick (2002), and
Deuce Bigalow:
European Gigolo (2005), and
The Benchwarmers (2006), with Sandler
making cameo appearances in the middle three. Meanwhile, Schneider
has appeared in cameo roles in Sandler films
The Waterboy,
Little Nicky,
Mr. Deeds,
Click,
The Longest Yard,
I Now Pronounce
You Chuck and Larry, and
Bedtime Stories. Schneider had
larger roles in Sandler films
Big
Daddy,
50 First
Dates,
Eight Crazy
Nights,
You
Don't Mess with the Zohan, and the upcoming
Grown Ups.
Happy Madison produced
David Spade's
Joe Dirt,
Dickie Roberts: Former Child
Star, and
The Benchwarmers, which also featured
Rob Schneider. Spade additionally made a cameo appearance in
I Now Pronounce
You Chuck and Larry and has a prominent supporting role in
Grown Ups. Sandler cameoed as a special audience member in
an episode of
The
Showbiz Show with David Spade.
SNL contemporary
Kevin Nealon has appeared in nine Happy
Madison productions or Sandler films, including
Happy Gilmore,
The Wedding Singer,
Little Nicky,
Joe
Dirt,
Eight Crazy
Nights,
Anger
Management,
Grandma's Boy,
You Don't Mess with the
Zohan and the
Dana Carvey
vehicle,
The Master of
Disguise.
Happy Madison also produced
Paul Blart: Mall Cop, the first
starring vehicle for
Kevin
James. James had costarred with Sandler in
I Now Pronounce You Chuck
and Larry and made a cameo appearance in
You Don't Mess with the
Zohan. Happy Madison will also produce James' next
starring vehicle
Zookeeper
after he finishes filming on
Grown Ups.
He
appeared as the featured guest on the final episode of John McEnroe's eponymous CNBC
talk show,
airing in late 2004. McEnroe appeared as himself in three of
Sandler's films (
Mr. Deeds,
Anger Management, and
You Don't Mess with
the Zohan).
Anna Faris, who appeared in
The Hot
Chick, became the first female actor to headline a production
for Happy Madison with
The House
Bunny and will headline another film for Happy Madison in
the near future.
Others who frequently appear in Sandler films include
Steve Buscemi,
John
Turturro,
Jon Lovitz,
Clint Howard,
Norm
MacDonald,
Nick Swardson, and
longtime Sandler pals
Allen Covert,
Peter Dante, and
Jonathan Loughran.
In June 2008, it was announced that Sandler will be executive
producer for a horror thriller titled
The Shortcut under a
nascent genre label for Happy Madison called "Scary Madison".
In October 2009, it was announced that Sandler and Happy Madison
will produce the
Richard Pryor biopic
Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? for Sony, the
company's first major dramatic production. The film was written by
Bill Condon, who is set to direct, and
Pryor will be played by
Marlon Wayans,
who is replacing
Eddie Murphy.
Personal life
On June
22, 2003, Sandler married actress Jacqueline Samantha Titone, and they are the
parents of two daughters, Sadie Madison Sandler, born May 6, 2006,
at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles
, and Sunny Madeline Sandler, born November 2,
2008. Sandler lives with his family in Los Angeles, although
he also has a home in New York.
In 2007,
Sandler made a $1 million dollar donation to the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown,
Manchester, New
Hampshire. He also donated $2100 to
Republican Rudy Giuliani's
presidential campaign the
same year.
Filmography
Television
Discography
References
- "Adam Sandler."
BoxOfficeMojo.com.
- "Adam Sandler Biography (1966?-)." Film
Reference.com.
- "Crazy for Chaukah."
JewishJournal.com. November 29, 2002.
-
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1997/10/10-24-97tdc/10-24-97d05-002.asp
- "Adam Sandler Biography."
Biography.com.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM1uABFgyb0
- "Very Bad Things (1998) Trivia."
IMDB.
- Ebert, Roger. "Punch-Drunk Love." Chicago Sun-Times.
October 18, 2002.
- Edelstein, David, http://nymag.com/movies/reviews/47552/
"Israeli Stud, Aspiring Hairdresser: Adam Sandler makes his Jewish
mother proud. Meanwhile, Werner Herzog tries to avoid penguins."
New York magazine. June 5, 2008, accessed June 13,
2008.
- "Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories Come True."
ComingSoon.net.
- "Adam Sandler To Star In Judd Apatow Movie About
Stand-Up Comics." MTV. May 31, 2008.
- "Happy Madison." AdamSandler.com. Accessed
October 9, 2008.
- Sandler's Scary Madison Takes Shortcut
- 'Pryor' engagement for Condon
- "Adam Sandler, Wife Have a Baby."
People.com.
- "Adam Sandler and wife have second daughter."
Reuters.com. November 12, 2008.
- "Adam Sandler donates $1 million to Manchester
charity." WCAX.com.
- "NEWSMEAT ▷ Adam Sandler's Federal Campaign
Contribution Report" newsmeat.com.
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