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Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American comedian, a Golden Globe-nominated actor, musician, screenwriter, and film producer. After becoming a popular 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. Though he is best known for his comedic roles, such as in the films Billy Madison (1995), Happy Gilmore (1996), and Big Daddy (1999), he has also had success in romantic and dramatic roles, such as in the films Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Spanglish (2004), Click (2006), and Reign Over Me (2007). Sandler was born in Brooklyn, New York to Judy, a nursery school teacher, and Stanley Sandler, an electrical engineer. He had a Jewish upbringing. His family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire when he was five. There, 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 1991, and was also a member of the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity. Later in his career, he would often draw on his earliest memories in his comedy and movies. The song "Lunchlady Land" is dedicated to Silvia, the lunchlady at Hayden Dining Hall at New York University. In the movie Click, Sandler goes to Lake Winnipesaukee, a lake in New Hampshire where he went to summer camp. A genial, laid-back stand-up comic and graduate of NBC's "Saturday Night Live,” Brooklyn-born Adam Sandler was a class clown in Manchester, New Hampshire after his family moved there when he was six. He has gone on record that Rodney Dangerfield, Cheech & Chong and repeated viewings of the movie "Caddyshack" (1980) were his inspirations, so it was not surprising that he made his first forays into performing comedy while an undergraduate at New York University. While still at school, he also landed a recurring role as Theo's friend Smitty on the NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show.” After dropping out of college and settling in L.A., he hit the local comedy clubs including the Improv, where "Saturday Night Live" alumnus Dennis Miller "discovered" him. Miller recommended Sandler to Lorne Michaels, who hired him as a writer for the series in 1990. Within a year, Sandler started to make onscreen appearances. Though his gallery of weirdly off-center dunces—including Iraqi Pete, Canteen Boy and Cajun Man—quickly caught on with the audience, it was Opera Man, a bewigged and caped tenor who sings in satirical, often moronic non sequiturs, that persuaded Michaels to anoint him a performing regular. Sandler joined the growing list of "SNL" performers who made the transition to the big screen with his feature debut in Bobcat Goldthwait's uneven cult comedy "Shakes the Clown" (1992). He followed with a small role in "Coneheads" (1993), based on "SNL" skits from the 1970s, and a more substantial one in "Airheads" (1994) as a member of a heavy metal band who inadvertently take over a radio station to secure airplay for their self-produced demo. Sandler finished out the year in Nora Ephron's "Mixed Nuts" (1994) playing a goofball with an unrequited crush on co-star Rita Wilson, a part that called for variations on his "SNL" characters, most notably Opera Man. He then co-wrote and starred as "Billy Madison" (1995), the scion of a wealthy family who tries to prove to his retiring father that he's worthy of taking over the family business by attending grades 1-12 in six months. In December of that year, his comic "Hanukkah Song" became a surprise hit on radio stations nationwide. Sandler proved the commercial success of the critically panned "Billy Madison" was no fluke by co-writing another low-brow starring vehicle, the golfing comedy "Happy Gilmore" (1996), which took in more than $40 million. Adding further proof of his box-office appeal, that year's "Bulletproof", teaming him with Damon Wayans, opened at Number 1, but none of these coups prepared anyone for the breakout phenomena of "The Wedding Singer" (1998), a relatively sophisticated product (by Sandler's standards) which grossed $80 million and finally brought women to the ranks of what had previously been his male fan base. He reverted to his classic outsider image for "The Waterboy" (also 1998), its $39 million opening weekend flying in the face of conventional wisdom saying moviegoers prefer more serious fare in the fall. 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". Sandler started performing in clubs early on, taking the stage at his brother's urging when he was only 17. 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 starring role was in 1989 when he starred in the movie Going Overboard. In 1995, he starred in Billy Madison, in which he plays a grown, though uneducated, man repeating grades 1–12 to earn his father's respect back, along with the right to inherit his father's multi-million-dollar hotel empire. He followed this movie up 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 most of his earlier films were almost universally despised by movie critics, many of his recent films, starting with Punch-Drunk Love (2002), 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 US$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), Spanglish (2004) and Reign Over Me (2007) He also plays a loving father figure in Big Daddy (1999). During filming, he met Jacqueline Samantha Titone -- his future wife and mother of his daughter. Jackie was cast as the charming waitress from The Blarney Stone Bar. With everyone calling him the heir-apparent to Jim Carrey's low-comedy throne, Sandler, whose underdog quality and vulnerability separates him from his comic peers, headlined "Big Daddy" (1999), as a slacker who adopts a boy to win back his girlfriend. The film had more heart than "The Waterboy" and while it was not as overwhelmingly successful, it did register as another solid hit for Sandler. While helping fellow SNL alumnus out by producing their comedies ("Joe Dirt" for David Spade in 2001 and "The Animal" for Rob Schneider, also in 2001) he put out the mediocre comedy "Little Nicky" in 2001. He followed up with "Mr. Deeds" in 2002 which also performed poorly, suggesting maybe Sandler's golden touch was beginning to tarnish. Perhaps sensing the need for a change of direction, Sandler starred opposite Emily Watson in the critically acclaimed dramatic comedy "Punch-Drunk Love" (2002) which premiered at Cannes and took home The Golden Palm award there. Taking on a more mature role in the romantic comedy created expressly for him by writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, Sandler successfully built upon his likeable sad-sack persona and added darker edges in a more true-to-life scenario. The new dimension impressed both critics and moviegoers. In 2003, Sandler joined Jack Nicholson as the unlikely pair took on the roles of patient and therapist in the clever David Dorfman comedy "Anger Management," with Sandler's uptight, rage-repressed everyman serving as the perfect foil for Nicholson's wild-eyed, unshaven and slightly psycho psychotherapist. Sandler reunited with his "Wedding Singer" co-star Barrymore for "50 First Dates" (2004), a romantic comedy that cast Sandler as Henry Roth, a man who falls in love with a woman with a disorder that eliminates her short-term memory and forces him to woo her anew each and every day. The actor was better served in his next project, writer-director James L. Brooks' "Spanglish" (2004), playing a chef grappling with the challenges of his out-of-control wife (Tea Leoni) and the emotional damage she inflicts on their daughter, even as he is attracted to the beautiful and sensitive maid who doesn't speak English (Paz Vega). The film's serio-comic tone did not work for everyone, but Roger Ebert summed up the opinion of most critics when he said of Sandler's performance that he likes Adam Sandler most when he's not in typical Adam Sandler movies. The actor delivered another sweet and sensitive portrayal suggesting that he, if not all of his fans, had evolved away from the wacky, "dumb guy" comedies that made him a superstar. His remake of prison football comedy "The Longest Yard" (2005)—with Sandler in the Burt Reynolds role of a jailed NFL quarterback leading a team of inmates against their guards—was a half-step backward: although missing much of the original's charm and edge, it proved popular at the box office. Out of the limelight for a stretch to spend time with his new family—he and his wife had a baby girl in May 2006—Sandler returned with a new comedy, “Click” (2006), in which he played—yet again—a misunderstood everyman. This time he was a hard-working architect whose life passes him by while he tries to impress his slick and ungrateful boss (David Hasselhoff). While shopping at a kitchen and bathroom store, he stumbles into the back room where he meets a strange employee who gives him a remote control that allows him to rewind, fast-forward or pause his life. But as the device starts to decide what events he’ll experience and which he won’t, he begins to have appreciation for everything in his life—good and bad. 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), but Depp in the end got the role. He returned to more dramatic fare with Mike Binder's Reign Over Me (2007), 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). Most recently, he starred in the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007), where he stars along side Kevin James as a New York City fireman pretending to be gay keep up an insurance scam, so his best friend's children can have benefits. Sandler made another sojourn to the arena of drama in “Reign Over Me” (2007), playing a formerly successful dentists who lost his family in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and is found five years later by his former college roommate (Don Cheadle) at a time when both could use a trusted friend in their lives. Prior to the film’s opening, Sandler filled in for a suddenly ailing David Letterman on the “Late Show with David Letterman” (CBS, 1993- ). Not having any interviewing experience, Sandler spent the first segment practicing his technique with his dog, Matzoball, prior to his chat with “Reign” costar Don Cheadle. Returning to the goofy comedies of films past, Sandler was in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” (2007), starring as a heterosexual firefighter who feigns marriage with another fireman (Kevin James) in order to qualify for the department’s domestic partner benefits. He recently finished production on his next comedy You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008) a film 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 directed by Happy Gilmore director Dennis Dugan about a Mossad agent who fakes his own death and moves to the United States to become a hair stylist. The film is set for a June 6, 2008 release. He is worked on Bedtime Stories (2008), a fantasy film being directed by Bringing Down the House director Adam Shankman about a stressed real estate developer whose bedtime stories he reads to his niece and nephew begin to come true, which will mark Sandler's first family film and first film under the Walt Disney banner. English comedian Russell Brand will co-star. He is also set to star in Judd Apatow's third directorial feature, which is yet untitled. The film will costar Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann and filming is set to begin in the late summer or early fall of 2008, depending on the expected Screen Actors Strike of 2008. Sandler has also been long-rumored to costar with Michael Madsen in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming World War II saga Inglorious Bastards. In June 2007, it was announced that his production company, Happy Madison, had made a preemptive acquisition for Mitch Albom's screenwriting debut. 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 (where Barker wins). He also appeared on Bob Barker's tribute show on May 17, 2007, in which he read a poem to Bob and congratulated him on his retirement from TPIR. Sandler cameoed as a special audience member in an episode of The Showbiz Show with David Spade and as 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). In The Animal, starring Rob Schneider, Sandler appears briefly as Schneider's "'You can do it' Guy" from The Waterboy. On March 20, 2007, Sandler was scheduled to be a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman. However, due to a minor illness, Letterman could not host the show and Sandler filled in as host. On June 13, 2007, Sandler appeared and won the "Man's Man Award" on the Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards. He appeared on Australian TV show Rove Live when it toured America in July 2007. He was on the July 22 show in New York. On June 22, 2003, Sandler married actress Jacqueline Samantha Titone, and they are the parents of Sadie Madison Sandler, born May 6, 2006, at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. Sandler lives with his family in Los Angeles, though he also has a home in New York. Actor Thomas Wilson of Back to the Future fame has stated that Sandler is the "nicest famous guy he knows". Sandler has contributed money to Rudy Giuliani's 2008 Presidential campaign, and in October 2007, made a million-dollar donation to the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown, Manchester, NH. |
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