Adam Sandler

## Introduction:

**Adam Richard Sandler** (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, film producer, and musician. After becoming a *Saturday Night Live* cast member, Sandler went on to star in many Hollywood feature films that combined have grossed over $2 billion at the box office. He is best known for his comedic roles, such as in the films *Billy Madison* (1995), the sports comedies *Happy Gilmore* (1996) and *The Waterboy* (1998), the romantic comedy *The Wedding Singer* (1998), *Big Daddy* (1999), and *Mr. Deeds* (2002), and voicing Dracula in *Hotel Transylvania* (2012) and *Hotel Transylvania 2* (2015). Several of his movies, most notably the widely panned Jack and Jill, have gained harsh criticism, culminating in a shared second place in the number of Raspberry Awards (3) and Raspberry Award Nominations (11), in both cases second only to Sylvester Stallone. He has ventured into more dramatic territory with his roles in *Punch-Drunk Love* (2002), *Spanglish* (2004), *Reign Over Me* (2007), *Funny People* (2009) and *The Meyerowitz Stories* (2017).

Sandler has released five comedy albums in his career. *They're All Gonna Laugh at You!* (1993) and *What the Hell Happened to Me?* (1996) are both certified double-platinum. In 1999, Sandler founded Happy Madison Productions.

## Early Life

Sandler was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1966,[4] to Judith "Judy" (née Levine), a nursery school teacher, and Stanley Sandler (1935-2003), an electrical engineer.[2] His family is Jewish and descends from Russian and Israeli immigrants on both sides.[5] He grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire after moving there at the age of six.[6] He attended Manchester Central High School. As a teen, Sandler was in BBYO, a popular Jewish youth group. Sandler graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1988.[7]

## Career

### Acting career

Sandler at 2002 Cannes Film Festival

Early in his career, Sandler played Theo Huxtable's friend, Smitty in *The Cosby Show* and the Stud Boy or Trivia Delinquent in the MTV game show *Remote Control*. After his film debut *Going Overboard* in 1989, Sandler performed in comedy clubs, having first taken the stage at his brother's urging when he was 17. He was discovered by comedian Dennis Miller, who caught Sandler's act in Los Angeles and 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 Thanksgiving Song" and "The Chanukah Song".[8] Sandler told Conan O'Brien on *The Tonight Show* that NBC fired him and Chris Farley from the show in 1995.[9]

In 1993, Adam Sandler appeared in the film *Coneheads* with Chris Farley, David Spade, Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman, and Jane Curtin. In 1994, he co-starred in *Airheads* with Brendan Fraser and Steve Buscemi. He starred in *Billy Madison* (1995) playing a grown man repeating grades 1–12 to earn back his father's respect and the right to inherit his father's multimillion-dollar hotel empire; the film received negative reviews. He followed this film with *Bulletproof* (1996), and the financially successful comedies *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 earliest films did not receive critical praise, he started to receive more positive reviews, beginning with *Punch-Drunk Love* in 2002. Roger Ebert's review of *Punch-Drunk Love* concluded that Sandler had been wasted in earlier films with poorly written scripts and characters with no development.[10] 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).

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 (Don Cheadle). He starred with Kevin James in the film *I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry* (2007). Sandler headlined *You Don't Mess with the Zohan* (2008). The film was written by Sandler, Judd Apatow, and Robert Smigel, it was directed by Dennis Dugan.

Sandler in Berlin 2009

Sandler starred along with Keri Russell and English comedian Russell Brand in Adam Shankman's fantasy film *Bedtime Stories* (2008), as a stressed hotel maintenance worker whose bedtime stories he reads to his niece and nephew begin to come true. It marked as Sandler's first family film and first film under the Walt Disney banner.[11]

In 2009, Sandler starred in Judd Apatow's third directorial feature *Funny People*. The film was released on July 31, 2009.[12] Following the release of *Funny People*, it, along with *Punch-Drunk Love* were cited in the June 2010 announcement that Sandler was one of 135 people (including 20 actors) invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[13]

Sandler appeared in *Grown Ups*, alongside Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade. Sandler and *Dickie Roberts* scribe Fred Wolf wrote the script and Dennis Dugan directed the film.[14]

Sandler starred with Jennifer Aniston in the 2011 romantic comedy film *Just Go with It*. Sandler also voiced a capuchin monkey in Kevin James' *Zookeeper*, released on July 8, 2011.[15] In 2012, he starred in *That's My Boy*, as a man who fathered a son (Andy Samberg) with his teacher in high school.

Sandler starred with Drew Barrymore in the Warner Bros. romantic comedy *Blended*, which was filmed in South Africa, and was released on May 23, 2014.

In 2013, he guest starred in the Disney Channel Original Series *Jessie* as himself. He and Cameron Boyce previously worked together in *Grown Ups* and *Grown Ups 2*. The episode is titled "Punched Dumped Love". Sandler co-starred in the drama film *Men, Women & Children* (2014), directed by Jason Reitman.[16][17] He was considered for the voice of Rocket Raccoon in Marvel's *Guardians of the Galaxy* but Bradley Cooper was cast instead.[18]

In 2015, Sandler starred in the Western comedy film *The Ridiculous 6*, distributed by Netflix. Despite being universally panned by critics,[19] it was announced on January 6, 2016, by Netflix that the film had been viewed more times in 30 days than any other movie in Netflix history.[20]

Sandler's recent comedy films, including *Grown Ups* and *Grown Ups 2*, have received strongly negative reviews.[21] In reviewing the latter, critic Mark Olsen of *The Los Angeles Times* remarked that Sandler had become the antithesis of Judd Apatow; he was instead "the white Tyler Perry: smart enough to know better, savvy enough to do it anyway, lazy enough not to care."[22]

### Happy Madison Productions

Sandler at a press conference for *Click* in 2005

Sandler formed his film production company, Happy Madison Productions,[23] in 1999, first producing fellow *SNL* alumnus Rob Schneider's film *Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo*. The company has produced most of Sandler's subsequent films to date. The majority of the company's films have received negative reviews from critics, with three considered to be among the worst ever made[24] yet most have performed well at box office.

Others who frequently appear in Sandler films include David Spade, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Chris Rock, John Turturro, Peter Dante, Allen Covert, Jonathan Loughran and Jon Lovitz.

In 2014, Netflix announced a four-movie deal with Adam Sandler and Happy Madison Productions.[25]

The company is located on the Sony/Columbia Pictures lot in Culver City, California.

## Filmography

*This is a partial list of Sandler's film work. For the complete list, see Adam Sandler filmography.*

* *Going Overboard* (1989)
* *Shakes the Clown* (1991)
* *Coneheads* (1993)
* *Airheads* (1994)
* *Mixed Nuts* (1994)
* *Billy Madison* (1995)
* *Happy Gilmore* (1996)
* *Bulletproof* (1996)
* *The Wedding Singer* (1998)
* *The Waterboy* (1998)
* *Big Daddy* (1999)
* *Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo* (1999)
* *Little Nicky* (2000)
* *The Animal* (2001)
* *Mr. Deeds* (2002)
* *Punch-Drunk Love* (2002)
* *Anger Management* (2003)
* *Pauly Shore Is Dead* (2003)
* *50 First Dates* (2004)
* *Spanglish* (2004)
* *The Longest Yard* (2005)
* *Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo* (2005)
* *Click* (2006)
* *Reign Over Me* (2007)
* *I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry* (2007)
* *You Don't Mess with the Zohan* (2008)
* *Bedtime Stories* (2008)
* *Funny People* (2009)
* *Grown Ups* (2010)
* *Just Go with It* (2011)
* *Jack and Jill* (2011)
* *That's My Boy* (2012)
* *Hotel Transylvania* (2012)
* *Grown Ups 2* (2013)
* *Blended* (2014)
* *Men, Women & Children* (2014)
* *Pixels* (2015)
* *Hotel Transylvania 2* (2015)
* *The Ridiculous 6* (2015)
* *The Do-Over* (2016)
* *Sandy Wexler* (2017)
* *The Meyerowitz Stories* (2017)
* *Hotel Transylvania 3* (2018)