Adam Sandler
(1966 - )
Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actor, comedian, producer, and musician.
Early life
Sandler was born to Jewish American parents Stan and Judy Sandler in Brooklyn, New York. He has three older siblings, Scott, Liz and Val. He was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Career
In the mid to late 1980s, Sandler portrayed "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 starring vehicle was Billy Madison, in which he plays a grown man repeating grades 1-12 to earn his father's respect - and, more importantly, the right to inherit his multi-million dollar hotel empire. 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 since.
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 critically acclaimed 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. 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 relationship with his old college roommate (Don Cheadle). There have also been whispers of him appearing in Quentin Tarantino's long-anticipated World War II epic Inglorious Bastards He is also being considered for the role of The Joker in the sequel to Batman Begins.
Trivia
* Sandler has his own production company, Happy Madison, named from two of his most popular early films.
* Sandler played Satan in Dirty Work, and the son of Satan in Little Nicky.
* 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).
* He looks exactly the same in most of his movies.
* His characters often have a penchant for a particular brand name food (i.e., Hunt's Snack Packs, Subway, Popeye's Chicken, and others).
* He often plays a character with a bad temper, or a short fuse.
* He is a Republican, and performed at the 2004 Republican National Conference. He has had prominent politicians of both parties appear in his movies, however. Former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton appeared in Mr. Deeds while former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared in Anger Management.
* At one time, he dated actress Alicia Silverstone.
* He is a regular season ticket holder of the New York Yankees.
* He starred alongside Drew Barrymore in both The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates.
* He was a resident assistant while he attended New York University. He graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts.
* 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 number 16 on the Billboard charts. All three of his previous comedy albums sold at least over a million copies.
* He is a fan of professional wrestling, and most of his self-written films have references to professional wrestling in them.
* He made a cameo on an episode of The Price is Right during the "Happy Gilmore Showcase." Host Bob Barker appeared in the movie Happy Gilmore and got into the infamous fight with Sandler.
* He is a huge fan of the band Styx, and will often feature their music in his movies.
* While he did not attend Syracuse University he frequently wears Syracuse Orange sweatshirts and t-shirts in his movies
Private life
Sandler, an alumni member of Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity, graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1991. On June 22, 2003, he married model Jackie Titone, whom he'd met on the set of 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, on May 6, 2006.
Though Sandler rarely gives interviews, he does post short videos on his website sporadically.
Filmography
* Going Overboard (1989)
* Shakes the Clown (1992)
* Coneheads (1993)
* Airheads (1994)
* Mixed Nuts (1994)
* Billy Madison (1995) (also writer)
* Happy Gilmore (1996) (also writer)
* Bulletproof (1996)
* The Wedding Singer (1998)
* Dirty Work (1998) (Cameo)
* The Waterboy (1998) (also executive producer and writer)
* Big Daddy (1999) (also executive producer and writer)
* Little Nicky (2000) (also executive producer and writer)
* The Animal (2001) (Cameo) (also executive producer)
* Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
* Mr. Deeds (2002) (also executive producer)
* Eight Crazy Nights (2002) (voice) (also writer and producer)
* A Day with the Meatball (2002) (short subject)
* The Hot Chick (2002) (Cameo) (also executive producer)
* Anger Management (2003) (also executive producer)
* Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003) (documentary) (voice only)
* Stupidity (2003) (documentary)
* The Couch (2003) (short film)
* 50 First Dates (2004)
* Spanglish (2004)
* The Longest Yard (2005)
* Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) (cameo)
* Click (2006) (Post-Production) (also producer and writer)
* The Benchwarmers (2006)
* Empty City (2006) (currently in pre-production)
* Stu the BSB (2006) (currently in pre-production)
Comedy albums
* They're All Gonna Laugh At You! (1993)
* What The Hell Happened To Me? (1996)
* What's Your Name? (1997)
* Stan and Judy's Kid (1999)
* Shhh...Don't Tell (2004)
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