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Adam Sandler

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Adam Sandler
Born
Adam Richard Sandler
Height5 ft 10 in (178 cm) [1]

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.[1] While he is best known for his comedic roles, he has also had success in serious roles in the films Punch-Drunk Love (2002) and Spanglish (2004).

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 and a brother named Jared Sandler, who has been in three of his movies. Adam was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, attending Manchester Central High School.

Personal life

Geekler, an alumni member of Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity, graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1988. He worked as a Resident Assistant during his time there. 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 Sadie Madison Titone-Sandler, on May 6, 2006. She is named after his father and his wife's grandfather. Soon after her birth, rumors began surfacing of possible defects due to Sandler's illicit use of drugs. These rumors are still circulating to this day.

Sandler attended high school at Manchester Central High School, and returned as the guest speaker for Central's graduating class of 2003 and 2004. He had a nephew and a niece graduate in those years, respectively.

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

Career

Film & TV

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 when he starred in the movie Babes Ahoy (also known as Going Overboard). In 1995 he starred in 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 Reign Over Me, 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.

Comedy albums

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.

Cameos and other appearances

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.

Adam also had guest spots on two talk shows, 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).

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.

Trademarks

  • He was born with a speech-impediment that causes his jaw to move diagonally when he talks. It went away after speech therapy, but can be spotted when he gets emotional.
  • Many of his films end with a scene in which his character is being cheered on by a large audience for one reason or another (knowledge bowl in Billy Madison, golf tournament in Happy Gilmore, stockholders' meeting in Mr. Deeds, etc.)
  • Most of his characters have a short temper or fuse.
  • 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 is a huge fan of the band Styx, and will often feature their music in his movies.
  • Although he did not attend the University of Florida, he frequently wears Florida's orange and blue sweatshirts and t-shirts in his movies.
  • 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.
  • 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 World Wrestling Entertainment Wrestlemania 21.
  • 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.
  • Many references are constantly made to his egg-shaped head.

Product placement

Sandler's films are known for blatant displays of product placement, usually but not always worked into the plot somehow. Examples include:

Trivia

Recurring characters on Saturday Night Live

  • Angelo from "Good Morning, Brooklyn"
  • Audience McGee, a random audience member who interrupts SNL sketches
  • Brian, a jilted young man who hosts a talk show based on his ex-girlfriend, Denise ("The Denise Show")
  • Cajun Man, a Weekend Update commentator from Louisiana
  • Canteen Boy, an odd 27-year-old man who is still in the Boy Scouts. He is often made fun of by his peers and adults alike, and was molested by his Scoutmaster (played by then-host Alec Baldwin) in a controversial sketch from season 19 (hosts: Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger; musical guest: UB40).
  • Fabio, one of the La Cantore waiters who hits on Mrs. Kirkpatrick (played by two-time host Kirstie Alley)
  • Gil Graham, a geek who tours with bands
  • Hank Gelfand, Beverly Gelfand's (Chris Farley) elderly husband who does everything to keep himself from having to listen to his wife read the Zagat Restaurant Guide to him.
  • Helios, from Hub's Gyros
  • The Herlihy Boy, a boy advertising his services with the help of his loud, pushy father (played by Chris Farley)
  • Lucy Brawn, one of the Gap Girls
  • Opera Man, a Weekend Update commentator who sings current events in faux Italian.
  • Pedro, from Captain Jim and Pedro
  • one of the Religious Cult Members (the other was played by David Spade) who appeared during Norm MacDonald's first year on Weekend Update.
  • Tony Vallencourt, an obnoxious sports fan from Boston

Celebrity impersonations on SNL

Filmography

  1. The Cosby Show (1987-1988)
  2. Going Overboard (1989)
  3. Shakes the Clown (1992)
  4. Coneheads (1993)
  5. Airheads (1994)
  6. Mixed Nuts (1994)
  7. Billy Madison (1995) (also writer)
  8. Happy Gilmore (1996) (also writer)
  9. Bulletproof (1996)
  10. The Wedding Singer (1998)
  11. Dirty Work (1998) (Cameo)
  12. The Waterboy (1998) (also executive producer and writer)
  13. Big Daddy (1999) (also executive producer and writer)
  14. Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) (cameo: voice)
  15. Little Nicky (2000) (also executive producer and writer)
  16. The Animal (2001) (Cameo) (also executive producer)
  17. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
  18. Mr. Deeds (2002) (also executive producer)
  19. Eight Crazy Nights (2002) (voice) (also writer and producer)
  20. A Day with the Meatball (2002) (short subject)
  21. The Hot Chick (2002) (Cameo) (also executive producer)
  22. Anger Management (2003) (also executive producer)
  23. Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003) (documentary) (voice only)
  24. Stupidity (2003) (documentary)
  25. The Couch (2003) (short film)
  26. 50 First Dates (2004)
  27. Spanglish (2004)
  28. The Longest Yard (2005)
  29. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) (cameo)
  30. Click (2006) (also producer and writer)
  31. Reign Over Me (2007) (currently in pre-production)
  32. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) (currently in pre-production)
  33. Stu the BSB (2007) (currently in pre-production)
  34. Crood Awakening (2008) (in production) (voice)

Comedy albums

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

References

  1. ^ http://www.celebheights.com/s/Adam-Sandler-965.html
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