Adam Sandler

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 $3 million dollar donation to the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown, Manchester, New Hampshire .He also donated $2,100 to Republican Rudy Giuliani 's presidential campaign the same year.

Happy Madison Productions

Sandler at Cannes, May 2002 .

Sandler formed his film production company, Happy Madison Productions ,in 1999, first producing fellowSNLalumnus Rob Schneider 's filmDeuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Happy Madison has produced all of Sandler's subsequent films to date with the exceptionsPunch Drunk LoveandSpanglish.Reign Over MeandFunny Peoplewere 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 fellowSNLperformers in various roles in his films. Sandler and Happy Madison producedSNLcontemporary Rob Schneider 's vehiclesDeuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo(1999),The Animal(2001),The Hot Chick(2002), andDeuce Bigalow: European Gigolo(2005), andThe Benchwarmers(2006), with Sandler making cameo appearances in the middle three. Meanwhile, Schneider has appeared in cameo roles in Sandler filmsThe Waterboy,Little Nicky,Mr. Deeds,Click,The Longest Yard,I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, andBedtime Stories. Schneider had larger roles in Sandler filmsBig Daddy,50 First Dates,Eight Crazy Nights,You Don't Mess with the Zohan, andGrown Ups.

Happy Madison produced David Spade 'sJoe Dirt,Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, andThe Benchwarmers, which also featured Rob Schneider.Spade additionally made a cameo appearance inI Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larryand has a prominent supporting role inGrown Ups. Sandler cameoed as a special audience member in an episode ofThe Showbiz Show with David Spade.SNLcontemporary Kevin Nealon has appeared in nine Happy Madison productions or Sandler films, includingHappy Gilmore,The Wedding Singer,Little Nicky,Joe Dirt,Eight Crazy Nights,Anger Management,Grandma's Boy,You Don't Mess with the Zohanand the Dana Carvey vehicle,The Master of Disguise.

Happy Madison also producedPaul Blart: Mall Cop, the first starring vehicle for Kevin James . James had costarred with Sandler inI Now Pronounce You Chuck and LarryandGrown Upsand made a cameo appearance inYou Don't Mess with the Zohan. Happy Madison will also produce James' next starring vehicleZookeeper.

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, andYou Don't Mess with the Zohan).

Anna Faris , who appeared inThe Hot Chick, became the first female actor to headline a production for Happy Madison withThe House Bunnyand 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 particular Allen Covert plays unique and eccentric characters in Sandler's films. Most notably as a limo driver inThe Wedding Singer, Ten Second Tom in50 First Dates, and Nicky's roommate inLittle Nicky. Covert starred in his first leading role inGrandma's Boy, also produced by Happy Madison productions.

In June 2007, it was announced that Happy Madison had made a preemptive acquisition for Mitch Albom 's screenwriting debut.

In June 2008, it was announced that Sandler will be executive producer for a horror thriller titledThe Shortcutunder 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 biopicRichard 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 .Filming is set to commence in fall 2010.

Early life

Adam Sandler was born in Brooklyn , New York to a Jewish family,the son of Judy, a nursery school teacher, and Stanley Sandler, an electrical engineer.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. Sandler graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1988.

Later in his career, he would draw on his earliest experiences for material for his comedy and movies. The song "Lunchlady Land" from his debut albumThey're All Gonna Laugh at You!is dedicated to Emalee, the lunchlady at Hayden Dining Hall at New York University.^{[citation needed]}

Acting career

In the mid to late 1980s, Sandler played Theo Huxtable 's friend, Smitty, onThe Cosby Show(1987–1988). He was a performer for the MTV game showRemote 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 toSaturday Night Liveproducer Lorne Michaels . Sandler was hired as a writer forSNLin 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 ".Sandler told Conan O'Brien onThe Tonight Showthat NBC fired him and Chris Farley from the show in 1995.

Sandler's first starring role was in 1989, in the filmGoing Overboard. In 1994 he co-starred inAirheadswith Brendan Fraser, and Steve Buscemi In 1995, he starred inBilly 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. InAt 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".^{[citation needed]}He followed this film with other financially successful comedies such asBulletproof(1996),Happy Gilmore(1996) andThe Wedding Singer(1998). He was initially cast in the bachelor-party-themed comedy/thrillerVery Bad Things(1998), but had to back out due to his involvement inThe Waterboy(1998) one of his first hits.

Although his earlier films did not receive critical praise, his more recent films, beginning withPunch-Drunk Love(2002), have received more positive reviews. Roger Ebert , in his review ofPunch-Drunk Love, concluded that Sandler had been wasted in earlier films with 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 aforementionedPunch-Drunk Love(for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe ),Spanglish(2004) andReign Over Me(2007). He played a loving father figure inBig Daddy(1999). During filming, he met Jacqueline Samantha Titone —his future wife and mother of his two daughters -— who was cast as the waitress from The Blarney Stone Bar.^{[citation needed]}

The handprints and shoeprints of Adam Sandler in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre .

At one point, Sandler was considered for the part that went to Jamie Foxx inCollateral(2004). He also was one of the finalists along with Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp for the role of Willy Wonka in Tim Burton 'sCharlie and the Chocolate Factory(2005).^{[citation needed]}He returned to more dramatic fare with Mike Binder 'sReign 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 filmI 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 headlinedYou 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 Virginwriter-director Judd Apatow (who was an old roommate of Sandler's when both were starting out), andTriumph, the Insult Comic Dogcreator Robert Smigel , and was directed byHappy Gilmoredirector 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 ofNew Yorkmagazine in a review ofYou Don't Mess with the Z. "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 starred inBedtime Stories(2008), a fantasy film directed byBringing Down the Housedirector 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 featureFunny 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 filmInglourious Basterds, which he confirmed, but he did not appear in it due to a scheduling conflict withFunny People.Following the release ofFunny People, it, along withPunch-Drunk Lovewere 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 .

Sandler appeared inGrown Ups, teaming up with Kevin James , Chris Rock , Rob Schneider , and David Spade (all of whom have worked with Sandler before) 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 fellowSNLalumna Maya Rudolph (playing Rock's wife), Colin Quinn , Tim Meadows , and Norm MacDonald . Sandler andDickie Robertsscribe Fred Wolf wrote the script and Dennis Dugan directed the film.

Sandler finished filmingJust Go with Itwith Jennifer Aniston , a romantic comedy written by Allan Loeb and Tim Dowling and directed by Dennis Dugan.^{[citation needed]}He plays a plastic surgeon who asks his office manager, played by Aniston, to pose as his wife in order to prove his honesty to his much younger girlfriend, played by Brooklyn Decker , after telling her he's been married to avoid commitment. Sandler will also provide the voice of a capuchin monkey in Kevin James'Zookeeper, set to be released on July 8, 2011.^{[citation needed]}

Television

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