Sandler was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Judy, a nursery school teacher, and Stanley Sandler, an electrical engineer.[2] He had a Jewish upbringing.[3] 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, the largest lake in New Hampshire where he went to summer camp.
Acting career
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 showRemote 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".[4] 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),[5] 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 possessed considerably more acting ability that they believed had been previously wasted on poorly written scripts and characters with no development.[6] 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.
At one point, Sandler was considered for the part that went to Jamie Foxx in Collateral (2004).[5] 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 in the end Depp got the role.[5] 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). He starred in the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007), where he stars alongside 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's most recent film is You 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 released on June 6.[7] The film was 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 was directed by Happy Gilmore director 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 of New York magazine in a review of You Don't Mess with the Zohan. "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."[8]
He recently finished production on Bedtime Stories (2008), a fantasy film 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.[9]Keri Russell and English comedian Russell Brand co-star and the film is set to be released on Christmas of 2008.
His next film will be Judd Apatow's third directorial feature Funny People. The film will star him and Seth Rogen as a pair of stand up comedians, and filming is set to begin in mid-September of 2008 with a tentative release date of July 31, 2009, depending on the expected Screen Actors Strike of 2008.[10] Other co-stars include Eric Bana and Apatow's wife Leslie Mann. Sandler will play a more successful mentor of sorts to Rogen's character.[11] The movie will contain more dramatic elements than Apatow's previous efforts.[12]
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 appears as an associate producer in the credits.
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.
The Longest Yard, where Sandler stars, Schneider suggests to the prisoners around him that they hug in the showers. Even though he says similar lines as the Townie, he is credited as 'Punky' in this movie.
Little Nicky, where Sandler stars, Schneider is an angry man (Townie) in riot based on the same character from The Waterboy.
Big Daddy, where Sandler stars, Schneider plays a delivery guy.
Mr. Deeds, where Sandler stars, Schneider plays the delivery man from Big Daddy; he catches a cat that Sandler shoots from a burning building trying to save it.
50 First Dates, where Sandler stars, Schneider plays a Hawaiian friend of Adam's character with one eye and is the presiding minister at his wedding.
The Waterboy, where Sandler stars, Schneider plays an angry Townie.
Eight Crazy Nights, where Sandler stars, Schneider voices an Asian waiter who doesn't like Sandler's character, and also provides the narration.
Click, where Sandler stars, Schneider plays Prince Habeeboo, a potential foreign customer for Sandler's architect firm.
You Don't Mess with the Zohan, where Sandler stars, Schneider plays a Palestinian cab driver and sleeper cell terrorist who recognizes Zohan in New York and attempts to assassinate him.
^ Edelstein, David, [http://nymag.com/movies/reviews/47552/ "Israeli Stud, Aspiring Hairdresser: Adam Sandler makes his Jewish mother proud. Meanwhile, Werner Herzog tries to avoid penguins." New York magazine, June 5, 2008, accessed June 13, 2008
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