Biography of Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler is a famous American actor-comedian, screenwriter, producer and musician. Known for the films "Billy Madison", "Happy Gilmore", "Big Daddy", "You Don't Mess with the Zohan", "The Reluctant Millionaire", "Anger Management", "50 First Dates", "Pretend to Be My Wife", "Blended" and etc.
Pictured: Adam Sandler
He ranks second among Hollywood actors in terms of the number of anti-awards and Golden Raspberry nominations, although the total box office receipts of films with his participation exceed $2 billion.
Childhood and education
Adam Sandler was born on September 9, 1966 in Brooklyn (New York), into a prosperous Jewish family professing Judaism. Both of his parents, electrical engineer Stanley Sandler (1935–2003) and elementary school teacher Judith Sandler (nee Levin), were descendants of Russian immigrants. Adam was the youngest of four children - he has a brother, Scott, and sisters, Elizabeth and Valerie.
Adam Sandler in childhood and now
The boy was very close to his father and later remembered him fondly: When Adam was six years old, the Sandlers moved from Brooklyn to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he grew up. Here he went to Manchester Central School and soon acquired a strong reputation as the class clown. The first person to recognize the potential of the young comedian was his older brother, who persuaded Adam to try his hand at stand-up comedy in one of the Boston clubs.
Adam Sandler's school photos
The experiment was successful, and the young man was inspired by the idea of going into show business professionally. To do this, after school, he took a course at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in New York, known for such bright graduates as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Uma Thurman, Matt Dillon, Lady Gaga, Scarlett Johansson , Mickey Rourke, Angelina Jolie and even Marilyn Monroe.
Adam Sandler began his path to fame as a stand-up comedian
And after that, in order to improve his acting skills and support them with a solid theoretical base, Adam entered the famous Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where Woody Allen, Whoopi Goldberg, Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Alec Baldwin and many other stars studied at different times . In 1988, the young actor successfully completed his studies and received a bachelor's degree.
Television projects
Adam Sandler first appeared on television in 1980, starring in an episode of the famous series “The Cosby Show,” and in the late 1980s he took part in the game show “Remote Control” on the MTV channel.
Young Adam Sandler in The Cosby Show
After graduating from the School of the Arts, the young artist made a living performing comedy in Los Angeles clubs, and in 1990 he was noticed by the famous comedian Dennis Miller, who introduced him to the producers of the show “Saturday Night Live”. So Adam got a permanent job on television - first as an author-screenwriter, and then, a year later, as a performing actor. Adam Sandler's first performances (English) He regularly acted in sketches and also performed songs, including his own compositions, “The Thanksgiving Song” and “The Chanukah Song.” Regularly appearing on screen until mid-1995, the young comedian gradually made a name for himself and gained popularity.
Film career
Adam Sandler's film debut took place in 1989 with the release of the comedy All Overboard, where he played the main role - a young stand-up comedian, much like himself. The film had a modest budget by Hollywood standards of 200 thousand dollars and did not receive audience success, and critics “awarded” the actors’ performance with rather harsh epithets, calling their work “incompetent and mediocre.”
Still from the film “Overboard”
It is not surprising that Adam forgot about cinema for a while and focused on television, but then fate itself led him back to cinema: in 1993, the full-length film “Eggheads” was released, based on stories from the TV show “Saturday Night Live” and with the same actors. Here Adam Sandler played a supporting role, and Dan Aykroyd played the main character. And although critics rated this work mostly negatively, a significant part of the public found the film funny and cheerful.
Adam Sandler before he became famous
The next film with Adam Sandler's participation was released in 1994 - it was a musical comedy about hapless rock musicians, Airheads, in which he played one of the three leading roles along with Brendan Fraser and Steve Buscemi. Critics once again tore the actor's work to smithereens, and the film failed at the box office. Nevertheless, the picture gained loyal fans and subsequently began to be considered almost a cult. Airheads with Adam Sandler. Trailer Then, after a small role in the film "Psycho Christmas" (1994) with the famous comedian Steve Martin, Adam took on the work that became a turning point in his career - the comedy "Billy Madison" (1995). This time, using his experience as a TV show writer, he wrote the script himself and then played the lead role.
Adam Sandler in the movie Billy Madison
Full of light humor and, in its own way, a touching story about a rich slacker who had to accomplish a real feat in his studies in order to inherit the family company, the audience liked it. And critics were a little less strict this time about his risky, not at all academic style: ““Billy Madison” is typically immature material from Adam Sandler, although there are moments of inspired madness in it.”
Adam Sandler's characters are annoying - this is the actor's signature style
It was from this film that people gradually began to get used to the actor’s peculiar style: “When you come to terms with the fact that Sandler’s comic character is designed to irritate you, laughter takes over you instantly and uncontrollably,” the journalists concluded. For this work, the actor received the first serious nomination in his life - at the MTV Movie Awards in the category “Best Comic Role.”
Building on the success of Billy Madison, Adam Sandler again wrote the script for his next film himself. It was the sports comedy Happy Gilmore (1996), in which Ben Stiller was invited to play one of the supporting roles. This time, even the harshest critics were impressed: The film brought Sandler one of the most prestigious awards in his career - the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight, as well as nominations for the MTV Movie Awards for Best Comic Actor and the Kid's Choice Awards for Best Picture . At the box office, the film brought in $41 million, which exceeded the expectations of its creators.
"Happy Gilmore" Fragment In the same year, Sandler starred in the action comedy film Bulletproof, for which he received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry anti-award, and then played the main role in the comedy melodrama The Wedding Singer (1998), where his co-star for the first time was the temperamental beautiful Drew Barrymore. The film was an incredible success and brought in more than $123 million at the box office, and in terms of revenue in the first week of release, it was second only to the famous “Titanic,” which was released several months earlier.
The Wedding Singer: Adam Sandler as Robbie Hart
Sandler's next film, "Mama's Boy" (1998, translated as "The Water Bearer"), collected an even larger box office - $186 million. This time, Adam sought to make the movie even more original: he not only wrote the script and played the main role, but also for the first time participated in the production of his own film. The role of the hero's mother was played by the bright character actress Kathy Bates.
Still from the movie "Mama's Boy"
But, oddly enough, critics did not like this film - they criticized it for “low-class humor and flat jokes,” as well as Fr. In general, the public’s perception was successfully formulated by one journalist: “The film, of course, is stupid, but every 10 minutes it’s incredibly funny.”
Photos from the filming of "Mama's Boy"
And yet, from film to film, audience interest in Sandler’s work steadily increased, and the next comedy, “Big Daddy” (1999), became a real hit, bringing in almost $235 million. This time, the tough and unique humor characteristic of the actor was softened by kind and lyrical notes in the plot about an adult dunce who suddenly finds himself burdened with worries about someone else’s baby.
The Sprouse twins starred in Big Daddy with Adam Sandler.
And although some noted that the film suffers greatly from the “yawning stylistic gaps between crude humor and cloying sentimentality,” it collected a good “harvest” of awards: Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (Best Actor in a Comedy), Kids' Choice Awards (Best Film), MTV Movie + TV Awards (Best Comedy Actor), People's Choice Awards (Best Comedy) and Teen Choice Awards (Best Summer Movie). True, there was also a Golden Raspberry for Adam Sandler in the “worst actor” category, but in this case it was more of a recognition of his unique talent.
Adam Sandler's signature smile (Big Daddy, 1999)
After this work, in 1999, Adam Sandler founded his own production company, the name of which he made up “for luck” from the titles of the first two films that brought him success: “Happy Gilmore” and “Billy Madison” "). How Adam Sandler has changed Since that time, it was Happy Madison, with his personal participation, that produced almost all the films in which he starred, and also produced other films and television projects - most of them, like Adam’s own films, caused displeasure critics, but brought in fairly decent or average income, although there were box office failures.
The first Adam Sandler film released by the new company was the comedy Nicky the Devil, Jr. (2000), about the devil's youngest and favorite son, who decides to side with good. And although the film failed to recoup its hefty $85 million budget, it was noted for its peculiar success, collecting almost all the major Golden Raspberry nominations: Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Adam Sandler), Worst Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette), worst director and worst script. Luckily for Sandler, the same year saw the release of another film that was considered even more worthy of a Golden Raspberry in all of these categories: the fantasy action film Battlefield Earth, starring John Travolta.
Nikki the Devil Jr. flopped at the box office
Of particular importance in Sandler’s creative career was the comedy melodrama “Knock-Down Love” (2002), for the leading role in which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. The humor in this film is noticeably subtler than in all the actor’s previous works, and does not bear the stamp of his typical “rude laughter.” The press wrote: Unfortunately or fortunately, this forecast did not come true, and in subsequent years Sandler performed his best comic roles in many excellent and very funny comedies. They may have been a little less idiotic than his earlier films, but they retained all the charm of his unique, seemingly unpretentious style.
Still from the film “The Shoemaker”
These are such famous films as “The Reluctant Millionaire” (2002, with the participation of Winona Ryder), “Anger Management” (2003, with the participation of Jack Nicholson), “50 First Dates” (2004, in a duet with his beloved partner Drew Barrymore), “ All or Nothing" (2005), "Click: With the Remote Control for Life" (2006, starring Kate Beckinsale and Christopher Walken), "Chuck and Larry: Wedding on Fire" (2007), "Don't Mess with the Zohan" (2008), "Odnoklassniki" (2010) and "Odnoklassniki - 2" (2013), "Pretend to be My Wife" (2011, in a duet with Jennifer Aniston), "Such Different Twins" (2011, with Katie Holmes and Al Pacino - the film received a Golden Raspberries" with 10 nominations at once), "Papa Dosvidos" (2012), "Mixed" (2014, again in a duet with Drew Barrymore), "The Shoemaker" (2014, with Steve Buscemi and Dustin Hoffman), "Pixels" (2015 ). All these films were liked by the audience, and each of them collected an impressive box office of approximately 120 - 200 million dollars.
Adam Sandler and Salma Hayek at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards
However, there are other works in Sandler's career in which he showed himself to be a deeper and more versatile actor. One of these works was the romantic drama with elements of the comedy “Spanish English” (2004), which did not pay off at the box office, but received several nominations for film awards, including a Golden Globe for best music. Sandler's other dramatic work was the film "Empty Town" (2007) starring Liv Tyler. The film barely exceeded its budget at the box office, but critics praised it as "a charming and touching story of friendship and loss, with Adam Sandler doing a great job as a broken, grief-stricken man."
Adam Sandler is not only a comedian
Another film that was not typical for the actor was the tragicomedy “Pranksters” (2009), where he played the role of a successful comedian who rethinks his life when faced with an incurable disease... and in the end the disease recedes. This picture was an average box office success and average critics' ratings, but it was of great importance for Sandler's personal creative path.
Still from the movie “Mixed”
In addition to working in feature films, Adam Sandler also participated in the dubbing of several full-length animated films: “Eight Crazy Nights” (1998, Sandler is also a producer and scriptwriter), “Vacation Monsters” (2012, the role of Count Dracula) and “Vacation Monsters 2” (2015).
At the end of 2020, Adam Sandler was fourth on the list of the highest paid stars in Hollywood, after Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and rating leader Robert Downey Jr. His total fee for two films of the year – “The Mairowitz Family Stories” and “Sandy Wexler” – amounted to $50 million.
Adam Sandler grew a mustache in 2020
Surprisingly, both of these interesting and high-budget films did not make it into wide worldwide distribution, although the film “The Mairowitz Family Stories” (starring Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Ben Stiller) was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, received a standing ovation and was nominated for a Golden Award. palm branch." In 2020, Sandler voices the threequel "Vacation Monsters 3" along with Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi and other actors.
Career blossoming
In the late 90s, the list of films with Sandler increased by several more films. The actor played a small but very bright role in the popular comedy “Dirty Work.”
The already quite popular actor became the main character in the humorous film “Mama's Boy.” He played a thirty-year-old character named Bobby, who was never able to establish an independent life. The man immaculately obeys any instructions from his mother, who decides literally everything for him. The guy has been working as a water delivery man for a long time. But one day the coach of the football team saw Bobby running fast. After a thirty-year-old loser makes the team, he very quickly becomes a real star. But his mother, unfortunately, cannot come to terms with this.
Another serious achievement of Sandler can be called filming in the film “Big Daddy”, where he plays the role of the character Sunny. This is a man who was never able to grow up, but should be a good dad to a little boy. It was after this comedy that the actor began to be recognized in the vastness of Russia. The film's box office receipts exceeded $200 million.
In the early 2000s, Adam continued to actively act in various films. He played a rather unusual character in the melodrama “Love that knocks you down.” His character was a loser whose life changed greatly after meeting a charming girl.
Then the following films were released:
- "Eight Crazy Nights";
- "The Ridiculous Six";
- "Men, Women and Children";
- "Man on call";
- "Chick";
- "Pixels";
- "The Deserted City";
- "Bedtime Stories";
- "Shoemaker";
- "Classmates";
- "Chuck and Larry: Fireman's Wedding";
- "Anger Management";
- "Spanish English";
- "Top Five";
- "All or nothing";
- "50 First Dates";
- "Pretend my wife".
Adam played the last film together with the popular actress Jennifer Aniston.
Almost all of these films belong to the comedy genre, but there are some exceptions, for example, “The Empty City.” This film is about the events that occurred in America on September 11th. Another famous actor starred in TV series. The most popular of them were “Rules of Living Together”, “Saturday Night Live”, “Top Security”, “Brooklyn 9-9”.
Personal life of Adam Sandler
On the set of the film Big Daddy (1999), Adam Sandler met model and aspiring actress Jackie Titone (born September 24, 1974), who was cast in the modest role of a waitress. They immediately fell in love with each other, and Jackie, raised in Christianity, converted to the religion of Adam - Judaism. On June 22, 2003, their wedding took place in a magnificent Jewish ceremony in Malibu. Jackie Sandler supports her husband in everything and often appears in small roles in his films.
Adam Sandler and Jackie Titone's wedding
The couple have two daughters: the eldest, Sadie Madison Sandler, was born on May 6, 2006, and the youngest, Sunny Madeline Sandler, was born on November 2, 2008.
Adam Sandler with his wife and children
A favorite dog, an English bulldog named Matzoball (translated as “matzo ball”), is also considered a family member.
Adam Sandler and his dog named Matzball
Adam is an excellent father and spends a lot of time with his daughters. In an interview, he admitted: “I often dress up in the costume of the hero whose fairy tale I read to them before bed. Sometimes it's weird because my girls are obsessed with Disney princesses. But you can’t imagine how great I look in a ballgown!” Adam Sandler does not publicly voice his political views and civic position, but from time to time he makes financial donations to various organizations. The largest donations were made in 2007 - $1 million to the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown of Manchester for after-school educational programs for children and $2.1 million to the election campaign of a US Presidential candidate, the former mayor of New York City. York Rudy Giuliani.
Personal life
11. Wife and children.
Popular American model Jackie Titone married the famous actor in 2003. The man and woman met on the set, as they had previously starred together in many films. Shortly before the wedding, the girl decided to convert to Judaism.
The wedding ceremony took place in a very beautiful place, namely on the ocean. There were many famous names on the guest list. Jackie gave birth to her lover's first child in 2006, and the second daughter appeared in the family 2 years later.
Adam Sandler now
The actor continues to act in films, and for some films he writes the script himself, as in the case of the comedy “A Week Before...”, in which Adam collaborated with black comedian Chris Rock. They play fathers whose children are about to get married. Fans of Sandler's trademark humor were delighted with the film.
Still from the film “The Week Before...”
In 2020, with the participation of the actor, the film “Murder Mystery” was released, recognized as the best comedy film of the year according to the audience (People's Choice Awards). Sandler and Jennifer Aniston played well and presented a hilarious tandem.
Still from the film “Murder Mystery”
Also during this period, the actor again tried his hand at the drama genre. The result of his efforts was the film “Uncut Gems.” His hero is a jeweler who gets into huge debts so as not to lose his business.
Adam Sandler in the movie "Uncut Diamonds"
In 2021, viewers of the fourth part of the cartoon “Monsters on Vacation” will hear the actor’s voice, and in 2020, Sandler will appear on the big screen in the comedy “Hubie Halloween.”
Photos from the filming of “Hubie Halloween”
Biography
Adam Sandler is the favorite comedian of the streaming giant Netflix (film reviewers say so, since television projects with the actor’s participation sell better than wide-screen ones), as well as millions of viewers who prefer to spend their weekends watching light, entertaining content. It’s all the more interesting to see Adam in serious, thought-provoking films.
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Adam Sandler and his dog
In life, his comedic role is not so pronounced; those around him rather consider Sandler a pedant and a bore, for whom work comes second after family. Damaging reviews are not a reason to be despondent.
“The most important thing is to make a film with passion, and so that the viewer likes the result. And what the critics say is the tenth thing.”
