Sad Things You Didn't Know About Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler isn't exactly known for tragedy. But like any actor, he had a tumultuous start to his life in Hollywood, between being fired from "Saturday Night Live" and his regrets over, in his own words, acting like an ass in the early stages of his career. His films weren't exactly critical darlings, either, and he had to learn early on not to let the negative press get to him. Even when he became successful in the 1990s and 2000s, he still had to contend with the occasional box office flop and many, many bad reviews.

Though Sandler says he had a happy childhood, as he got older, he experienced more than his share of tragedy. He lost his father in 2003, and in the decades since he also lost many of his close friends in the industry, from Alec Musser and Joe Flaherty to his close "SNL" friends Norm Macdonald and Chris Farley. Millions have watched his "SNL" hosting gig in 2019 and his "Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh" Netflix special, in which Sandler breaks out his guitar for an emotional elegy dedicated to Farley's memory. But here we're going to dive into some of the deeper cuts, some of the sad things you didn't know about Sandler — the stuff he doesn't usually talk about on Netflix specials or "SNL" appearances.

Adam Sandler might be known for playing confident smartasses, but he grappled with anxiety and stage fright early in his career. Performing stand-up comedy every night before he landed his "Saturday Night Live" spot, Sandler was still pretty green. "I was so nervous every time," Sandler told "60 Minutes" in 2019. "I'd get up there, and I wouldn't remember what I was supposed to say and go blank, and you have the guitar in your hands because that way I was at least doing something."

The guitar became an iconic part of Sandler's stand-up routines. On "SNL," he created and performed "The Thanksgiving Song," "The Chanukah Song," and "Lunch Lady Land." His musical career extended to his films, most notably the '90s rom-com classic "The Wedding Singer." His 1993 album "They're All Gonna Laugh at You" went double-platinum, as did his 1996 album "What the Hell Happened to Me?" What started as a way to control his stage fright and performance anxiety became more than just a crutch for Sandler — it became a trademark of his career.

Adam Sandler lost his father, Stanley, to lung cancer in 2003. His death massively impacted Sandler, not least because Sandler looked up to him immensely, often calling him his "hero." But the connection runs deeper than family — film critic Hunter Saylor wrote for Medium about recurring themes about fathers and sons in nearly all of Sandler's movies.

The father-son dynamic is most on display in "Grown Ups," "That's My Boy," and "Big Daddy," where Sandler's characters struggle with and eventually come to terms with fatherhood. But his earliest movies — "Billy Madison" and "Happy Gilmore" — also contain turbulent paternal relationships, whether it's Billy's desire to live up to his father's expectations or Happy's drive to succeed in golf despite the golf-related death of his father. Even in "Little Nicky," where his character's dad is literally Satan, Sandler's character is still trying to make Dad proud.

Sandler's later work, after his father's death, reflects the sadness Sandler must have felt at the time. His characters deal with their fathers' deaths in "Reign Over Me" and "The Cobbler." In "The Meyerowitz Stories," his dad's in a coma, and in "Click," the notoriously depressing final third of the movie pivots on the death of his father. The actor even used his dad as inspiration for his role in the 2022 basketball drama "Hustle," playing Stanley Sugarman like his dad when he would coach Sandler's youth sports teams.

Adam Sandler was box office gold in the 1990s and 2000s. His wildly successful films paid for the houses of Sony Pictures executives and made him one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood in the early 2000s. But that relationship soured after a slurry of underperforming films — nobody can honestly say that their favorite Sandler movie is "Pixels," "That's My Boy," or "Jack and Jill." And the losses those movies incurred sank the relationship between Sandler and the studio.

There's behind-the-scenes beef too. Some executives, including Sony co-chair Amy Pascal, were outed in an email hack (remember that?) in which they complained about Sandler's demand for $200 million for, of all things, a live-action adaptation of the board game "Candy Land." "Adam is an asshile," Pascal wrote, spelling errors and all (via The Daily Beast). She complained that "this is more his fault than anyone's" and that they failed to communicate with each other, with nobody taking responsibility in their professional relationship. When Sandler came ringing to pitch a comedy Western, Pascal and her studio balked. Their relationship might have withered, but it was still a betrayal of Sandler from the studio that brought him to the A-list. Sandler shopped his Western all over town until finally, Netflix bit. The film, "The Ridiculous 6," might not be his most auspicious project, but it did spark a years-long relationship between Sandler and Netflix that has produced some of the best films of his career.

It's a good thing that Adam Sandler's Netflix deal is working out for him because he can use those Netflix dollars. The actor developed hip problems, which flared up during back-to-back shoots for "Murder Mystery 2" and "Spaceman." While performing alongside Jennifer Aniston for the Netflix comedy film, the actor said, he didn't have the mobility he once did, owing to severe hip problems.

The issues accumulated over the course of a long career. But during production on "Spaceman," a 2024 film he made with Netflix, the actor said something felt wrong. "I had been doing so many movies in a row," he said at a film premiere (via Variety). "I did 'Spaceman' and I was hanging in harness all the time. I kept saying, 'Something's going on with my hip, man. I'm in trouble.'" He got an X-ray, which led to hip replacement surgery. There go his odds of ever becoming the next James Bond.

Okay, this says "accused." But still, this is one of the most upsetting allegations ever leveled at a celebrity, even if it was resolved in court. Nanny Deanne McDonald was hired in 2009, likely helping to raise Sandler's two daughters. However, she ended her employment a year later and accused Sandler and his company of treating her like a slave. She also alleged other criminal activity, all in a 2010 lawsuit that saw the nanny and her attorneys awarded a tidy sum of $80,000.

Part of the agreement saw McDonald agree to a non-disclosure agreement and agree not to disparage Sandler or his company. But she rescinded the agreement, turning around and suing the company in 2013. Little is known about the claims she made against Sandler, or what "slavery" she was referring to, but we'll guess that she won't speak about it again. The courts were not favorable to her the second time, and she was ordered to pay all the money back and not pursue further legal action.

"50 First Dates," in which Adam Sandler co-stars with his good friend Drew Barrymore, is about a Hawaiian woman, Lucy (Barrymore), with anterograde amnesia. Her short-term memory works fine, but every day, she wakes up having forgotten all about her amnesia and the previous day in general. Marine veterinarian Henry (Sandler) falls for her and comes up with a novel way to remind her every day about her condition. He records a video for Lucy to play every morning, bringing her up to speed on her memory loss and her budding relationship with Henry.

"50 First Dates" gave the staff of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale in New York City an idea. Inspired by the film, the staff started using prerecorded videos from loved ones to greet their patients with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. They play the videos every morning.

Residents dealing with memory loss often find that they wake up in unfamiliar environments, unsure of why they're in a care home at all. Staff told NBC New York that residents find these videos comforting. Ruth Drew, director of family and information services for the Alzheimer's Association, said, "To have a couple of minutes with a loved one as a way to start out the day, I haven't heard of anything quite like that." Thank goodness Sandler and Barrymore made "50 First Dates" — thanks to their film, an innovative new tool in dementia care came from the most unlikely of places.