Billy Bob Thornton is an American film actor and director. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller One False Move, and received international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the independent drama film Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He appeared in several major film roles in the 1990s following Sling Blade, including Oliver Stone's neo-noir U Turn (1997), political drama Primary Colors (1998), science fiction disaster film Armageddon (1998), the highest-grossing film of that year, and the crime drama A Simple Plan (1998), which earned him his third Oscar nomination.
Milton Berle was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre (1948–1953), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during the first Golden Age of Television. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV.
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, singer, screenwriter and producer. Primarily a comedic leading actor in film and television, his accolades include nominations for three Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2023, Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
William George Zane Jr. is an American actor. His breakthrough role was in the 1989 Australian film Dead Calm, a performance that earned him a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor. He has since appeared in numerous films and television series, notably playing the main antagonist Caledon Hockley in the epic romance disaster film Titanic (1997), for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
The Waterboy is a 1998 American sports comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It was written by Adam Sandler as well as Tim Herlihy and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. Sandler also stars as the title character while Kathy Bates, Fairuza Balk, Henry Winkler, Jerry Reed, Larry Gilliard, Jr., Blake Clark, Peter Dante, and Jonathan Loughran play other characters.
Billy Madison is a 1995 American comedy film directed by Tamra Davis. It stars Adam Sandler in the title role, Bradley Whitford, Bridgette Wilson, Norm Macdonald, Darren McGavin, Mark Beltzman, and Larry Hankin. The film was written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy and produced by Robert Simonds, and was Macdonald's feature film debut. It made over $26.4 million worldwide and debuted at number one at the box office.
The Hollywood Palace is an hourlong American television variety show broadcast Saturday nights on ABC from January 4, 1964, to February 7, 1970. Titled The Saturday Night Hollywood Palace for its first few weeks, it began as a midseason replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show, which lasted only three months.
Allen Stephen Covert is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for his starring role in the 2006 comedy film Grandma's Boy, and his supporting actor role in the movie Strange Wilderness (2008). He is a frequent collaborator of actor and friend Adam Sandler with prominent roles in such films as Happy Gilmore (1996), The Wedding Singer (1998), Big Daddy (1999), Little Nicky (2000), Mr. Deeds (2002), Anger Management (2003), 50 First Dates (2004) and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007).
The Bellboy is a 1960 American comedy film written, produced, directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was released on July 20, 1960 by Paramount Pictures and marked Lewis's directorial debut.
Peter Francis Dante is an American character actor and comedian. He used to frequently appear in films from Happy Madison Productions alongside Adam Sandler.
Sandler and Young were an American musical duo from the 1960s through the 1980s, composed of Belgian singer Tony Sandler and native New Yorker Ralph Young.
Edward Buzzell was an American film actor and director whose credits include Child of Manhattan (1933); Honolulu (1939); the Marx Brothers films At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940); the musicals Best Foot Forward (1943), Song of the Thin Man (1947), and Neptune's Daughter (1949); and Easy to Wed (1946).
You Don't Mess with the Zohan is a 2008 American satirical action comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel, and Judd Apatow, produced by Sandler and Jack Giarraputo, and starring Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson, Lainie Kazan, and Rob Schneider. It was the fourth film that included a collaboration of Sandler as actor and Dugan as director. The film tells the story of an Israeli army counter terrorist commando with superhuman traits who fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream of becoming a hairstylist in New York City while contending with a crooked businessman, a superhuman terrorist, and the grudge of a taxi driver.
Joke theft is the act of performing and taking credit for comic material written or performed by another person without their consent and without acknowledging the other person's authorship. This may be a form of plagiarism and can, in some cases, be copyright infringement. A comic who is known to steal jokes may be labelled with the epithet "hack" by other comics. A "hack comic" uses material that is unoriginal or which is blatantly copied from its original author.
Grown Ups is a 2010 American comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Adam Sandler and Fred Wolf, produced by Sandler and Jack Giarraputo, and starring Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, and Maya Rudolph. The film tells a story of five lifelong friends who won their junior high school basketball championship in 1978. They reunite three decades later for a 4th of July weekend after learning about the sudden death of their basketball coach.
Jack and Jill is a 2011 American comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan from a script by Steve Koren and Adam Sandler. The film was released on November 11, 2011, by Columbia Pictures and grossed $149 million against its $79 million budget.
Grown Ups 2 is a 2013 American comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Adam Sandler, Fred Wolf, and Tim Herlihy, and produced by Sandler and Jack Giarraputo. It is a sequel to the 2010 film Grown Ups and stars Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph, Maria Bello, and Nick Swardson. It follows Lenny, who moves his family to his old hometown. While spending time with his old friends, he and his companions must soon face bizarre situations and new enemies. The film is produced by Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing through its Columbia Pictures label. The film was released on July 12, 2013, to overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. The film grossed $247 million on an $80 million budget. It was nominated for nine Razzies at the 2014 Golden Raspberry Awards.
The Do-Over is a 2016 American black comedy buddy action film directed by Steve Brill, and written by Kevin Barnett and Chris Pappas. The movie follows Charlie and Max after Max fakes their deaths in order to start their lives anew. Things go awry when they discover that the dead men whose identities they have adopted were entangled in criminal activities. Paula Patton, Kathryn Hahn, and Luis Guzmán also star.
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation is a 2018 American computer-animated monster comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The third installment in the Hotel Transylvania franchise and the sequel to Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015), it was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, written by Tartakovsky and Michael McCullers, and features Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, Sadie Sandler, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Asher Blinkoff, Chris Parnell and Mel Brooks reprising their roles, as well as new additions to the cast including Jim Gaffigan, Kathryn Hahn, Joe Jonas, Chrissy Teigen, Joe Whyte, Tara Strong and Tartakovsky. In the film, Dracula finds love with a ship captain named Ericka while on a vacation on a cruise liner with his family and friends, but Mavis later discovers that Ericka is actually the great-granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing, Drac's arch-nemesis.
Dean Ward is an American screenwriter, television comedy writer and documentary filmmaker.
