Golden Raspberry Award
John Wilson at 29th Golden Raspberry Awards
Awarded for	Worst in film
Presented by	Golden Raspberry Award Foundation
Country	United States
First awarded	March 31, 1981
Official website	www.Razzies.com

A Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie for short, is an award presented in recognition of the worst in film. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J. B. Wilson in 1981, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day. The term raspberry in the name is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry". The awards themselves typically cost $4.97 each, in the form of a "golfball-sized raspberry" which sits atop a Super 8 mm film reel, the whole of which is spray-painted gold.

The first Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony was held on March 31, 1981, at John J. B. Wilson's living room alcove in Los Angeles to honour the worst in film of the 1980 film season. The 32nd ceremony was held at Magicopolis in Santa Monica on April 1, 2012. ^[1][2] The nominations were announced on February 25, 2012.

History[link]

Foundation[link]

American copywriter and publicist John J. B. Wilson traditionally held potluck dinner parties at his house in Los Angeles on the night of the Academy Awards.^[3] In 1981, after the 53rd Academy Awards had completed for the evening, Wilson invited friends to give random award presentations in his living room.^[3][4] Wilson decided to formalize the event, after watching a double feature of Can't Stop the Music and Xanadu.^[5] He gave them ballots to vote on worst in film.^[5] Wilson stood at a podium made of cardboard in a tacky tuxedo, with a foam ball attached to a broomstick as a fake microphone, and announced Can't Stop the Music as the first Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture.^[5][6] The impromptu ceremony was a success and the following week a press release about his event released by Wilson was picked up by a few local newspapers, including a mention in the Los Angeles Daily News with the headline: "Take These Envelopes, Please".^[3][4][6]

Approximately three dozen people came to the 1st Golden Raspberry Awards.^[6] The 2nd Golden Raspberry Awards had double the attendance as the first and the 3rd awards ceremony had double this number.^[6] By the 4th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony, CNN and two major wire services covered the event.^[3] Wilson realized that by scheduling the Golden Raspberry Awards prior to the Academy Awards, the ceremony would get more press coverage: "We finally figured out you couldn't compete with the Oscars on Oscar night, but if you went the night before, when the press from all over the world are here and they are looking for something to do, it could well catch on," he said to BBC News.^[3]

Name[link]

The term raspberry is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry".^[7] Wilson commented to the author of Blame It on the Dog: "When I registered the term with the Library of Congress in 1980, they asked me, 'Why raspberry? What's the significance of that?' But since then, razz has pretty much permeated the culture. We couldn't have done it without Hollywood's help."^[7] Wilson is referred to as "Ye Olde Head Razzberry".^[8]

Format[link]

Awarding process[link]

Paid members of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation vote to determine the winners;^[9] individuals may become members of the foundation by visiting the organization's website at www.razzies.com.^[10] For the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards in 2009, award results were based on votes from approximately 650 journalists, cinema fans and professionals from the film industry.^[9][11] Voters hailed from 45 states in the United States and 19 other countries.^[12]

Ceremony[link]

John J. B. Wilson at 28th Golden Raspberry Awards in 2008.

Worst Supporting Actress at 29th Golden Raspberry Awards

The ceremony, typically held one day before the Academy Awards, is modelled after the latter but "deliberately low-end and tacky".^[3]

Categories[link]

Current Awards

• Worst Actor: 1980 to present
• Worst Actress: 1980 to present
• Worst Supporting Actor: 1980 to present
• Worst Supporting Actress: 1980 to present
• Worst Screen Couple/Worst Screen Ensemble: 1994 to present
• Worst Screenplay: 1980 to present
• Worst Director: 1980 to present
• Worst Picture: 1980 to present
• Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel: 1994 to present

Retired

• Worst Original Song: 1980 to 1999, 2002
• Worst New Star: 1981 to 1988, 1990 to 1998
• Worst Musical Score: 1981 to 1985
• Worst Visual Effects: 1986 to 1987

Special categories[link]

Special categories have also been introduced for specific years. Such special awards include:

• Worst Screenplay Grossing Over $100 Million (1996)
• Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property (1997)
• Worst Movie Trends of the Year (1998)
• Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie (2002)
• Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie (All Concept/No Content) (2003)
• Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets (2005)
• Worst Excuse For Family Entertainment (2006)
• Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie (2007)
• Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D (2010)^[13][14]

Other types of awards[link]

Over the years, the Golden Raspberry Awards have awarded special awards next to the actual Razzie Awards as well.

Worst Career Achievement Award[link]

This award has been given only five times, to Ronald Reagan in 1981, to Linda Blair in 1983, to Irwin Allen in 1985, to "Bruce the Rubber Shark" from Jaws^[15] in 1987 and to director Uwe Boll^[16] in 2009 who received this for his achievement as "Germany's answer to Ed Wood".

Governor's Award[link]

This is a special award given by Razzie Award Governor John J. B. Wilson to an individual whose achievements are not covered by the Razzie's other categories. It was awarded in 2003 to Travis Payne for "Distinguished Under-Achievement in Choreography" in the film From Justin to Kelly.^[17]

See also[link]

Film portal

• Academy Award
• Bad Sex in Fiction Award
• Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year for odd book titles
• Ig Nobel Prizes for questionable scientific achievements
• List of films considered the worst
• List of people who have accepted Golden Raspberry Awards
• Stella Awards for outrageous lawsuits
• Stinkers Bad Movie Awards
• The Golden Turkey Awards

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Golden Raspberry Awards

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Golden Raspberry Award

• Golden Raspberry Official Website
• Razzie Awards page on the Internet Movie Database
• Razzie channel on YouTube

Halle Berry
Berry in February 2007
Born	Maria Halle Berry (1966-08-14) August 14, 1966 (age 45) Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Occupation	Actress, former model
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	David Justice (m. 1992–1997) «start: (1992)–end+1: (1998)»"Marriage: David Justice to Halle Berry" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Halle_Berry) Eric Benét (m. 2001–2005) «start: (2001)–end+1: (2006)»"Marriage: Eric Benét to Halle Berry" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Halle_Berry)
Partner	Gabriel Aubry (2005–10) Olivier Martinez (2010–present)
Children	Nahla Ariela Aubry

Halle Berry ( /ˈhæli ˈbɛri/; born August 14, 1966^[1]) is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge^[2] and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2012, only woman of African American descent to have won the award for Best Actress. She is one of the most highly paid actresses in Hollywood and also a Revlon spokesmodel.^[3][4] She has been involved in the production side of several of the films in which she performed.

Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant (1986), and coming in 6th place in the Miss World Pageant in 1986.^[2] She made her film debut with a small role in 1991's Jungle Fever. This led to starring roles in The Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She also won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person—one of the few performers to do so.^[5]

Early life[link]

Berry was born Maria Halle Berry, though her name was legally changed to Halle Maria Berry in 1971.^[6] Berry's parents selected her middle name from Halle's Department Store, which was then a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio.^[7] Her mother, Judith Ann (née Hawkins),^[8] who is of European descent, was a psychiatric nurse. Her father, Jerome Jesse Berry, was an African American hospital attendant in the same psychiatric ward where her mother worked; he later became a bus driver.^[7][9] Berry's maternal grandmother, Nellie Dicken, was born in Sawley, Derbyshire, England, while her maternal grandfather, Earl Ellsworth Hawkins, was born in Ohio.^[10] Berry's parents divorced when she was four years old; she and her older sister Heidi^[11] were raised exclusively by her mother.^[7] Berry has said in published reports that she has been estranged from her father since her childhood,^[7][12] noting in 1992, "I haven't heard from him since [he left]. Maybe he's not alive."^[11]

Berry graduated from Bedford High School. She worked in the children's department at Higbee's Department store. She then studied at Cuyahoga Community College. In the 1980s, she entered several beauty contests, winning Miss Teen All-American in 1985 and Miss Ohio USA in 1986.^[2] She was the 1986 Miss USA first runner-up to Christy Fichtner of Texas. In the Miss USA 1986 pageant interview competition, she said she hoped to become an entertainer or to have something to do with the media. Her interview was awarded the highest score by the judges.^[13] She was the first African-American Miss World entrant in 1986, where she finished sixth and Trinidad and Tobago's Giselle Laronde was crowned Miss World.^[14]

Acting career[link]

1989–2002[link]

In the late 1980s, Berry went to Chicago to pursue a modeling career as well as acting.^[15] One of her first acting projects was a television series for local cable by Gordon Lake Productions called Chicago Force. In 1989, Berry moved to New York City to further pursue her acting ambitions. During her early time there she ran out of money and had to live briefly in a homeless shelter.^[15][16][17] Later in 1989, her situation improved and she was cast in the role of model Emily Franklin in the short-lived ABC television series Living Dolls, which was shot in New York and was a spin-off of the hit series Who's the Boss?.^[15] During the taping of which she lapsed into a coma and was diagnosed with diabetes.^[18][19] After the cancellation of Living Dolls, she moved to Los Angeles.^[15] She went on to have a recurring role on the long-running primetime serial Knots Landing. In 1992, Berry was cast as the love interest in the video for R. Kelly's seminal single, Honey Love.^[20][21]

Berry visiting with sailors and Marines during the opening day of Fleet Week New York 2006

Her breakthrough feature film role was in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, in which she played a drug addict named Vivian.^[7] Her first co-starring role was in the 1991 film Strictly Business. In 1992, Berry portrayed a career woman who falls for Eddie Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. That same year, she caught the public's attention as a headstrong biracial slave in the TV adaptation of Queen: The Story of an American Family, based on the book by Alex Haley. Berry was in the live-action Flintstones movie playing the part of "Sharon Stone", a sultry secretary who seduced Fred Flintstone.^[22]

Berry tackled a more serious role, playing a former drug addict struggling to regain custody of her son in Losing Isaiah (1995), starring opposite Jessica Lange. She portrayed Sandra Beecher in Race the Sun (1996), which was based on a true story, shot in Australia, and co-starred alongside Kurt Russell in Executive Decision. Beginning in 1996, she was a Revlon spokeswoman for seven years and renewed her contract in 2004.^[4][23]

In 1997, Halle starred alongside Natalie Deselle Reid in the comedy film, B*A*P*S. Although panned by critics, it showed Halle's acting versatility.In 1998, Berry received praise for her role in Bulworth as an intelligent woman raised by activists who gives a politician (Warren Beatty) a new lease on life. The same year, she played the singer Zola Taylor, one of the three wives of pop singer Frankie Lymon, in the biopic Why Do Fools Fall in Love. In the 1999 HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, she portrayed the first black woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, and it was to Berry a heart-felt project that she introduced, co-produced and fought intensely for it to come through.^[7] Berry's performance was recognized with several awards, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe.^[2][24]

Berry portrayed the mutant superhero Storm in the film adaptation of the comic book series X-Men (2000) and its sequels, X2: X-Men United (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). In 2001, Berry appeared in the film Swordfish, which featured her first nude scene.^[25] At first, she refused to be filmed topless in a sunbathing scene, but she changed her mind when Warner Brothers raised her fee substantially.^[26] The brief flash of her breasts added $500,000 to her fee.^[27] Berry considered these stories to be rumors and was quick to deny them.^[25][28] After turning down numerous roles that required nudity, she said she decided to make Swordfish because her husband, Benét, supported her and encouraged her to take risks.^[29]

In 2001, Berry appeared as Leticia Musgrove, the wife of an executed murderer, in the film Monster's Ball. Her performance was awarded the National Board of Review and the Screen Actors Guild best-actress prizes; in an interesting coincidence she became the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Actress (earlier in her career she portrayed Dorothy Dandridge, the first African-American to be nominated for Best Actress, and who was born at the same hospital as Berry, in Cleveland, Ohio).^[30] The NAACP issued the statement: "Congratulations to Halle Berry and Denzel Washington for giving us hope and making us proud. If this is a sign that Hollywood is finally ready to give opportunity and judge performance based on skill and not on skin color then it is a good thing."^[31] Her role also generated controversy. Berry's graphic nude love scene with a racist character played by co-star Billy Bob Thornton was the subject of much media chatter and discussion among African-Americans. Many in the African-American community were critical of Berry for taking the part.^[29] Berry responded: "I don't really see a reason to ever go that far again. That was a unique movie. That scene was special and pivotal and needed to be there, and it would be a really special script that would require something like that again."^[29]

Berry signs autographs for US soldiers in Bosnia-Herzegovina, December 24, 1996

Berry asked for a higher fee for Revlon advertisements after winning the Academy Award, and Ron Perelman, the cosmetics firm's chief, congratulated her, saying how happy he was that she modeled for his company. She replied, "Of course, you'll have to pay me more." Perelman stalked off in a rage.^[32] Her win at the Academy Awards led to two famous "Oscar moments." In accepting her award, she gave an acceptance speech honoring previous black actresses who had never had the opportunity. She said, "This moment is so much bigger than me. This is for every nameless, faceless woman of colour who now has a chance tonight because this door has been opened."^[33] One year later, as she presented the Best Actor award, winner Adrien Brody ran on stage and, instead of giving her the standard peck on the cheek, planted a long kiss on Berry.

2002–present[link]

Berry in Hamburg in 2004

As Bond girl Giacinta 'Jinx' Johnson in the 2002 blockbuster Die Another Day, Berry recreated a scene from Dr. No, emerging from the surf to be greeted by James Bond as Ursula Andress had 40 years earlier.^[34] Lindy Hemming, costume designer on Die Another Day, had insisted that Berry wear a bikini and knife as an homage.^[35] Berry has said of the scene: "It's splashy", "exciting", "sexy", "provocative" and "it will keep me still out there after winning an Oscar."^[29] The bikini scene was shot in Cadiz; the location was reportedly cold and windy, and footage has been released of Berry wrapped in thick towels in between takes to avoid catching a chill.^[36] According to a ITV news poll, Jinx was voted the fourth toughest girl on screen of all time.^[37] Berry was hurt during filming when debris from a smoke grenade flew into her eye. It was removed in a 30-minute operation.^[38]

After Berry won the Academy Award, rewrites were commissioned to give her more screentime for X2.^[39]

In November 2003, she starred in the psychological thriller Gothika opposite Robert Downey Jr., during which she broke her arm in a scene with Downey, who twisted her arm too hard. Production was halted for eight weeks.^[40] It was a moderate hit at the United States box office, taking in $60 million; it earned another $80 million abroad.^[41] Berry appeared in the Limp Bizkit music video for Behind Blue Eyes for the motion picture soundtrack for the film. The same year, she was named #1 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll.^[42]

Berry received $12.5 million for the title role in the film Catwoman,^[41] a $100 million movie; it grossed $17 million on its first weekend.^[43] She was awarded a "worst actress" Razzie award in 2005 for this role. She appeared at the ceremony to accept the award in person (making her the third person, and second actor, to ever do so)^[44] with a sense of humor, considering it an experience of the "rock bottom" in order to be "at the top".^[5] Holding the Academy Award in one hand and the Razzie in the other she said, "I never in my life thought that I would be here, winning a Razzie. It's not like I ever aspired to be here, but thank you. When I was a kid, my mother told me that if you could not be a good loser, then there's no way you could be a good winner."^[30] The Fund for Animals praised Berry's compassion towards cats and for squelching rumors that she was keeping a Bengal tiger from the sets of Catwoman as a "pet."^[45]

Berry next appeared in the Oprah Winfrey-produced ABC TV movie Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005), an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's novel, in which Berry portrayed Janie Crawford, a free-spirited woman whose unconventional sexual mores upset her 1920s contemporaries in a small community. She was nominated for an Emmy for this TV film. Meanwhile, she voiced the character of Cappy, one of the many mechanical beings in the animated feature Robots (2005).^[46]

Berry on the red carpet of Robots

In 2006, Berry, Pierce Brosnan, Cindy Crawford, Jane Seymour, Dick Van Dyke, Tea Leoni, and Daryl Hannah successfully fought the Cabrillo Port Liquefied Natural Gas facility that was proposed off the coast of Malibu.^[47] Berry said, "I care about the air we breathe, I care about the marine life and the ecosystem of the ocean."^[48] In May 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the facility.^[49] Hasty Pudding Theatricals gave her its 2006 Woman of The Year award.^[50]

Berry is involved in production of films and television. She served as executive producer on Introducing Dorothy Dandridge in 1999, and Lackawanna Blues in 2005. Berry both produced and starred in the thriller Perfect Stranger with Bruce Willis and in Things We Lost in the Fire with Benicio del Toro, the first film in which she worked with a female director, Danish Susanne Bier, a new feeling of "thinking the same way", which she appreciated.^[51] Berry then starred in the film Frankie and Alice, in which she plays Frankie Murdoch, a young multiracial American women with dissociative identity disorder struggling against her alter personality to retain her true self. She was awarded the African-American Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and also was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.

Berry is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, earning $10 million per film.^[3] In July 2007, she topped In Touch magazine's list of the world's most fabulous 40-something celebrities. On April 3, 2007, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the Kodak Theatre at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the film industry.^[52][53] As of 2011, Berry's worldwide box office gross has been more than 2.7 billion US$. In 2011, she appeared in New Year's Eve, and is playing one of the leads in the film Cloud Atlas, which is expected to be released in October 2012.^[54] Berry has served for many years as the face of Revlon cosmetics and also as the face of Versace. The Coty Inc. fragrance company signed Berry to market her debut fragrance in March 2008. Berry was delighted, saying that she had created her own fragrances at home by mixing scents.^[55]

Berry at the 2003 Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA

Personal life[link]

Berry at the 83rd Academy Awards, February 27, 2011

Berry has been married twice. Her first marriage was to former baseball player David Justice, from 1993^[56] to 1996. Their divorce was finalized in 1997.^[57] Berry has stated publicly that she was so depressed after her breakup with Justice that she considered taking her own life,^[58] but she could not bear the thought of her mother finding her body.^[59]

Berry was married to Eric Benét from early 2001 to 2005.^[29][60] Berry credited Benét with support after she was involved in a February 2000 traffic collision, in which she left the scene of the accident. Some in the media complained that her misdemeanor hit and run charge was preferential treatment;^[61][62] she had also been the driver in an alleged hit and run incident three years earlier in which no charges were filed.^[63] The incident became fodder for comedians. Berry pleaded no contest, did community service, paid a fine and was placed on three years' probation.^[64] A civil lawsuit was settled out of court.^[65][66] While married to Benét, Berry adopted his daughter, India.^[60] The divorce was finalized in January 2005.^[67]

In November 2005, Berry began dating French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry. The couple met at a Versace photoshoot.^[68] Berry gave birth to a girl named Nahla Ariela Aubry on March 16, 2008, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.^[69] Nahla means "honeybee" in Arabic; Ariela is Hebrew for "lion for God".^[70] On April 30, 2010, Berry and Aubry announced their separation.^[71] Aubry filed documents with the Los Angeles Superior Court on December 30, 2010, asking the court to formally recognize his paternity and grant a court order giving him and Berry joint legal and physical custody over their daughter.^[72][73]

Berry has been dating actor Olivier Martinez since 2010.^[74] Martinez confirmed their engagement in March 2012.^[75]

In the media[link]

Berry took part in a nearly 2000-house party cell-phone bank campaign for Barack Obama in February 2008.^[76]

In October 2008, Berry was named Esquire magazine's "Sexiest Woman Alive", about which she stated "I don't know exactly what it means, but being 42 and having just had a baby, I think I'll take it.^[77][78] Men's Health ranked her at No. 35 on their "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" list.^[79]

In 2009, she was voted #23 on Empire's 100 Sexiest Film Stars.^[80]

Also in 2009, the 'rapper' Hurricane Chris released a song entitled "Halle Berry (She's Fine)," extolling Berry's sex appeal.

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Banting, Erinn. Halle Berry, Weigl Publishers, 2005 – ISBN 1-59036-333-7
• Gogerly, Liz. Halle Berry, Raintree, 2005 – ISBN 1-4109-1085-7
• Naden, Corinne J. Halle Berry, Sagebrush Education Resources, 2001 – ISBN 0-613-86157-4
• O'Brien, Daniel. Halle Berry, Reynolds & Hearn, 2003 – ISBN 1-903111-38-2
• Sanello, Frank. Halle Berry: A Stormy Life, Virgin Books, 2003 – ISBN 1-85227-092-6
• Schuman, Michael A. Halle Berry: Beauty Is Not Just Physical, Enslow, 2006 – ISBN 0-7660-2467-9

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Halle Berry

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Halle Berry

• Halle Berry at the Internet Movie Database
• Halle Berry at AllRovi
• Works by or about Halle Berry in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (March 2012)

Julia Child

1988 portrait of Julia Child by Elsa Dorfman
Born	(1912-08-15)August 15, 1912 Pasadena, California
Died	August 13, 2004(2004-08-13) (aged 91) Montecito, California
Cooking style	French
Education	Smith College B.A. English 1934 Le Cordon Bleu Le Grand Diplôme
Spouse	Paul Cushing Child (m. 1946–1994) «start: (1946)–end+1: (1995)»"Marriage: Paul Cushing Child to Julia Child" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Julia_Child) Married September 1, 1946
Television show(s) The French Chef, "Julia Child: bon appétit", Julia Child & Company, Dinner at Julia's, Cooking with Master Chefs, In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, Baking with Julia, Julia Child & Jacques Pépin Cooking at Home
Award(s) won Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Service Show Host 1996 In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs 2001 Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home Emmy Award for Achievements in Educational Television—Individuals 1966 The French Chef Peabody Award 1965 The French Chef National Book Award, Current Interest 1980 Julia Child and More Company

Julia Child (née McWilliams;^[1] August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.

In 1996, Julia Child was ranked #46 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.^[2]

Childhood and education[link]

Child was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California, the daughter of John McWilliams, Jr., a Princeton University graduate and prominent land manager, and his wife, the former Julia Carolyn ("Caro") Weston, a paper-company heiress whose father, Byron Curtis Weston, served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. The eldest^[3] of three children, she had a brother, John III (1914–2002), and a sister, Dorothy Dean (1917–2006).^[4]

Child attended Westridge School, Polytechnic School from fourth grade to ninth grade, then The Katherine Branson School in Ross, California, which was at the time a boarding school. At six feet, two inches (1.88 m) tall, Child played tennis, golf, and basketball as a child and continued to play sports while attending Smith College, from which she graduated in 1934 with a major in English.^[1] A press release issued by Smith in 2004 states that her major was history.^[5]

Following her graduation from college, Child moved to New York City, where she worked as a copywriter for the advertising department of upscale home-furnishing firm W. & J. Sloane. Returning to California in 1937, she spent the next four years writing for local publications, working in advertising, and volunteering with the Junior League of Pasadena^[6].

World War II[link]

Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) after finding that she was too tall to enlist in the Women's Army Corps (WACs) or in the U.S. Navy's WAVES.^[7] She began her OSS career as a typist at its headquarters in Washington, but because of her education and experience soon was given a more responsible position as a top secret researcher working directly for the head of OSS, General William J. Donovan.^[8] As a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, she typed 10,000 names on white note cards to keep track of officers. For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Rescue Equipment Section (ERES) in Washington, D.C. as a file clerk and then as an assistant to developers of a shark repellent needed to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats. In 1944 she was posted to Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where her responsibilities included "registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications" for the OSS's clandestine stations in Asia.^[9] She was later posted to China, where she received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service as head of the Registry of the OSS Secretariat.^[10] For her service, Child received an award that cited her many virtues, including her "drive and inherent cheerfulness."^[8] As with other OSS records, Child's file was declassified in 2008, and, unlike other files, her complete file is available online.^[11]

While in Ceylon, she met Paul Cushing Child, also an OSS employee, and the two were married September 1, 1946 in Lumberville, Pennsylvania,^[12] later moving to Washington, D.C. Child, a New Jersey native^[13] who had lived in Paris as an artist and poet, was known for his sophisticated palate,^[14] and introduced his wife to fine cuisine. He joined the United States Foreign Service and in 1948 the couple moved to Paris when the US State Department assigned Paul there as an exhibits officer with the United States Information Agency.^[10] The couple had no children.

Post-war France[link]

Child repeatedly recalled her first meal in Rouen as a culinary revelation; once, she described the meal of oysters, sole meunière, and fine wine to The New York Times as "an opening up of the soul and spirit for me." In Paris she attended the famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and later studied privately with Max Bugnard and other master chefs. She joined the women's cooking club Cercle des Gourmettes; through the club she met Simone Beck, who was writing a French cookbook for Americans with her friend Louisette Bertholle. Beck proposed that Child work with them, to make the book appeal to Americans.

In 1951, Child, Beck, and Bertholle began to teach cooking to American women in Child's Paris kitchen, calling their informal school L'école des trois gourmandes (The School of the Three Food Lovers). For the next decade, as the Childs moved around Europe and finally to Cambridge, Massachusetts, the three researched and repeatedly tested recipes. Child translated the French into English, making the recipes detailed, interesting, and practical.

In 1963, the Childs built a home near the Provence town of Plascassier in the hills above Cannes on property belonging to co-author Simone Beck and her husband, Jean Fischbacher. The Childs named it "La Pitchoune", a Provençal word meaning "the little one" but over time the property was often affectionately referred to simply as "La Peetch".^[15]

Books and television[link]

Julia Child at the Miami Book Fair International of 1989

The three would-be authors initially signed a contract with publisher Houghton Mifflin, which later rejected the manuscript for seeming too much like an encyclopedia. Finally, when it was first published in 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf, the 734-page Mastering the Art of French Cooking was a best-seller and received critical acclaim that derived in part from the American interest in French culture in the early 1960s. Lauded for its helpful illustrations and precise attention to detail, and for making fine cuisine accessible, the book is still in print and is considered a seminal culinary work. Following this success, Child wrote magazine articles and a regular column for The Boston Globe newspaper. She would go on to publish nearly twenty titles under her name and with others. Many, though not all, were related to her television shows. Her last book was the autobiographical My Life in France, published posthumously in 2006 and written with her nephew, Alex Prud'homme. The book recounts Child's life with her husband, Paul Child, in post-World War II France.

[edit] The French Chef and related books

A 1962 appearance on a book review show on the National Educational Television (NET) station of Boston, WGBH, led to the inception of her first television cooking show after viewers enjoyed her demonstration of how to cook an omelette. The French Chef had its debut on February 11, 1963, on WGBH and was immediately successful. The show ran nationally for ten years and won Peabody and Emmy Awards, including the first Emmy award for an educational program. Though she was not the first television cook, Child was the most widely seen. She attracted the broadest audience with her cheery enthusiasm, distinctively charming warbly voice, and non-patronizing and unaffected manner.

In 1972, The French Chef became the first television program to be captioned for the deaf, albeit in the preliminary technology of open captioning.^[16]

Child's second book, The French Chef Cookbook, was a collection of the recipes she had demonstrated on the show. It was soon followed in 1971 by Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two, again in collaboration with Simone Beck, but not with Louisette Bertholle, with whom the professional relationship had ended.^[17] Child's fourth book, From Julia Child's Kitchen, was illustrated with her husband's photographs and documented the color series of The French Chef, as well as providing an extensive library of kitchen notes compiled by Child during the course of the show.

In 1981 she founded The American Institute of Wine & Food,^[18] with vintners Robert Mondavi and Richard Graff, and others, to "advance the understanding, appreciation and quality of wine and food," a pursuit she had already begun with her books and television appearances.

Later shows and books[link]

In the 1970s and 1980s, she was the star of numerous television programs, including Julia Child & Company, Julia Child & More Company and Dinner at Julia's. For the 1979 book Julia Child and More Company she won a National Book Award in category Current Interest.^[19] During those years she also produced what she considered her magnum opus, a book and instructional video series collectively entitled The Way To Cook, which was published in 1989.

Julia Child at KUHT

She starred in four more series in the 1990s that featured guest chefs: Cooking with Master Chefs, In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, Baking With Julia, and Julia Child & Jacques Pépin Cooking at Home. She collaborated with Jacques Pépin many times for television programs and cookbooks. All of Child's books during this time stemmed from the television series of the same names.

Child's use of ingredients like butter and cream has been questioned by food critics and modern-day nutritionists. She addressed these criticisms throughout her career, predicting that a "fanatical fear of food" would take over the country's dining habits, and that focusing too much on nutrition takes the pleasure from enjoying food.^[20][21] In a 1990 interview, Child said, "Everybody is overreacting. If fear of food continues, it will be the death of gastronomy in the United States. Fortunately, the French don't suffer from the same hysteria we do. We should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life."^[22]

Home as television set[link]

Julia Child's kitchen

Julia Child's kitchen, designed by her husband, was the setting for three of her television shows. It is now on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Beginning with In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, the Childs' home kitchen in Cambridge was fully transformed into a functional set, with TV-quality lighting, three cameras positioned to catch all angles in the room, and a massive center island with a gas stovetop on one side and an electric stovetop on the other, but leaving the rest of the Childs' appliances alone, including "my wall oven with its squeaking door."^[23] This kitchen backdrop hosted nearly all of Child's 1990s television series.

Other appearances[link]

She appeared in an episode of This Old House as designer of the kitchen. This Old House was launched in 1979 by Russell Morash, who helped create The French Chef with Julia Child.^[24]

Awards[link]

Emmy Awards[link]

1. 1966: Achievements in Educational Television- Individuals for The French Chef, won
2. 1972: Special Classification of Outstanding Program and Individual Achievement – General Programming for The French Chef, nominated
3. 1994: Outstanding Informational Series for Cooking with Master Chefs, nominated

Daytime Emmy Awards[link]

1. 1996: Outstanding Service Show Host for In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, won
2. 1997: Outstanding Service Show Host for Baking with Julia, nominated
3. 1999: Outstanding Service Show Host for Baking with Julia, nominated
4. 2000: Outstanding Service Show Host for Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home, nominated
5. 2001: Outstanding Service Show Host for Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home, won

Peabody Awards[link]

1. 1965: Personal Award for The French Chef, won

U.S. National Book Awards[link]

1. 1980: Current Interest (hardcover) for Julia Child and More Company, won^[19]

In popular culture[link]

Child was a favorite of audiences from the moment of her television debut on public television in 1963, and she was a familiar part of American culture and the subject of numerous references. In 1966 she was featured on the cover of Time with the heading, "Our Lady of the Ladle." Then in the classic 1968 thriller, No Way to Treat a Lady, she was mentioned by Lee Remick's character Kate Palmer as " that Julia Child woman " that she ( Kate ) was desirious to take cooking tips from to prepare gourmet meals in order to impress her new boyfriend Detective Morriss Brummell, played by George Segal.

In a 1978 Saturday Night Live sketch (episode 74^[25]), she was parodied by Dan Aykroyd continuing with a cooking show despite ludicrously profuse bleeding from a cut to his thumb, and eventually expiring while advising "Save the liver". Child reportedly loved this sketch so much she showed it to friends at parties.^{[citation needed]}

Jean Stapleton portrayed her in a 1989 musical, Bon Appétit!, based on one of her televised cooking lessons. The title derived from her famous TV sign-off: "This is Julia Child. Bon appétit!" She was the inspiration for the character "Julia Grownup" on the Children's Television Workshop program, The Electric Company (1971–1977), and was portrayed (or more accurately, parodied) in many other television and radio programs and skits, including The Cosby Show (1984–1992) by character Heathcliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) and Garrison Keillor's radio series A Prairie Home Companion by voice actor Tim Russell. Julia Child's TV show is briefly portrayed in the 1986 movie, The Money Pit starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long; the 1985 Madonna film Desperately Seeking Susan and the 1991 comedy Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead. In 1993, she was the voice of Dr. Juliet Bleeb in the children's film We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. Child's TV show was also featured in the 1993 movie Mrs. Doubtfire, when Daniel Hillard/Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire (Robin Williams) is watching the show to learn gourmet cooking.

In 2002, Child was the inspiration for "The Julie/Julia Project," a popular cooking blog by Julie Powell that was the basis of Powell's 2005 bestselling book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, the paperback version of which was retitled Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously.^[26][27] The blog and book, along with Child's own memoir, in turn inspired the 2009 feature film Julie & Julia. (Meryl Streep portrayed Child in half the narrative.) Child is reported to have been unimpressed by Powell's blog, believing Powell's determination to cook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year to be a stunt. Child's editor, Judith Jones, said in an interview: "Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn't attractive, to me or Julia. She didn't want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned. Julia didn’t like what she called 'the flimsies.' She didn't suffer fools, if you know what I mean."^[28]

Retirement[link]

Signature of Julia Child

After the death of her beloved friend Simone Beck, Child relinquished La Peetch after a month long stay in June 1992 with her niece, Phila, and her family. She turned the keys over to Jean Fischbacher's sister, just as she and Paul had promised nearly 30 years earlier. Paul, who was ten years older, died in 1994 after living in a nursing home for five years following a series of strokes in 1989.^[29]

In 2001, she moved to a retirement community in Santa Barbara, California, donating her house and office to Smith College, which later sold the house.^[30] She donated her kitchen, which her husband designed with high counters to accommodate her formidable height, and which served as the set for three of her television series, to the National Museum of American History, where it is now on display.^[31] Her iconic copper pots and pans were on display at COPIA in Napa, California, until August 2009 when they were reunited with her kitchen at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

In 2000, Child received the French Legion of Honor^[32][33] and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000.^[34] She was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003. Child also received honorary doctorates from Harvard University, Johnson & Wales University in 1995, her alma mater Smith College, Brown University in 2000,^[35] and several other universities.

Death[link]

On August 13, 2004, Julia Child died of kidney failure at her retirement community home, Casa Dorinda, in Montecito, two days before her 92nd birthday.^[36] Child ended her last book, My Life in France, with "... thinking back on it now reminds that the pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite – toujours bon appétit!"^[29]

Films[link]

On August 18, 2004, a documentary filmed during her lifetime premiered. Produced by WGBH, the one-hour feature, Julia Child! America's Favorite Chef, was aired as the first episode of the 18th season of the PBS series American Masters. The film combined archive footage of Child with current footage from those who influenced and were influenced by her life and work.^[37][38]

A film adapted by Nora Ephron from Child's memoir My Life in France and from Julie Powell's memoir, and directed by Ephron, Julie & Julia, was released on August 7, 2009. Meryl Streep played Child; her performance was nominated for numerous awards, winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical or Comedy.

A film titled Primordial Soup With Julia Child was on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Life in The Universe gallery from 1976 until the gallery closed.^[39]

She also voiced the character Doctor Juliet Bleeb, an eccentric Museum of Natural History employee in the children's movie We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story.

Public works[link]

Television series[link]

• The French Chef (1963–1973)
• Julia Child & Company (1978–1979)
• Julia Child & More Company (1980–1982)
• Dinner at Julia's (1983–1985)
• The Way To Cook (1989) six one-hour videocassettes
• A Birthday Party for Julia Child: Compliments to the Chef (1992)
• Cooking with Master Chefs: Hosted by Julia Child (1993–1994) 16 episodes
• Cooking In Concert: Julia Child & Jacques Pepin (1993)
• In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs (1994–1996), 39 episodes
• Cooking in Concert: Julia Child & Jacques Pepin (1995) ^[40]
• Baking with Julia (1996–1998) 39 episodes
• Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home (1999–2000) 22 episodes
• Julia Child's Kitchen Wisdom, (2000) two-hour special

DVD releases[link]

• Julia Child's Kitchen Wisdom (2000)
• Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home (2003)
• Julia Child: America's Favorite Chef (2004)
• The French Chef: Volume One (2005)
• The French Chef: Volume Two (2005)
• Julia Child! The French Chef (2006)
• The Way To Cook (2009)
• Baking With Julia (2009)
• Julie & Julia (2010)

Books[link]

• Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961), with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle—ISBN 0-375-41340-5
• The French Chef Cookbook (1968)—ISBN 0-394-40135-2
• Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two (1970), with Simone Beck—ISBN 0-394-40152-2
• From Julia Child's Kitchen (1975)—ISBN 0-517-20712-5
• Julia Child & Company (1978)—ISBN 0-345-31449-2
• Julia Child & More Company (1979)—ISBN 0-345-31450-6
• The Way To Cook (1989)—ISBN 0-394-53264-3
• Julia Child's Menu Cookbook (1991), one-volume edition of Julia Child & Company and Julia Child & More Company—ISBN 0-517-06485-5
• Cooking With Master Chefs (1993)—ISBN 0-679-74829-6
• In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs (1995)—ISBN 0-679-43896-3
• Baking with Julia (1996)—ISBN 0-688-14657-0
• Julia's Delicious Little Dinners (1998)—ISBN 0-375-40336-1
• Julia's Menus For Special Occasions (1998)—ISBN 0-375-40338-8
• Julia's Breakfasts, Lunches & Suppers (1999)—ISBN 0-375-40339-6
• Julia's Casual Dinners (1999)—ISBN 0-375-40337-X
• Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home (1999), with Jacques Pépin—ISBN 0-375-40431-7
• Julia's Kitchen Wisdom (2000)—ISBN 0-375-41151-8
• My Life in France (2006, posthumous), with Alex Prud'homme—ISBN 1-4000-4346-8
• (collected in) American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes, ed. Molly O'Neill (Library of America, 2007) ISBN 1-59853-005-4

By Others[link]

• Barr, Nancy Verde (28 March 2008). Backstage with Julia: My Years with Julia Child. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-27637-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=nMEN6E_HPr8C. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
• Conant, Jennet (5 April 2011). A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-6352-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=I6mW-aqF138C. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
• Fitch, Noel Riley (13 April 1999). Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child. Random House Digital, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-385-49383-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=GDDYYhUS4i0C. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
• Painter, Charlotte; Valois, Pamela (1985). Gifts of age: portraits and essays of 32 remarkable women. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-87701-368-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=pgKxAAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
• Reardon, Joan (1 December 2010). As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-41771-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZLobsQtg3W8C. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 
• Shapiro, Laura (1 August 2009). Julia Child: A Life. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-311644-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=mloe4yhNct8C. Retrieved 14 October 2011. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Julia Child

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Julia Child

• Julia Child at the Internet Movie Database
• Julia Child: Lessons with Master Chefs from PBS
• Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian
• American television interview with Julia Child on June 25, 1999, at Google Video
• Coverage of Julia Child in The New York Times
• Interview in Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.
• JULIA CHILD: 1912–2004 TV's French chef taught us how to cook with panache, Obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle
• The IMDb page for the film "Julie & Julia" starring Meryl Streep
• Julia Child Papers.Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
• Works by or about Julia Child in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• "Live Eat Enjoy: A Visit With Julia Child", Ms. Magazine Summer 2003
• "No beef with Julia’s kitchen: Her home’s new owner lacks the bone appetite", The Boston Globe August 31, 2009

Adam Sandler
Sandler in February 2011
Born	Adam Richard Sandler (1966-09-09) September 9, 1966 (age 45) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, comedian, musician, songwriter, screenwriter, film producer
Years active	1987–present
Influenced by	Mel Brooks, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield[1]
Spouse	Jacqueline "Jackie" Titone (2003–present)
Children	2
Website
adamsandler.com

Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician and film producer. After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office.^[2] He is best known for his comedic roles, such as in the films Billy Madison (1995), Happy Gilmore (1996), The Waterboy (1998), Big Daddy (1999), and Mr. Deeds (2002), though he has ventured into more dramatic territory. In 1999, Sandler founded Happy Madison, a film and television production company that has produced numerous films and developed the 2007 television series Rules of Engagement.

Early life[link]

Adam Sandler was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents,^[3] Stanley, an electrical engineer, and Judy Sandler, a nursery school teacher.^[4] 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.^[5]

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

Career[link]

Acting career[link]

Sandler at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

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 show Remote 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 seventeen. He was discovered by comedian Dennis Miller, who caught Sandler's act in Los Angeles. Miller 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, making a name for himself by performing amusing original songs on the show, including "The Chanukah Song".^[6] Sandler told Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show that NBC fired him and Chris Farley from the show in 1995.^[7]

In 1994 he co-starred in Airheads with Brendan Fraser and Steve Buscemi. He starred in Billy Madison (1995) as 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. In At 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 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), one of his first hits.

Although his earlier films did not receive critical praise, his more recent films, beginning with Punch-Drunk Love (2002), have received more positive reviews - although they lack the meagre humour of his earlier films. Roger Ebert, in his review of Punch-Drunk Love, concluded that Sandler had been wasted in earlier films with poorly written scripts and characters with no development.^[8] Sandler has moved outside the genre of slapstick comedy 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 played a loving father figure in Big 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]}

At one point, Sandler was considered for the part that went to Jamie Foxx in Collateral (2004). 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).^{[citation needed]} He returned to more dramatic^{[neutrality is disputed]} fare with Mike Binder's Reign 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 film I 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 headlined 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 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 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."^[9]

Sandler at the premiere of Funny People in Berlin, 2009

Sandler starred in Bedtime Stories (2008), a fantasy film directed by Bringing Down the House director 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.^[10] Keri Russell and English comedian Russell Brand co-starred.

In 2009, Sandler starred in Judd Apatow's third directorial feature Funny 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. Filming began in October 2008 and finished in January 2009. The film was released on July 31, 2009.^[11] At one point, Sandler was in talks to star in Quentin Tarantino's World War II film Inglourious Basterds, which he confirmed, but he did not appear in it due to a scheduling conflict with Funny People.^[12] Following the release of Funny People, it, along with Punch-Drunk Love were 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.^[13]

Sandler appeared in Grown 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 July 4 weekend. Other costars include Salma Hayek (playing Sandler's wife), Maria Bello (playing James' wife), and fellow SNL alumna Maya Rudolph (playing Rock's wife), Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, and Norm Macdonald. Sandler and Dickie Roberts scribe Fred Wolf wrote the script and Dennis Dugan directed the film.^[14]

Sandler starred in the 2011 film Just Go with It, with Jennifer Aniston, a romantic comedy written by Allan Loeb and Tim Dowling and directed by Dennis Dugan. He played 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. Sandler also provided the voice of a capuchin monkey in Kevin James' Zookeeper, released on July 8, 2011.^[15] He filmed That's My Boy with Andy Samberg, which tells the story of a man, played by Sandler, who fathered a son, played by Samberg, with his teacher in high school. Then years later, visits his son on the eve of his wedding where he clashes with the bride (played by Leighton Meester).

Happy Madison Productions[link]

Sandler has collaborated with Henry Winkler and Kevin James for several film projects

Sandler formed his film production company, Happy Madison Productions,^[16] in 1999, first producing fellow SNL alumnus Rob Schneider's film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Happy Madison has produced all of Sandler's subsequent films to date with the exceptions Punch Drunk Love and Spanglish. Reign Over Me and Funny People were 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 fellow SNL performers in various roles in his films. Sandler and Happy Madison produced SNL contemporary Rob Schneider's vehicles Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), The Animal (2001), The Hot Chick (2002), and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005), and The Benchwarmers (2006), with Sandler making cameo appearances in the middle three. Meanwhile, Schneider has appeared in cameo roles in Sandler films The Waterboy, Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Click, The Longest Yard, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and Bedtime Stories. Schneider had larger roles in Sandler films Big Daddy, 50 First Dates, Eight Crazy Nights, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Grown Ups.

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

Happy Madison produced David Spade's Joe Dirt, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and The Benchwarmers, which also featured Rob Schneider.^[16] Spade additionally made a cameo appearance in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and had a prominent supporting role in Grown Ups. Sandler cameoed as a special audience member in an episode of The Showbiz Show with David Spade. SNL contemporary Kevin Nealon has appeared in ten Happy Madison productions or Sandler films, including Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, Little Nicky, Joe Dirt, Eight Crazy Nights, Anger Management, Grandma's Boy, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Just Go With It and the Dana Carvey vehicle, The Master of Disguise.

Happy Madison also produced Paul Blart: Mall Cop, the first starring vehicle for Kevin James. James had costarred with Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Grown Ups and made a cameo appearance in You Don't Mess with the Zohan. Happy Madison also produced James' second starring vehicle Zookeeper.

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, and You Don't Mess with the Zohan).

Anna Faris, who appeared in The Hot Chick, became the first female actor to headline a production for Happy Madison with The House Bunny and will headline another film for Happy Madison in the near future.

Others who frequently appear in Sandler films include Steve Buscemi, Chris Rock, 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 in The Wedding Singer, Ten Second Tom in 50 First Dates, and Nicky's roommate in Little Nicky. Covert starred in his first leading role in Grandma'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.^[17]

In June 2008, it was announced that Sandler will be executive producer for a horror thriller titled The Shortcut under a nascent genre label for Happy Madison called "Scary Madison".^[18]

In October 2009, it was announced that Sandler and Happy Madison will produce the Richard Pryor biopic Richard 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.^[19]

Personal life[link]

Sandler with his two daughters in February 2011

On June 22, 2003, Sandler married actress Jacqueline Samantha Titone, and they are the parents of two daughters, Sadie Madison Sandler (born 2006)^[20] and Sunny Madeline Sandler (born 2008).^[21] Sandler lives with his family in Los Angeles, but also owns homes in New York City and Florida.^{[citation needed]}

Political and charitable donations[link]

In 2007, Sandler made a $1 million donation to the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown, Manchester, New Hampshire.^[22] He donated $2,100 to Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign the same year.^[23]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]