Happy Gilmore


Happy Gilmore is a 1996 American sports comedy film starring Adam Sandler in the title role. Directed by Dennis Dugan and produced by Robert Simonds, the supporting cast includes Christopher McDonald, Julie Bowen, and Carl Weathers. The film follows Happy Gilmore, a boorish, failed ice hockey player with a unique talent for golf, who seeks to raise enough money to prevent the foreclosure of his grandmother's house.
The screenplay was written by Sandler and his writing partner Tim Herlihy, in their second feature collaboration after the previous year's Billy Madison. This film also marks the first collaboration between Sandler and Dugan. Happy Gilmore was released in theaters on February 16, 1996, by Universal Pictures, and received mixed reviews from critics. The film was a commercial success, earning $41.2 million on a $12 million budget, and it won an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight for Sandler and Bob Barker. It has developed a cult following, especially in the golf community. A sequel, Happy Gilmore 2, was released on Netflix in 2025.

Plot

Happy Gilmore is an aspiring ice hockey player, but despite a powerful slapshot learned from his late father, his short temper and lack of skating coordination limit his professional prospects. One day, Happy learns that his grandmother, who raised him after his father's death, owes the Internal Revenue Service $270,000 in back taxes.
She has 90 days to pay off the debt or face foreclosure on her house. Happy sends her to a retirement home until he can figure out a way to pay off the debt. However, unbeknownst to Happy, the residents are mistreated and forced to work in a sweatshop.
While challenging a pair of movers repossessing his late grandfather's old golf clubs, he discovers that his unorthodox slapshot-style swing can drive a ball 400 yards. He begins hustling golfers at a driving range, where he meets Chubbs Peterson, a former pro golf star who lost a hand in an alligator attack.
Chubbs urges Happy to enter the Waterbury Open, the winner of which will earn an automatic spot on the PGA Tour, as well as a sizable cash reward. Desperate to reclaim his grandmother's house, Happy agrees and wins the Open. Learning that he needs to supply his own caddy on the tour, Happy hastily hires a homeless man named Otto.
Happy quickly becomes a fan favorite due to his unusually long drives and unorthodox antics. In one incident, Happy kills the one-eyed alligator that took Chubbs' hand. Despite this, Happy struggles with putting, and his on-course profane meltdowns and lack of golf etiquette soon draw the ire of tour officials. Due to improved television ratings with a broader spectrum of viewers, higher attendance, and new sponsorship offers, tour public relations head Virginia Venit intervenes on Happy's behalf, promising to help him with his anger. With her support, Happy improves his accuracy and behavior, and they become romantically involved.
The tour's arrogant presumed favorite Shooter McGavin views Happy as a threat, so he hires a heckler named Donald Floyd to taunt him at a pro-am event. Donald distracts Happy by repeatedly calling him a "jackass", hindering his gameplay. A subsequent fistfight with his celebrity partner Bob Barker, who criticizes Happy's frequent misses, leads to a $25,000 fine and one-month suspension.
Virginia secures Happy a lucrative endorsement deal with Subway to make up for the lost revenue, giving him the money he needs to buy Grandma's house back. During the auction, however, Shooter spitefully outbids Happy in an attempt to force him to quit the tour. Virginia encourages Happy not to quit, and he makes a deal with Shooter: if Happy wins the Tour Championship, Shooter will return the house, but if Shooter wins, he can keep it and Happy will quit golf. Happy seeks out Chubbs, who helps him improve his putting by practicing at a miniature golf course and gifts him a custom putter in the shape of a hockey stick. As thanks, Happy presents Chubbs with the alligator's head, startling him and causing him to fall out of a nearby window to his death.
Happy is paired with Shooter for the Tour Championship. Shooter takes the lead early, but Happy's regular game puts him in front with one round to go. Desperate to finally win a Championship jacket, Shooter again hires Donald, who drives a car onto the course and runs over Happy, impairing his long-drive ability and focus. Shooter takes the lead, but Happy, encouraged by Grandma, rallies to tie him.
On the final hole, Shooter's tee shot lands in the crowd. Despite having to play the ball off the foot of Happy's imposing ex-boss, Mr. Larson, he manages to save par with a long putt. A television tower damaged by Donald's car falls onto the green and blocks Happy's line to a winning putt. Shooter insists Happy play the ball "as it lies," and, with Chubbs' divine intervention, Happy wins by using the tower as a Rube Goldberg machine to sink his putt.
Enraged, Shooter tries to steal Happy's gold jacket and tries to run away, but gets caught and beaten by a mob of fans led by Larson. Returning to his grandmother's house, Happy celebrates his victory with her, Virginia, and Otto.

Cast

  • Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore, a short-tempered aspiring hockey player who discovers an unknown ability for long shots in golf. Sandler also provided the voice of the Laughing Clown.
  • * Donnie MacMillan as Young Happy Gilmore.
  • Christopher McDonald as Shooter McGavin, an arrogant star golfer who despises Happy's lack of etiquette.
  • Julie Bowen as Virginia Venit, the pro golf tour public relations director who becomes Happy's romantic interest.
  • Frances Bay as Anna Gilmore, Happy's mild-mannered grandmother.
  • Carl Weathers as Derick "Chubbs" Peterson, a former pro golfer and Happy's coach and mentor.
  • Allen Covert as Otto, a homeless man who becomes Happy's caddy on the tour and Happy's best friend.
  • Richard Kiel as Mr. Larson, Happy's intimidating but friendly former boss.
  • Dennis Dugan as Doug Thompson, the commissioner of the pro golf tour.
  • Joe Flaherty as Donald Floyd, an unruly fan hired by Shooter to heckle Happy.
Additionally, Ben Stiller is uncredited for his role as abusive orderly Hal. Robert Smigel plays the IRS agent who informs Happy that Grandma is delinquent on taxes, and Will Sasso and Dee Jay Jackson appear as the movers who challenge Happy at golf.
Jared Van Snellenberg portrays Happy's unnamed caddy at the Waterbury Open, and Kevin Nealon plays Gary Potter, an eccentric professional golfer and Happy's partner at the AT&T Open. Professional golfers Lee Trevino and Mark Lye, sportscaster Verne Lundquist, and then-current The Price Is Right host Bob Barker all play themselves. Charles L. Brame makes an uncredited appearance as the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, who waves to Happy along with the spirits of Chubbs and the alligator in the final scene.

Production

Development

Happy Gilmore was directed by Dennis Dugan, and written by Saturday Night Live alumni Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler. Herlihy and Sandler were roommates in college and wrote stand-up comedy together, before moving on to screenplays. After Sandler was fired from SNL in 1995, he moved on to films. He and Herlihy wrote Billy Madison, which proved successful for distributor Universal Pictures. As such, Herlihy and Sandler began a new project. In an office during a brainstorming session, they came up with a high-concept premise for a film about a "hockey player who smacks a 400 yard drive". Judd Apatow performed a script rewrite, although he went uncredited.
The Happy Gilmore character is loosely based on Sandler's childhood friend Kyle McDonough, who played ice hockey and would golf with Sandler as they grew up. Sandler could never hit the ball as far as McDonough, and figured that McDonough's hockey skills gave him an edge. Meanwhile, Chubbs Peterson's missing hand is an in-joke referencing actor Carl Weathers' film Predator, which depicts his character losing his arm. Herlihy and Sandler included any joke that made them laugh and do not remember who came up with which, although Herlihy takes credit for Shooter McGavin's "I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast" line. In a 1994 interview, Sandler cited the golf comedy Caddyshack, a film he and Herlihy bonded over in college, as inspiration.
Former pro golfer Mark Lye served as a consultant on the script, and told Herlihy and Sandler after seeing their initial ideas, "You gotta be crazy. You cannot do a movie like that." According to Lye, the initial drafts featured Happy winning the Masters Tournament: "They had the green jacket. They were desecrating the USGA. Making fun of Augusta National." He suggested that Happy win a fictional tournament, and Herlihy and Sandler changed the jacket's color from green to gold. Lye also disliked the unrealistic nature of early drafts, which depicted Happy repeatedly making 400-yard drives, so he took the crew to a PGA Tour event so they could understand the atmosphere of golf. The final script, the one Lye gave approval, was Herlihy and Sandler's fifth draft.
Dugan became attached to direct through Sandler. Years earlier, Dugan had attempted to cast Sandler in one of his films, but the producers did not let him because Sandler was not well-known. "A couple of years later, is big", Dugan said. "I wanted to be hired to direct Happy Gilmore with him. I walk in the room, and he says: 'You're the guy who wanted to give me that part. I don't need to know anything else, I want to work with you.'" Happy Gilmore was produced on a budget of $12 million and filmed entirely at locations in British Columbia. Most scenes taking place at golf courses were filmed at Pitt Meadows at the Swan-e-set Bay Resort & Country Club, while interior shots, such as those in the broadcast booth, took place in an abandoned Vancouver hospital. Arthur Albert served as cinematographer, while Mark Lane was the set decorator. Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh composed the film's soundtrack.