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Is ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ a true story? Is Adam Sandler's character based on a true person?
Adam Sandler returns to his golfing persona in ‘Happy Gilmore 2’, almost 30 years after the sports-comedy classic, ‘Happy Gilmore’.
‘Happy Gilmore 2’ gives fans back Adam Sandler's much-loved character, who stayed with viewers when ‘Happy Gilmore’ arrived in 1996. Now, almost 30 years later, the stakes are different for Sandler's character, who is now trying to get his daughter into a fancy dance school. However, the hustle remains very much the same.
‘Happy Gilmore 2' has several cameos, quite a few of which are from real-life athletes, which might lead some to wonder if Happy Gilmore is based on a real person and if the story is a true story.
We decode it here.
Is ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ a true story?
No, much like ‘Happy Gilmore’, the sequel is a fictional telling of the life of Happy Gilmore, the golfer of the same name, whose trysts with the sport come at times of personal challenges, and the movies depict how Gilmore overcomes these hurdles, often with a smattering of humor.
Who is Happy Gilmore based on?
While ‘Happy Gilmore’ might not be based on a true story, the character is very much based on a real-life person, and one who Adam Sandler has been friends with for a long time.
The actor met Kyle McDonough when he moved from his birthplace, Brooklyn, to New Hampshire, when he was 6. They became friends, playing hockey together for their high school team.
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McDonough's family has roots in hockey, since his father was Hubie McDonough Jr., a high school hockey coach, while his brother was Hubie III, a professional who played for teams like Los Angeles Kings and the New York Islanders over his 13-year career.
While McDonough was mostly talented in the rink, when he stepped onto the golf course, he brought his raw hockey power, and Sandler watching him had remarked there was ‘something’ funny about it, sowing the idea of Happy Gilmore, Time reported.
McDonough and Sandler's connection has endured the vagaries of Hollywood, with the former saying, “I’ve been to many movie shoots and a couple of Super Bowls with him and he always takes care of everything and treats his old buds like kings.”
Sandler's father, Stanley, himself an avid golfer, also had a striking influence on the film. He was the one who pointed out how hockey players have the ability to transfer their talents to the golf course, sparking the idea that would shape ‘Happy Gilmore’. He also took the young actor to the driving range, and father-son would bond over the game.
Given Stanley's vast knowledge of the game, Sandler and writing partner, Tim Herlihy, would often bank on the star's father for inputs, or to run parts of the script by him. “We’d call my dad and say ‘does this make sense?’ and ‘when you putt what are you thinking?’,” the comedian recalled.
Chubb's iconic “It’s all in the hips” line was also pulled from a conversation with his father, Sandler shared. Moreover, it was Sandler's father's legacy that got golf legend Jack Nicklaus to appear in a cameo in ‘Happy Gilmore 2’.
