Chuck Norris Indirectly Forced A Rewrite To Bob Barker And Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore Fight
For some people, it's important to look tough on screen as part of their brand. You wouldn't imagine Bruce Lee getting the crap kicked out of him, for instance, right? These days, some actors even have it worked into their contract that they simply cannot lose a fight in their movies. Most famously, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and Jason Statham each had that stipulation included while working on the "Fast and Furious" franchise. (Because in Dominic Toretto's world, nothing is more important than family... except for looking like the biggest badass on the block.)
But in the grand tradition of Hollywood tough guys concerned about image, there's one name you can add to the list who you'd probably never expect: Bob Barker. Yes, the longtime host of "The Price is Right" made it very clear that if he was going to appear in Adam Sandler's golf comedy "Happy Gilmore," there was no way he was going to get K.O.'ed by Sandler's hockey player-turned-pro golfer. And while it's a little unbelievable that the game show host who was always so concerned about controlling the pet population would care about looking tough in his cameo appearance, he actually had a relatively valid reason: he was trained by Chuck Norris.
Yes, that Chuck Norris — the man of a thousand astounding (but totally true) facts. And if you think the elderly pupil of Walker, Texas Ranger was going to be made to look like a punk in a goofy sports movie, think again.
Barker would only appear if he could play Plinko with Sandler's face
During an appearance on Dan Patrick's podcast in 2021, Sandler confirmed the story that Barker only agreed to appear in "Happy Gilmore" as long as he got the better of the titular character, and not the other way around:
"Bob Barker read it, and his first response — and I know he probably tells everybody this — was, 'I'll do it. But I have to win the fight.' Because he fought. His nextdoor neighbor was Chuck Norris. And so he said, 'I train with Chuck, we train every night, and he helps me with my punches and my kicks, and I would love to do this, but I have to win this fight.'"
At the time, Barker was 73-years-old and everyone's favorite daytime television grandpa. When he first pops up onscreen in "Happy Gilmore," that's still the role he plays: nothing but genial while paired with Happy in a Celebrity Pro-Am event. It's only when Happy starts playing the worst round of his life that the competitive spirit takes hold, and Barker begins ruthlessly roasting his golf partner. It all leads to one of the most unexpected brawls in Hollywood history.
As originally written, it's Happy who ends up knocking out the septuagenarian game show host, which we're sure would have still made for a funny and wholly absurd scene. But Sandler and his team knew that it was more important to get Barker in the film than to have Happy come out on top, and it helped create one of the best celebrity cameos in movie history — which is something Barker's martial arts instructor knows a little something about himself.