Dennis Dugan - Life and Career

Life and Career

He started his acting career in 1972, appearing in the 1973 made for TV movie The Girl Most Likely to.... He has appeared in such films as the 1976 films Harry and Walter Go to New York and Norman... Is That You?. In 1979, he was ideally cast as the time-displaced hero in Unidentified Flying Oddball, Disney's updated remake of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. His first notable television appearance was in the Columbo episode "Last Salute to the Commodore", as a young police officer. He appeared in two episodes of M*A*S*H, most notably as Col. Potter's son in law in the episode "Strange Bedfellows". Then he was the star of the short-lived 1978 series Richie Brockelman, Private Eye, playing a character who originated in a telemovie, and then made guest appearances in the role of Brockelman on The Rockford Files before getting his own show. He took on a semi-regular role as an erstwhile caped-crusader who called himself "Captain Freedom" on Hill Street Blues and also appeared on Empire (1984), and Shadow Chasers (1984). He played Walter Bishop, the brief husband of Maddie Hayes (Cybil Shepherd) on Moonlighting. Dugan's films credits of the 1980s include the 1981 horror film The Howling, the 1987 romantic comedy Can't Buy Me Love and the 1988 film The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking.

Dugan has also made a career as a television and film director, and appears in cameo parts in many of his films. Films directed by Dennis Dugan include the 1990 comedy Problem Child (with Dugan as an All-American dad), the 2001 comedy Saving Silverman (in which Dugan plays a football referee), the 2003 comedy National Security, and the 1996 and 1999 Adam Sandler comedies Happy Gilmore (in which Dugan plays Doug Thompson, the golf tour supervisor) and Big Daddy (with Dugan as a man who reluctantly gives candy to a trick-or-treating Julian). Dugan has directed episodes of such television series as Moonlighting (was also a guest star in some episodes), Ally McBeal, and NYPD Blue.

Dugan directed The Benchwarmers, a comedy released on April 7, 2006. The film, co-produced by Adam Sandler, is about trio of men who try to make up for missed opportunities in childhood by forming a three-player baseball team to compete against standard Little League squads. Dugan himself has a bit part as Coach Bellows. Dugan directed the 2007 comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and You Don't Mess with the Zohan in 2008, both Adam Sandler vehicles.

Dugan directed Grown Ups, which follows a group of high school friends who are reunited after thirty years for the Fourth of July. The film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade, and was released in the summer of 2010 with major box office success, but was overwhelmingly panned by critics.

Dugan's Just Go with It was his sixth film with Sandler; the film also starred Jennifer Aniston and Brooklyn Decker. Also in 2011, Dugan directed the film Jack & Jill, again with Sandler. To date, Dugan's films have grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide.