DENVER – An alligator that appeared in numerous TV shows and films over three decades, most notably the 1996 Adam Sandler comedy “Happy Gilmore,” has died at a gator farm in southern Colorado.
Based on his growth rate and tooth loss, Morris the alligator was at least 80 years old when he died, the Colorado Gator Farm said in a Facebook post Sunday. He was nearly 11 feet (3.3 meters) long and weighed 640 pounds (290 kilograms).
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"He started acting strange about a week ago. He wasn’t lunging at us and wasn’t taking food,” Jay Young, the farm’s owner and operator, said in a video as he tearfully stroked Morris' head in an animal enclosure.
“I know it's strange to people that we get so attached to an alligator, to all of our animals. ... He had a happy time here, and he died of old age," he said.
Morris, who was found in the backyard of a Los Angeles home as an illegal pet, started his Hollywood career in 1975 and retired in 2006, when he was sent to the Colorado Gator Farm in the tiny town of Mosca. He appeared in several films, including “Interview with the Vampire,” “Dr. Dolittle 2" and “Blues Brothers 2000." He also appeared on “Coach,” “Night Court” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” featuring the late wildlife expert Steve Irwin.
But his most famous role was in “Happy Gilmore,” a film about a failed and ill-tempered hockey player who discovers a talent for golf. The title character played by Sandler confronts Morris after hitting a golf ball that ends up in the gator's mouth.
Sandler posted a tribute to Morris on Instagram on Wednesday.
“We are all gonna miss you. You could be hard on directors, make-up artists, costumers — really anyone with arms or legs — but I know you did it for the ultimate good of the film," Sandler wrote. "The day you wouldn’t come out of your trailer unless we sent in 40 heads of lettuce taught me a powerful lesson: never compromise your art.”
The Colorado Gator Farm, which opened to the public in 1990, said it plans to preserve Morris' body.
“We have decided to get Morris taxidermied so that he can continue to scare children for years to come. It’s what he would have wanted," the farm posted on Facebook on Monday.