Adam Sandler Honors His Alligator Costar from Happy Gilmore After 80-Year-Old Reptile Dies

Adam Sandler is remembering an old friend.

The actor, 58, paid tribute to Morris, the alligator actor who starred alongside him in Happy Gilmore, in a touching and humorous Instagram post following the gator’s death on May 11. For the post, Sandler shared a still from the film, in which he faced off against Morris with a golf club, and reminisced on their shared time on set.

“Goodbye, Morris. We are all gonna miss you,” Sandler began. “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.”

He continued, “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.”

Sandler also recalled splitting a Three Musketeers bar from craft service with his cold-blooded friend, and Morris gave him the bigger piece, the actor said. “That’s who you were,” he added.

The actor recalled the gator’s on-screen demise — Morris’s character got decapitated in the 1996 comedy, which “precluded your participation in the sequel,” Sandler wrote — after which Morris reportedly delivered a fruit basket and “hilarious note,” the actor reminisced.

“I will miss the sound of your tail sliding through the tall grass, your cold, bumpy skin, but, most of all, I will miss your infectious laugh,” Sandler concluded. “Thanks to Mr. Young for taking care of you all these years, and vaya con dios, old friend.”

Morris’s death was announced on May 11 in a Facebook post from Colorado Gator Farm in Mosca, Colorado. The post stated that Morris had been a park resident for the past 19 years, and was the oldest gator at the farm.