Morris, Alligator of ‘Happy Gilmore’ Fame, Dies at 80 (or More)

Morris, an alligator who appeared in numerous films and television shows, most notably in the movie “Happy Gilmore,” died on Monday in Mosca, Colo. He was at least 80.

The cause was old age, according to the Colorado Gator Farm, which announced his death.

“His exact age was unknown, but he was nine feet long in 1975, and by his growth rate and tooth loss, we can estimate his age at over 80 years,” the farm said.

“He started acting strange about a week ago; he wasn’t lunging at us and he wasn’t taking food,” Jay Young, the farm’s operator, said in a video accompanying the announcement. Tearfully stroking the gator’s head, he said, “I know it’s strange to people that we get so attached.”

Morris was 10 feet 11 inches long and weighed 640 pounds at the time of his death.

He was discovered in Los Angeles, but not at Schwab’s Pharmacy like so many actors of yore. Rather, he was found in a backyard, where he was being kept as an illegal pet. His acting career began in 1975 and ended in 2006, when he retired to the farm.

His most memorable onscreen role came in the rollicking 1996 comedy “Happy Gilmore,” with Adam Sandler in the title role as a failed hockey player who becomes an unlikely sensation on the professional golf circuit.

Morris’s big scene comes when he grabs a golf ball, leading Happy to confront him with an iron. Happy notices that the gator has one eye, recognizing it as the same one that had bitten off the hand of his mentor, Chubbs, played by Carl Weathers. (“Damned alligator just popped up, cut me down in my prime,” Chubbs says in one of the film’s many beloved quotes.)