Career
After his brother, Randy Quaid, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Last Detail (1973), Quaid dropped out of the University of Houston before graduating and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career of his own. He initially had trouble finding work but began to gain notice when he appeared in Breaking Away (1979) and earned good reviews for his role in The Right Stuff (1983).
Known for his grin, Quaid has appeared in both comedic and dramatic roles. Quaid had starring roles in the films Enemy Mine (1985) and Innerspace (1987). He also achieved acclaim for his portrayal of Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire! (1989). In 1989, he also appeared throughout the Bonnie Raitt music video for the song "Thing Called Love."
Quaid's career lost steam in the early 1990s, after he fought anorexia nervosa and kicked a cocaine addiction. He continued to garner positive reviews in a variety of films, however, such as Doc Holliday in Wyatt Earp (1994). Quaid was also the guest star of a season 2 episode of Muppets Tonight (1997). He starred in the remake of The Parent Trap (1998), playing the part of the twins' father, and as an aging pro football quarterback in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday (1999). Some of Quaid's more recent film credits include Frequency (2000), The Rookie (2002), Far from Heaven (2002), Cold Creek Manor (2003), The Flight of the Phoenix (2004), In Good Company (2004), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Yours, Mine and Ours (2005), Vantage Point (2008), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), and Pandorum (2009).
In 2009, Quaid guest-starred in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, playing Mr. Krabs' grandfather, Captain Redbeard.
He portrayed U.S. President Bill Clinton, alongside Michael Sheen as Tony Blair and Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton, in the 2010 film The Special Relationship.
Read more about this topic: Dennis Quaid
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“I restore myself when I’m alone. A career is born in public—talent in privacy.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)