Randy Quaid

Early years and education

Quaid was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Juanita Bonniedale "Nita" (née Jordan), a real estate agent, and William Rudy Quaid (November 21, 1923 – February 8, 1987), an electrician. Quaid has English, Scots-Irish, and Cajun ancestry. Through his father, Quaid is a first cousin, twice removed, of cowboy performer Gene Autry. Randy Quaid grew up in Bellaire, Texas, a small city surrounded by Houston, and in southwest Houston. He is the older brother of actor Dennis Quaid.

In high school, he took a class in drama on a whim, although he didn't expect he would enjoy the lectures. After the third day, however, he was captivated by the course and decided to make acting his professional goal. He continued studying acting at the University of Houston. During one course, his teacher sent him to audition for Peter Bogdanovich, who was casting for The Last Picture Show, and Quaid won the role in what became his debut film.

Film

Randy Quaid has appeared in over 90 films. Peter Bogdanovich discovered him when Quaid was a student at the University of Houston, and he received his first exposure in Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show. His character escorts Jacy Farrow (played by Cybill Shepherd) to a late-night indoor skinny-dip at a swimming pool. It was the first of several roles directed by Bogdanovich and/or based on the writings of Larry McMurtry. Other Peter Bogdanovich films he appeared in are What's Up, Doc? and Paper Moon.

Quaid's first major critically acclaimed role was in The Last Detail (1973). He played Larry Meadows, a young United States Navy sailor on his way to serve a harsh sentence for petty theft. Jack Nicholson starred as a sailor assigned to transport him to prison. Quaid was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 1976, he played opposite Marlon Brando in The Missouri Breaks. In 1978 Quaid had a supporting role in the Alan Parker true-life drama, Midnight Express, about Americans and an Englishman imprisoned in Turkey.

Quaid acted opposite Charles Bronson in the 1975 action film of a Mexican prison escape Breakout, based on actual events. Quaid was also the lead in the comedy Martians Go Home and Cold Dog Soup and played the King of Spain in Goya's Ghosts.

In 1987 he won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Years. Quaid said that he always wanted to play LBJ since he became an actor. There was a physical resemblance between Quaid and Johnson, since they are both very tall and from Texas. "I responded to him and his wants and needs in a way I've never done with any other character," he said. Quaid also tried to portray what he learned were L.B.J.'s political attitude:

He was on the side of the people; he did a lot for racial equality; he had the ability to look at both sides of an issue and bring two opposing sides together; he was a man of great heart and compassion... He thought he could handle the Viet Cong the way he handled people in Texas. He thought he could reason with them. But he had no understanding of them or their culture.

In 1992 he played the monster in Frankenstein, filmed in Poland and the U.K. Quaid said "I wanted to make the monster not just a monster, but a disfigured man. I wanted to emphasize the human qualities. He is basically struggling for equal rights. He wants anything any man would want." Quaid had starring roles in the 1996 film Kingpin, where he played the Amish bowler Ishmael, as well as a role as pilot in the blockbuster science fiction film Independence Day, released the same year. He previously starred in Quick Change with Bill Murray in 1990. Quaid also appeared in three of the five films in the National Lampoon's Vacation film series as Cousin Eddie, jovial redneck relative (through marriage) to Beverly D'Angelo, wife of Chevy Chase's Clark Griswold.

Shortly after appearing in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, the third installment of the series, Quaid was featured in Days of Thunder as NASCAR car owner and successful car salesman Tim Daland, a determined businessman who expects his team to be top-notch for fans and sponsors. Quaid had a pivotal supporting role in Brokeback Mountain (2005) as an insensitive rancher. Quaid starred in Real Time, an independent film that opened Slamdance Film Festival in 2008.

Quaid was given the lead role in a Vacation spin-off, a 2003 made-for-television film National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure which marks his final appearance in the franchise to date. For unspecified reasons, he was not asked to reprised to his role in the 2015 film simply titled Vacation but his character is briefly mentioned.

Television

In 1981 Quaid co-starred in the two part television film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, playing the character of Lenny. Quaid's other television appearances include a season as a Saturday Night Live (SNL) cast member (1985–1986), the role of gunslinger John Wesley Hardin in the miniseries Streets of Laredo and starring roles in the short-lived series The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire (2003) and Davis Rules (1991–1992).

In 2005 he received Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award nominations for his portrayal of Elvis's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in the critically acclaimed CBS television network miniseries Elvis.

He was featured in the highly rated television films Category 6: Day of Destruction (2004) and Category 7: The End of the World (2005) and starred in Last Rites, a made-for-cable Starz/Encore! premiere movie. Quaid voiced the character Colonel Sanders in radio and television commercials for fast-food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. Quaid's voice-over work also included Capitol One Credit Card, US Air, Miller Beer and a guest role in The Ren and Stimpy Show (as Anthony's father in the second-season episode, "A Visit to Anthony"). He narrated the 2006 PBS series Texas Ranch House.

Theater

In 2004, Quaid appeared on stage undertaking the starring role of Frank in the world premiere of Sam Shepard's The God of Hell, produced by the New School University at the Actors Studio Drama School in New York. In The God of Hell, Quaid's portrayal of Frank, a Wisconsin dairy farmer whose home is infiltrated by a dangerous government operative who wants to take over his farm, was well-received and -reviewed by New York City's top theatre critics. It marked the second time that Quaid starred in a Shepard play, the first being the long running Broadway hit True West.

In February 2008, a five-member hearing committee of Actors' Equity Association, the labor union representing American stage actors, banned Quaid for life and fined him more than $81,000. The charges that brought the sanctions originated in a Seattle production of Lone Star Love, a Western-themed adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which Quaid played the lead role of Falstaff. The musical was scheduled to come to Broadway, but producers cancelled it.

According to the New York Post, all 26 members of the musical cast brought charges that Quaid "physically and verbally abused his fellow performers" and that the show closed rather than continuing to Broadway because of Quaid's "oddball behavior". Quaid's lawyer, Mark Block, said the charges were false, and that one of the complaining actors had said the action was driven by "the producers who did not want to give Randy his contractual rights to creative approval ... or financial participation ..." Block said that Quaid had left the union before the musical started, making the ban moot, and that Quaid only participated in the hearing because he wanted due process. Quaid's statement on the charges was "I am guilty of only one thing: giving a performance that elicited a response so deeply felt by the actors and producers with little experience of my creative process that they actually think I am Falstaff."

Music career

Quaid has performed musical work, primarily through his band Randy Quaid & The Fugitives. The group released its first single, "Star Whackers", in March 2011. An accompanying film, Star Whackers, was premiered by the Quaids in Vancouver on April 23, 2011.

Personal life

Quaid was married to Ella Marie Jolly, a former model, on May 11, 1980 and they had a daughter, Amanda Marie, born May 29, 1983. They were separated on September 9, 1986 and divorced August 24, 1989. He says of their split, "I went through this delayed adolescent thing. I didn't want to be tied down to a family.

Quaid met Evi Quaid (née Motolanez) in December 1987 on the set of the film, Bloodhounds of Broadway, in which Madonna starred. They wed on October 5, 1989 at the San Ysidro Ranch, a Montecito, California resort. His brother Dennis, actress Meg Ryan, and Randy's six-year-old daughter Amanda were in attendance.

Legal issues

In 2006, Quaid, who acted in Brokeback Mountain, sued the producers for misrepresenting the film as "a low-budget, art house film with no prospect of making money" in order to secure Quaid's professional acting services at below-market rates.

In 2009, Quaid and his wife were arrested for allegedly defrauding an innkeeper in Santa Barbara by using an invalid credit card to pay a $10,000 bill. The two were released on bail that evening and subsequently paid most of the bill. However, they repeatedly failed to appear in court and warrants were issued for their arrest. They eventually appeared in court the following year where the case was dismissed against Randy Quaid for lack of evidence. His wife, Evi, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of fraud and was placed on probation for three years in addition to having to spend 240 hours in community service.

In September 2010 Quaid and his wife were charged with burglary after they spent five days occupying the guest house in a vacant home they once owned in Santa Barbara. The Quaids claimed that the home was wrongfully transferred to a third party by the use of the forged signature. Warrants for their arrest were issued after they failed to appear in court, and as a result, they also forfeited their bail.

In October 2010, Quaid and his wife moved to Vancouver, Canada, where they were arrested for their outstanding warrants in the U.S. They then sought protection under the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, stating that they feared for their lives in the United States. They were granted bail, after which Quaid gave a press interview. In January 2013, however, Canada denied his request for permanent resident status.

Quaid lived in Montreal since 2013 and was briefly arrested for not checking in as a non-resident. He then crossed the Canadian border into Vermont, but was detained by U.S. Customs. A few days later Quaid was released and allowed to remain in Vermont without conditions, though still subject to arrest should he travel to another state. He and his wife planned to make Vermont their permanent home since his wife grew up there.