Lean and a bit craggy with an aw-shucks grin, actor Dennis Quaid has often played rascals with good hearts and soft heads. His most prominent early role was that of cocky astronaut Gordon Cooper in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. Ever-youthful and athletic, Quaid turned into a sturdy leading man and dependable ensemble actor. He has appeared as a stranded astronaut in Enemy Mine (1985); as Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire! (1989, with Winona Ryder); as Doc Holliday in the western feature Wyatt Earp (1994, starring Kevin Costner); as young Lindsay Lohan's befuddled dad in The Parent Trap (1998); as Jim Caviezel's time-warped dad in Frequency (2000); as a shady lawyer in Traffic (2000, directed by Stephen Soderbergh); as pitcher Jim Morris in the 2002 biopic The Rookie; as Julianne Moore's gay husband in Far From Heaven (2002); as Sam Houston in The Alamo (2004); as Jake Gyllenhaal's overprotective dad in The Day After Tomorrow (2004); and as an embittered literature professor in Smart People (2008, with Ellen Page).
Quaid is the younger brother of actor Randy Quaid... Dennis Quaid married actress Meg Ryan in 1991; the pair divorced in 2001. They have one son, Jack Henry... He married Texas realtor Kimberly Buffington in 2004, and they had twins, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, in November of 2007... Quaid was also previously married to actress P.J. Soles.
Career Highlights: The Right Stuff, Traffic, Breaking Away
First Major Screen Credit: Our Winning Season (1978)
Biography
Handsome, well-built and able to communicate a rangy sort of charm in front of the camera, Dennis Quaid possesses many star qualities. Despite attaining heartthrob status for his work in such films as The Big Easy, however, Quaid has had a difficult time maintaining this status, thanks in part to work in a number of films that have failed to fully exploit his talent.
The son of an electrician and younger brother of actor Randy Quaid, Dennis was born in Houston, Texas on April 9, 1954. He began acting in high school, and in college he enrolled in a drama program. He dropped out at the age of 20 to follow his brother to Hollywood and spent the next year mired in rejection and relative unemployment. He got his first break in 1977 when he was cast in minor roles in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and 9/30/55, but it was not until 1979, when he starred in the seminal coming-of-age drama Breaking Away, that Quaid gained attention. It was his role as astronaut Gordo Cooper in The Right Stuff four years later that finally gave the actor his Hollywood breakthrough. He subsequently went on to appear in a number of films of widely varying quality. 1987 proved to be a particularly good year for Quaid, as he did acclaimed work in The Big Easy and Suspect. That same year, he also starred in the comedy Innerspace; that experience proved to be an auspicious one, as it provided him with an introduction to co-star Meg Ryan, whom he would marry in 1991. The two also starred together in the 1988 mystery D.O.A. and in the crime drama Flesh and Bone in 1993.
Other notable roles for Quaid included that of wild man Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire (1989), a 1930s union organizer in Come See the Paradise (1990), and Meryl Streep's love interest in Postcards From the Edge (1990). During a large part of the '90s, Quaid starred in a string of disappointing films, including the disastrous Wyatt Earp (1994) and the failed medieval fantasy Dragonheart (1996). He made something of a comeback in 1998, appearing in the ensemble film Playing By Heart and the successful remake of The Parent Trap, in which he starred opposite Natasha Richardson. The following year, he had a starring role as a Miami football team's legendary quarterback in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, and then starred in the supernatural thriller Frequency (2000) as a dead man who is able to communicate with his son (James Caviezel) over ham radio. Though both films proved moderately successful, it was two-years-later that Quaid would truly return to the good graces of critics with his striking turn in director Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven. As a closeted homosexual husband living a typical suburban dream in 1950s era Connecticut, Quaid's sensitive performance proved integral to convincingly recreating the tone of a Douglas Sirk era melodrama. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an Americanactor. Raised in Texas, he became known during the 1980s after appearing in several successful films, and established a career as a Hollywood actor.
Quaid married actress P.J. Soles on November 25, 1978. The two divorced on January 23, 1983. Quaid's second marriage was to Meg Ryan on February 14, 1991 (Valentine's Day). Quaid and Ryan have a son, Jack Henry (born April 24, 1992). Their marriage ended on June 16, 2001. Quaid was also engaged for three years to actress Lea Thompson (Back to the Future, Caroline in the City), whom he met on the movie set of Jaws 3-D in 1983.
Quaid married Kimberly Buffington, an Austin, Texas real estate agent, on July 4, 2004 (Independence Day). The couple welcomed twins born via a gestational carrier on November 8, 2007 in Santa Monica, California. Their son Thomas Boone was born first at 8:26 a.m. and weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces (3.06 kg). Daughter Zoe Grace made her appearance two minutes later weighing in at 5 pounds, 9 ounces (2.52 kg).[6]
On November 18, 2007, hospital staff mistakenly gave Quaid's twelve-day-old twins a dosage of heparin 1,000 times the common dosage for infants.[7][8] Their attorney said the newborns will "be fine now", but Quaid has filed a lawsuit against the drug manufacturer, Baxter Healthcare, claiming that packaging for the two doses of heparin are not different enough.[9] In May 2008, the Quaids testified before the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking Congress not to preempt the right to sue drug manufacturers for negligence under state law.[10]
Aside from acting, Quaid is a musician and plays with his band the Sharks. Quaid also has a pilot's license and is a scratch golfer and, in 2005, was named as the top golfer among the "Hollywood set" by Golf Digest. He lends his name to the annual "Dennis Quaid Charity Weekend" (formerly the "Jiffy Lube/Dennis Quaid Charity Classic") in Austin, Texas. The golf tournament attracts numerous celebrities with the proceeds split among local children's charities. He is a member of the Bel-Air Country Club in Bel-Air and tries to stay at homes on private courses when he is on the road.
Quaid works with the charity "International Hospital for Children in New Orleans." He makes trips to Central America to help build medical clinics and transport sick children back to the United States for treatment they cannot get locally.
In a 2006 interview with Best Life magazine, Quaid said that in the mid-1990s he suffered from anorexia nervosa saying, "I'd look in the mirror and still see a 180 lb (82 kg) guy, even though I was 138 pounds (62 kg)," and "for many years, I was obsessed about what I was eating, how many calories it had, and how much exercise I'd have to do".[citation needed]
Silver, Murray, 2005. When Elvis Meets the Dalai Lama, (Bonaventure Books, Savannah), in which the author describes Quaid's participation in the film Great Balls of Fire.
