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Randy Quaid

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Randy Quaid
File:RandyQuaidShot.jpg
Born
Randall Rudy Quaid

(1950-10-01) October 1, 1950 (age 74)
Houston, Texas, United States
OccupationActor
Years active1968–present
Spouses
  • Ella Jolly (1980–1985)
  • Evi Quaid (1989–present)
RelativesDennis Quaid (brother)

Randall Rudy "Randy" Quaid (October 1, 1950) is an American actor best known for his role as Cousin Eddie in the National Lampoon's Vacation movies, as well as his numerous supporting roles in films such as The Last Detail, Independence Day, Kingpin and Brokeback Mountain. He has won a Golden Globe Award, and has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy Award and a BAFTA Award.

Personal life

Randy Quaid was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Juanita Bonniedale "Nita" (née Jordan), a real estate agent, and William Rudy Quaid, an electrician. According to actor Dennis Quaid, Randy's brother, their father was a "frustrated actor", and Gene Autry was a third cousin.[1] Randy attended Pershing Middle School and Bellaire High School. He is married to former Helmut Newton model Evi Quaid.

Movie work

Quaid has appeared in over 90 movies. 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 late-night indoor skinny-dipping at a swimming pool. It was the first of his several roles directed by Bogdanovich and/or based on the writings of Larry McMurtry.

Quaid's first major role was in the critically acclaimed The Last Detail (1973). He played a young US Navy sailor on his way to serve a harsh sentence for stealing $40 from an admiral's wife's pet charity. Jack Nicholson played the Navy sailor assigned to transport him to prison. Nicholson's character eventually becomes his friend and mentor, helping him experience different aspects of life before he goes behind bars.

Quaid was nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA and an Academy Award for his role in The Last Detail. He was also nominated for an Emmy and won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Years. He was featured (with Margaret Colin) in two science fiction movies, the unsuccessful Martians Go Home and the very successful Independence Day. Other movie roles include Kingpin, where he played the lovable Amish bowler Ishmael alongside Woody Harrelson and Weird Science cast member Vanessa Angel, a loser father in Not Another Teen Movie, and an obnoxious neighbor to Richard Pryor's character in Moving. He played the lead role in the HBO movie Dead Solid Perfect, a golfer trying to make it on the PGA Tour. He also starred in the popular National Lampoon Vacation movies as Cousin Eddie to Chevy Chase's Clark W. Griswold.

In 2005, Quaid starred as Bill Geurrard in The Ice Harvest. His chilling portrayal of a Kansas City mob boss was voted one of the top ten film gangsters of all time in a UK poll; the number one slot went to Marlon Brando.

Quaid had a pivotal supporting role in the Academy Award-winning drama Brokeback Mountain (2005) as an insensitive rancher whose two male employees are the movie's main characters. On March 23, 2006, Quaid filed a lawsuit for $10 million plus punitive damages against Focus Features, Del Mar Productions, James Schamus and David Linde, alleging that they both intentionally and negligently misrepresented Brokeback Mountain as "a low-budget, art house film with no prospect of making any money" to secure Quaid's acting services at a considerably lower rate than his typical fee. The film grossed over $160 million. On May 5, 2006, Quaid dropped his lawsuit after he was advised that a financial resolution would be made.

In 2007, Quaid portrayed King Carlos IV in Goya's Ghosts, a role for which he learned to play the violin, and starred in the comedy Ball's Out: The Gary Houseman Story (2008) alongside Seann William Scott.

Television

Quaid received both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his 2005 portrayal of talent manager Colonel Tom Parker in the critically acclaimed CBS television network mini-series Elvis. Quaid's other television appearances include a season as a Saturday Night Live (SNL) cast member (1985–1986), the role of real-life 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), as well as the two part TV film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, playing the character of Lenny. He was featured in the highly-rated TV movies Category 6: Day of Destruction and Category 7: The End of the World and starred in Last Rites, a made-for-cable Starz/Encore! premiere movie.

Quaid also voiced the animated Colonel Sanders character in radio and television commercials for fast-food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. Quaid's voice-over work also included a guest role in The Ren and Stimpy Show (as Anthony's father in the second season episode, "A Visit to Anthony").

Recurring characters on Saturday Night Live

Quaid played a number of recurring characters on Saturday Night Live, including:

  • The Floating Head: A Rod Serling-esque character in The Twilight Zone parody, "The Limits of the Imagination"
  • Rudy Randolph, Jr.: A pitchman dressed as a cowboy who sells irregular merchandise (e.g., furniture from the Gulf Coast that smells like dead bodies) or treasures from dictators (e.g., Ferdinand Marcos's clothes). Often paired with Rudy Randolph III (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) The name is a spin on Quaid's real name.

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 also 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 which represents 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 completely false, and that one of the complaining actors had said the action was actually driven by "the producers who did not want to give Randy his contractual rights to creative approval ... or financial participation ..." Block also said that Quaid had left the union before the musical started, making the ban moot, and that Quaid had only participated in the hearing because he wanted due process. Quaid's own 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."[2][3]

Arrests

On September 24, 2009, Quaid and his wife were arrested in Texas for allegedly defrauding an innkeeper, burglary, and conspiracy in California. The arrest stemmed from an incident earlier in which the Quaids had allegedly left a Santa Barbara, California hotel with a balance due of approximately $10,000. Even though they had later paid the entire bill, the two were still arrested on September 24 and released on bail later that evening. The Quaids made arrangements to appear in court in Santa Barbara but failed to show up. On October 29, the Santa Barbara District Attorney's Office requested bench warrants for their arrest and extradition from Texas.[4] Although subsequent arrest warrants were quashed, after failing to appear at court on April 12 and 13, 2010, $40,000 in bail was forfeited and arrest warrants for the couple were issued again on April 14, 2010.[5][6]

The Quaids appeared in court with their attorney Robert Sanger on April 26, 2010 after missing several other court appearances. The Quaids were briefly detained in custody on April 26, 2010 and released after processing. On April 28, 2010, Sanger resolved the case with Senior Deputy District Attorney Arnis Tolks. The case was dismissed against Randy Quaid for lack of evidence. Evi Quaid pled no contest to a misdemeanor count of defrauding an innkeeper. She was granted probation for three years. She will also be required to serve 240 hours of community service.[7][8]

On September 18, 2010, in Santa Barbara, California, Randy Quaid and his wife faced burglary charges. They were reported as living in a guest house without permission. They claimed that they had owned the property since the 1990s although a representative of the property owner had called the sheriff's department and produced documents that showed the house as being sold to the current owner in 2007. The previous owner had purchased the property from the Quaids several years earlier. The Quaids are being accused of more than $5,000 worth of damage that is claimed they caused to the guest house.[9]

They were booked for felony residential burglary (459PC) and misdemeanor entering a non-commercial building without consent (602.5 PC). Evi Quaid was also booked for misdemeanor resisting arrest (148PC). Their bail was set at $50,000 each. On September 19, 2010 they posted bail and were released. [10]

The Quaids testified that they still own the home, that they will prove it in court, and that the Santa Barbara police are "not real estate attorneys". They also claim that the corporation owned by Randy Quaid still has a lien on the home in the county records.

Filmography

Celebrity impersonations

References

  1. ^ Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jan 19, 2010
  2. ^ Union Curtain Falls on 'Oddball' Quaid – AOL News
  3. ^ Is Randy Quaid a nut job? The actors union thinks so (they banned him for life)
  4. ^ Randy Quaid, Wife Miss Third Scheduled Court Date
  5. ^ R.L. McCullough (April 19, 2010). "Randy Quaid skips another court date, could face re-arrest". Crime Voice. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
  6. ^ Kamika Dunlap (April 19, 2010). "Wanted Fugitives: Randy Quaid and Wife Skip Out on Court Again". FindLaw. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
  7. ^ "Randy & Evi Quaid Has Plea Deal, AVOID Jail Time". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  8. ^ The Associated Press (2010-04-28). "Felony charges dropped against actor Randy Quaid as wife Evi gets probation in criminal case". Nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  9. ^ "Randy Quaid, wife face burglary charges in Calif". Yahoo. Associated Press. 2010-09-19. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  10. ^ "Santa Barbara Sheriff Department News Release" (PDF). 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
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