Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954)[1] is an American actor and gospel singer. He is known for his leading man roles in film and television. The Guardian named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.[2]
Dennis Quaid
Actor, singer
1975–present
-
Kimberly Buffington(m. 2004; div. 2018)
-
Laura Savoie(m. 2020)
3, including Jack Quaid
- Randy Quaid (brother)
- Gene Autry (first cousin twice removed)
Quaid is known for his starring roles in Breaking Away (1979), The Right Stuff (1983), The Big Easy (1986), Innerspace (1987), Great Balls of Fire! (1989), Dragonheart (1996), The Parent Trap (1998), Frequency (2000), The Rookie (2002), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), In Good Company (2004), Flight of the Phoenix (2004), Yours, Mine & Ours (2005), and Vantage Point (2008). He received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in Far from Heaven (2002).
Quaid also acted in The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1981), Jaws 3-D (1983), Come See the Paradise (1990), Any Given Sunday (1999), Traffic (2000), American Dreamz (2006), Footloose (2011), Playing for Keeps (2012), Truth (2015), Midway (2019), and Strange World (2022). He portrayed President Bill Clinton in the HBO film The Special Relationship (2010) for which he earned nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. He also portrayed Deputy US Marshal Sherrill Lynn in the Paramount+ western series Lawmen: Bass Reeves (2023).
Early life and education[edit]
Dennis William Quaid was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Juanita Bonnie Dale "Nita" (née Jordan), a real estate agent, and William Rudy Quaid (1923–1987), an electrician. He has English, Irish, Scots-Irish, and Cajun (French) ancestry.[3] Through his father, he is a first cousin, twice removed, of cowboy performer Gene Autry.[4] Quaid attended Paul W. Horn Elementary School in Bellaire and Pershing Middle School in Houston. He studied Mandarin and dance at Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas, and later in college, at the University of Houston, under drama coach Cecil Pickett, who had previously taught at Bellaire High and whose daughter is actress Cindy Pickett. Quaid was raised in the Baptist faith.[5][6] He is the younger brother of actor Randy Quaid.
Career[edit]
1979–1982: Early roles[edit]
Quaid dropped out of the University of Houston before graduating and moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career.[3] He made his film debut in an uncredited role in the action comedy film Crazy Mama (1975) starring Cloris Leachman. He then acted in the psychological drama I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977) and the drama September 30, 1955 (1977). He initially had trouble finding work but began to gain notice after appearing in the comedy Breaking Away (1979) and the musical drama The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1981),[7] During this time he appeared in numerous films such as the drama film Our Winning Season (1978), the comedy film The Seniors (1978), the romantic comedy All Night Long (1981), and the slapstick comedy Caveman (1981). He portrayed outlaw Ed Miller in the Walter Hill directed Western drama The Long Riders (1980). He appeared as an extra at a graduation ceremony in the Ivan Reitman directed comedy Stripes (1981) starring Bill Murray.
Personal life[edit]
Relationships and children[edit]
Quaid has been married four times and has three children.
He met his first wife, actress P. J. Soles, on the set of the film Our Winning Season.[17] They were married in 1978 and divorced in 1983.[18]
On February 14, 1991, he married actress Meg Ryan. Quaid and Ryan fell in love during the shooting of their second film together, D.O.A.[19] They have a son, Jack Henry Quaid (born 1992).[20] Quaid and Ryan announced their separation on June 28, 2000, saying they had been separated six weeks by then.[19] Their divorce was finalized in July 2001.[21]
Quaid dated model Shanna Moakler from February to October 2001.[22][23]
He married Texas real-estate agent Kimberly Buffington on July 4, 2004, at his ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana.[24] They have fraternal twins who were born via a surrogate on November 8, 2007, in Santa Monica, California.[25][26]
On November 18, 2007, hospital staff mistakenly gave Quaid's ten-day-old twins a dosage of heparin (a blood thinner) that was 1,000 times the common dosage for infants.[27][28] The babies recovered, but Quaid filed a lawsuit against the drug manufacturer, Baxter Healthcare, claiming that packaging for the two doses of heparin are not different enough.[29] In May 2008, the Quaids testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking U.S. Congress not to preempt the right to sue drug manufacturers for negligence under state law.[30] This incident led Quaid to become a patient-safety advocate, producing a series of documentaries on preventable medical errors that aired on the Discovery Channel[31][32] as well as co-authoring a medical journal article addressing the positive influence of patient stories in motivating change in healthcare.[33] The first documentary, Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm, aired on the Discovery Channel in 2010,[31][32] and the second documentary, Surfing the Healthcare Tsunami: Bring Your Best Board, aired on the Discovery Channel in 2012.[34][35][36][37]
Buffington filed for divorce from Quaid in March 2012.[38] Buffington's attorney then withdrew the divorce papers on April 26, 2012.[39] That summer, Quaid and Buffington moved to California.[40] In October 2012, he and Buffington again decided to separate, and Buffington filed for legal separation, seeking joint legal and sole physical custody of the twins.[41] After waiting to establish the required six months of residency in California, Quaid filed for divorce on November 30, 2012, asking for joint legal and physical custody of the children and offering to pay spousal support to Buffington.[40] They then reconciled and the divorce was dismissed by September 2013.[42] On June 28, 2016, the couple announced in a joint statement that they were divorcing, with Buffington asking for full physical custody and joint legal custody.[43] The divorce was finalized on April 27, 2018.
Following his separation from Buffington, Quaid dated model Santa Auzina from July 2016 to 2019.[44][45][46]
On October 21, 2019, Quaid confirmed his engagement to Laura Savoie.[47] After postponing their original wedding date due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[16] they married on June 2, 2020, in Santa Barbara.[48] Savoie is a CPA and yoga instructor, 39 years his junior, who also shares his Christian faith. Quaid says, “God is in the relationship. I've never had a relationship like that before." Together they launched the production company Bonniedale Films based in Nashville, where the couple live.[49]
Religion[edit]
Quaid is a Christian, coming to faith around 1990 after struggling with addiction.[50] He wrote the Christian song "On My Way to Heaven" dedicated to his mother and included in the film I Can Only Imagine, in which he starred.[51]
Interests[edit]
In addition to acting, Quaid is a musician and plays with his band, the Sharks. He wrote and performed the song "Closer to You" in the film The Big Easy (1987). He also has a pilot's license and owned a Cessna Citation.[52] He is also a one-handicap golfer, and in 2005, he was named as the top golfer among the "Hollywood set" by Golf Digest magazine.
Quaid is a fan of the Houston Astros, and after the team's 2005 National League Championship-winning season, he narrated their commemorative DVD release. After the filming of The Express: The Ernie Davis Story, Quaid went to Cleveland Browns Stadium to dedicate Davis's jersey.
Quaid began podcasting in 2020. He started The Pet Show with Dennis Quaid and Jimmy Jellinek. Its first episode premiered on July 10, 2020.[53] During that podcast, Quaid learned of a cat in Lynchburg, Virginia also named Dennis Quaid.[54] He adopted the cat and flew it out to California to live at his recording studio.[55]
Substance use[edit]
There have been extensive stories about Quaid's past abuse of cocaine. In a candid 2002 interview with Larry King on his talk show, after King asked about his motives for using drugs, Quaid responded, "Well, you got to put it in context. Back in the late 1960s, early 1970s. That was back during the time where, you know, drugs were going to expand our minds and everybody was experimenting and everything. We were really getting high, we didn't know it. And cocaine at that time was considered harmless. You know. I remember magazine articles in People Magazine of doctors saying it is not addicting. It is just—alcohol is worse. So I think we all fell into that. But that's not the way it was."
When asked if he believed he had ever been addicted to the drugs, Quaid responded, "It was a gradual thing. But it got to the point where I couldn't have any fun unless I had it. Which is a bad place to be." Later in the interview, he said, "But I saw myself being dead in about five years if I didn't stop."[56]
Political views[edit]
In a 2018 interview with the New York Post, Quaid stated he was a registered Independent and has voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates, saying that he did not consider himself an adherent to any particular ideology; though he did opine that Ronald Reagan was his favorite president of his lifetime.[57] In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Quaid stated that President Donald Trump was handling the pandemic well, calling him "involved".[58] Quaid subsequently recorded an interview with infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci as part of an advertising campaign by the Department of Health and Human Services to "defeat despair" surrounding COVID-19.[59]