Randy Randall Rudy Quaid[2] (born October 1, 1950) is an American actor and comedian known for his roles in both serious drama and light comedy.
Quaid also won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Years (1987).
Quaid is also known for his roles of Cousin Eddie in the National Lampoon's Vacation movies and Russell Casse in Independence Day (1996).
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.
He played Larry Meadows, a young United States Navy sailor on his way to serve a harsh sentence for petty theft.
Quaid appeared opposite Charles Bronson in the 1975 action film of a Mexican prison escape Breakout, based on actual events.
In 1978 Quaid had a supporting role in the Alan Parker drama Midnight Express, about Americans and an Englishman imprisoned in Turkey.
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.
He also starred in Quick Change with Bill Murray in 1990, and was the lead in the comedies Martians Go Home and Cold Dog Soup, released the same year.
Quaid was the voice of cattle rustler Alameda Slim in Disney's animated feature Home on the Range (2004), and had a pivotal supporting role in Brokeback Mountain (2005) as rancher Joe Aguirre.
Quaid had a co-starring role in the Canadian independent comedy Real Time (2008), which opened the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival.
He returned to performing with Rob Margolies' weight loss comedy All You Can Eat (2018),[14] which premiered at the SOHO International Film Festival in June 2018.
[16] 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 voiced the character Colonel Sanders in radio and television commercials for fast-food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken.
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.
The charges that brought the sanctions originated in a Seattle production of Lone Star Love, a Western-themed adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which Quaid played the lead role of Falstaff.
[19] 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.
[25][26] 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.
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.
[29] 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.
[44] With his lawyer at his side, Quaid asserted in a press conference that the reason he was released was that the California judge had issued an arrest warrant before the alleged crime had been committed.