Actor Biography - Dennis Quaid Posted by: Hollywood Lot Staff

Quaid’s has had roles in over fifty movies, notably including the working class tough longing for respect in Peter Yates’ Oscar®-nominated Breaking Away, the shady lawyer fronting for a drug smuggler in Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar®-winning Traffic, the Bosnian War mercenary who reclaims his humanity in the independent drama Savior, rock ‘n’ roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis in Jim McBride’s Great Balls of Fire, legendary Mercury astronaut Gordy Cooper in Phil Kaufman’s Oscar®-nominated The Right Stuff and the Cajun cop in McBride’s noir classic, The Big Easy, for which Quaid won the Independent Spirit Award as Best Male Lead.

Quaid also appeared in Mike Figgis’ thriller, Cold Creek Manor, Norman Jewison’s HBO drama, Dinner with Friends, based on Donald Margulies Pulitzer Prizewinning play, Oliver Stone’s, Any Given Sunday, Gregory Hoblit’s, Frequency and the remake of Disney’s, The Parent Trap. 

He can also be seen in Roland Emmerich’s action adventure, The Day After Tomorrow and John Moore’s film, The Flight of the Phoenix.  Quaid’s film history also includes playing Doc Holliday in Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp, working in Taylor Hackford’s sports drama, Everybody’s All American, Alan Parker’s Come See the Paradise, and D.O.A., Innerspace, Flesh and Bone, Switchback, Gang Related, Something to Talk About, Dragonheart,  Suspect, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, The Long Riders, Dreamscape, Enemy Mine, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, 9/30/55, Caveman and Crazy Mama.

Quaid began acting in high school and studied theatre at the University of Houston. Early during his time in Hollywood he scored a role in Breaking Away and on television starring opposite Mickey Rooney in the Emmy Award-winning dramas, “Bill” and its sequel, “Bill: On His Own.” A year later, he joined brother Randy in the off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s “True West,” which he reprised in Los Angeles.