Guests

Dennis Quaid

Season 8, Episode 811

Original Airdate: April 7, 2002

Dennis Quaid was born April 9, 1954 in Houston, Texas. He and older brother Randy were sons of an electrician father and housewife mother. Although a natural born athlete, Dennis stayed away from organized sports growing up and instead pursued acting and the arts.

After a few unnoticeable film roles, Dennis' breakout performance came in 1979 in the coming-of-age sports drama Breaking Away. The next four years saw Dennis starring in very forgettable films such as The Long Riders (1980), The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1981) and Jaws 3-D (1983).

In 1984, Dennis starred as astronaut Gordo Cooper in the epic The Right Stuff. This performance propelled Dennis to Hollywood's A-list. The late 1980's brought critical acclaim and box office success in such films as Enemy Mine (1985), The Big Easy (1987), Suspect (1987), Everybody's All-American (1988) and Great Balls of Fire! (1989).

In 1987, Quaid starred in the sci-fi comedy adventure Innerspace. It was on the set that he met and began a romance to his future wife Meg Ryan. The two would stay married until 2001 when a very public romance between Ryan and actor Russell Crowe ended their marriage.

The 1990's brought Quaid continued success but super-stardom still eluded him. Films include Postcards From the Edge (1990) with Meryl Streep, Undercover Blues (1993) with Kathleen Turner, Wyatt Earp (1994) with Kevin Costner, Something to Talk About (1996) with Julia Roberts and The Parent Trap (1998) with Natasha Richardson.

In 1999, Dennis starred as an aging quarterback in Oliver Stone's football classic Any Given Sunday. In 2000, he starred with James Caviezel in the time travel drama Frequency and in 2001, he played Arne Metzger in Steven Soderbergh's Oscar nominated Traffic. Dennis performs regularily with his band The Sharks and has on son from his marriage to Meg Ryan.