ZingB

Dennis Quaid's Relationship with His Brother Who Was Once Charged with Burglary

Source: Getty Images.

The Quaid brothers became Texas state’s best-known acting siblings, but one incident would irrevocably change their future and split them apart for the rest of their lives.

Randy, four years his brother’s senior, dipped his toes into acting first. His successes soon drew Dennis in, and while he played the leading action hero, Randy became the comedian.

Randy Quaid arrives at the 57th Annual Emmy Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium on September 18, 2005, in Los Angeles, California. | Source: Getty Images.

Together they appeared in over 120 productions with 57 years of combined experience including blockbusters like “The Last Picture Show” and “Independence Day” for Randy, while Dennis starred in favorites like “The Right Stuff” and “The Big Easy.”

The 1980 feature film, “The Long Riders” became their only onscreen collaboration when they starred as outlaw brothers Clell and Ed Miller. While the 1984 play, “True West” became their only offscreen and joint project.

While promoting his movie “Soul Surfer” in April 2011, Dennis spoke with PEOPLE and made a rare comment about his brother Randy. Since the incident, Dennis had rarely talked about his brother’s consequent criminal record and disappearance.

“I love my brother,” Dennis told PEOPLE. “That’s all I can say. I love my brother, and I miss my brother. That’s all I’m going to say.”

After they failed to appear for at least another four scheduled court dates, warrants for their arrest got issued, according to the Santa Barbara district attorney’s office.

But court documents showed that the alleged damage to the guest house to be the least of their worries as ABC News reported.

Dennis Quaid visits 'The IMDb Show' on April 17, 2019, in Studio City, California. | Source: Getty Images.

The couple’s financial troubles began in part, in the late 1990s. Randy and Evi put together a movie, “The Debtors” wherein Randy starred alongside Catherine McCormack and Michael Caine, which Evi directed.

The movie’s financier, Charles Simonyi, and the Quaids had creative and legal disagreements over the film which led to them filing for bankruptcy in 2000. They accumulated $3.5 million in debt but only added more unpaid bills to the pile, including those from a private investigator, Becky Altringer.

Evi and Randy hired Becky to investigate the “Hollywood star whackers” that wanted to “kill them,” whom they also claimed to be responsible for the deaths of Heath Ledger, David Carradine, and Natasha Richardson.

In the fall of 2012, they fled to Vancouver, Canada, and claimed refugee status based on the claim that the “star whackers” were after them as well.

On February 10 in 2011, Evi got granted Canadian citizenship through her Canadian father, according to her lawyer, Catherine Sas. Evi also made a formal application to sponsor Randy, but because of her status, Catherine believed that Randy could get permanent resident status before the refugee claim got settled.

"But today we're here to say thank you Canada," Randy said. "Thank you for your warm welcome, thank you for giving us the opportunity to live in peace and thank you to the Vancouver Film Critics Circle."

Through the years Dennis, on the other hand, had a successful acting career, but he also struggled with drug addiction.

ncG1vNJzZmimlazAb63MqKSapZFjsLC5jmpsbmllbHqiecaloKaoo5p6pbHNp6CsZaGqrqqw0mapnqSRqbawutKhoKllkqe8b7TTpqM%3D

Arica Deslauriers

Update: 2024-05-21