Dennis Quaid spent the entirety of the 1980s on the cusp of movie stardom.
He popped as a cocksure Indiana yokel in Peter Yates’ 1979 underdog drama “Breaking Away,” commencing a flirtation that bopped from Mercury Seven astronaut Gordon Cooper in “The Right Stuff” to corrupt New Orleans cop Remy McSwain in “The Big Easy” to The Killer himself, Jerry Lee Lewis, in “Great Balls of Fire.” Hollywood thought it knew what to do with Dennis Quaid, but the troublemaking Texan armed with a million-dollar grin had other ideas.Quaid was cut from the same restless cloth as Jeff Bridges.
He’s a movie star with an actor’s temperament.
He could show up on set, hit his marks, flash that come-and-get-it smile and cash an eight-figure check, but in the prime of his career he sought out audience-unfriendly areas of discomfort via decidedly unheroic characters.
He’s properly pathetic as a college football
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