- Christopher Guest, The Fortune, 1975. Jack Nicholson found a role for his Last Detail co-star – but he quit. Wisely. After their greatest personal successes, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Shampoo, Nicholson and pal Warren Beatty looked like Larry Fine and Howard Hughes in their biggest floparama (Beatty – no comic he – equalled it with the similarly disastrous Ishtar, 1987).
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Terminator, 1983. In all, 55 actresses were considered, seen, or tested for the robot assassin’s target, Sarah Connor – but a mere eight guys for the killer from the future, itself. Quaid ,Michael Douglas, Mel Gibson, Kevin Kline, Jürgen Prochnow, Tom Selleck,… It was when Orion boss Mike Medavoy decided on OJ Simpson as the Terminator(!) and Arnie as Reese, that Cameron realised Schwarzi was the perfect, coolest Terminator in town.
- Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man, 1988. The scenario had been penned for and aimed at les freres Quaid. It made sense. The fast-talkin’ Dennis being forced to help an autistic Randy. Such casting smacks more of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to me.
- Beau Bridges, The Fabulous Baker Boys, 1989. First idea was to turn Chevy Chase and Murray into the musical brothers vying for a superb singer Michelle Pfeiffer Making Whoopee on their piano. Texas auteur Steve Kloves then thought of real brothers. Dennis and Randy Quaid passed and the Bridges boys jumped at the rare chance of working together.
- Tom Waits, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, 1992. MGM snapped up Peter Matthiessen’s novel when still in galley form. John Huston and Milos Forman wanted to direct; David Lean and Arthur Penn did not. The Washington Post critic Desson Howe called it three hours of artistic zilch. Ed Harris and Randy Quaid were lucky to escape being crackpot missionaries losing their minds.” Randy’s bro, Dennis, had been in the mix for the sky jockey hero Lewis Mooon, once aimed at Marlon Brando or Newman.
- Ed O’Neill, Little Giants, 1994. Busey and Randy Quaid became O’Neill and Rick Moranis as brothers running rival football teams in the tiny township of Urbania, Ohio.
- Eric Roberts, Doctor Who (The Movie), TV, 1996.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7