The Lives and Times of THE Randy Quaid

2006: Actor Randy Quaid filed a lawsuit against Focus Features, the producers of “Brokeback Mountain,” alleging he was duped into appearing in the movie at a reduced rate. Quaid had a supporting role in the film, playing the Wyoming rancher who hired Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) to herd sheep. According to the lawsuit, Quaid says he “donated” his time after moviemakers allegedly told him he was making “a low-budget, art-house film with no prospect of making any money.” Brokeback reportedly grossed more than $80 million in the U.S. Quaid sought at least $10 million in damages on claims that include intentional and negligent misrepresentation.

2008: Randy Quaid has been banned for life by Actors' Equity Assn., the labor union representing American stage actors, and fined more than $81,000 for his alleged actions during the Seattle production of the musical "Lone Star Love," which was scheduled to come to Broadway until producers canceled it. All 26 members of the cast brought charges against Quaid maintaining that he "physically and verbally abused his fellow performers and that his oddball behavior forced the show to close." In the country musical based on Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor," Quaid played Falstaff, Shakespeare's famed lout of Bacchanalian appetites. In response to the charges, the actor said, "I am guilty of only one thing: giving a performance that elicited a response so deeply felt by the actors and producers with little experience of my creative process that they actually think I am Falstaff." His lawyer, Mark Bock, said: "The Quaids have been told by one of the actors that this has all been driven by the producers who did not want to give Randy his contractual rights to creative approval ... or financial participation. ... The charges are completely false." Sometime after the cancellation of the show, charges were filed by the cast members against Quaid. On January 25, Quaid's wife, Evi, appeared at Equity's offices in Los Angeles and demanded documents for the hearing. There was a physical altercation, which resulted in four Equity staffers getting temporary restraining orders against Evi Quaid, and Evi Quaid obtaining a restraining order against Equity, according to documents filed by the parties in California Superior Court.

WP: Wait...we are talking about the same Randy Quaid, right? The fat, ugly one? Should someone remind him that he's NOT Dennis Quaid?