Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings.

Definitions[link]

According to Collins Dictionary, this is "... usually considered to occur approximately between the ages of 40 and 60". The current edition of the Oxford English Dictionary gives a similar definition but with a shorter span: "The period of life between young adulthood and old age, now usually regarded as between about forty-five and sixty." The US Census lists middle age as including both the age categories 35 to 44 and 45 to 54, while prominent psychologist, Erik Erikson, sees it ending a little later and defines middle adulthood as between 40 and 65.

Health[link]

Middle-aged adults often show visible signs of aging such as loss of skin elasticity and graying of the hair. Physical fitness usually wanes, with a 5–10 kg (10-20 lb) accumulation of body fat, reduction in aerobic performance and a decrease in maximal heart rate. Strength and flexibility also decrease throughout middle age. However, people age at different rates and there can be significant differences between individuals of the same age.^[1]

Both male and female fertility declines with advancing age.^[2][3] Advanced maternal age increases the risk of a child being born with some disorders such as Down syndrome. Advanced paternal age sharply increases the risk of miscarriage, as well as Down syndrome, schizophrenia, autism, decreased intellectual capacity, and bipolar disorder.^[4][5][6][7] Most women will experience menopause, which ends natural fertility, in their late 40s or early 50s.^[8][9]

In developed countries, yearly mortality begins to increase more noticeably from age 40 onwards, mainly due to age-related health problems such as heart disease and cancer.^[10][11] However, the majority of middle-age people in industrialized nations can expect to live into old age. Life expectancy in developing countries is much lower and the risk of death at all ages is higher.^[10]

However, well-being involves more than merely physical factors, and middle age is not experienced as a 'time of decline' for healthy people. Middle-aged people benefit from greater life experience than they had when young, which contributes to happiness and makes emotional responses to stress less volatile.

Further information[link]

• Does Age Quash Our Spirit of Adventure?, a segment on NPR's "All Things Considered" on an aging study done by middle-age neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky
• Ali Khan, Living Fully at Forty and Beyond

See also[link]

• Youth
• Young adult (psychology)
• Old age
• Aging
• Midlife crisis

References[link]

• Collins Concise Dictionary 4th edition 1999 Collins (an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers) Glasgow ISBN 0-00-472257-4
• AskOxford: middle age

1. ^ Shephard, Roy J. (7 March 1998). "Aging and Exercise". Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine and Science (T.D.Fahey). http://www.sportsci.org/encyc/agingex/agingex.html. Retrieved 2007-06-26. 
2. ^ Rabin, Roni (2007-02-27). "It Seems the Fertility Clock Ticks for Men, Too". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E4DC1E3EF934A15751C0A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2009-10-16. 
3. ^ Fertility Treatment Less Successful After 35: In Vitro Fertilization Doesn't Compensate for Decreased Fertility With Age
4. ^ Heubeck, MA, Elizabeth; Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD (2005-06-29). "Age Raises Infertility Risk in Men, Too: Risks associated with men's biological clocks may be similar to women's.". WebMD. MedicineNet. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=47778. Retrieved 2009-10-16. 
5. ^ "Miscarriage significantly associated with increasing paternal age". Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. 2006-08-03. http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/news/0608/15.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-16. 
6. ^ Raeburn, Paul (February/March 2009). "The Father Factor: Could becoming a father after age 40 raise the risks that your children will have a mental illness? (PDF)". Scientific American Mind: 30–33. http://www.hartnell.cc.ca.us/faculty/ymatsush/Psy15/scan%20Father%20factor.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-16. 
7. ^ Cannon, Mary (2009-03-10). "Contrasting Effects of Maternal and Paternal Age on Offspring Intelligence". Public Library of Science. http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000042. Retrieved 2009-10-16. 
8. ^ BBC - Health: Menopause
9. ^ Cannon, Mary (2003-06-26). "Male Biological Clock is Ticking, Too". WebMD Health News. http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/news/20030626/male-biological-clock-ticking-too. Retrieved 2009-10-16. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Life Expectancy Profiles". BBC. 6 June 2005. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3784854. Retrieved 2007-06-26. 
11. ^ "UK cancer mortality statistics by age". Cancer Research UK. May 2007. http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/mortality/age/. Retrieved 2007-06-26. 

External links[link]

• The Third Age
• LifeTwo

Terry Jones
Terry Jones, 5 May 2007
Born	(1942-02-01) 1 February 1942 (age 70) Colwyn Bay, North Wales, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actor, comedian, film director, presenter, poet, writer, historian
Known for	Monty Python
Spouse	Alison Telfer
Website
terry-jones.net

Terence Graham Parry Jones (born 1 February 1942) is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, author, political commentator, and TV host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team.

Early life[link]

Jones was born in Colwyn Bay, Wales. The family home was named "Bodchwil". His father was stationed with the RAF in India. When Jones was four-and-a-half, the family moved to Surrey.^[1]

Jones was educated at the Royal Grammar School^[2] in Guildford, where he was head boy in the 1960-61 academic year. He read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, but "strayed into history".^[3] He graduated with a 2:1.^[4] While there, he performed comedy with future Monty Python castmate Michael Palin in The Oxford Revue.

Career history[link]

Before Python[link]

Jones appeared in Twice a Fortnight with Palin, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn, as well as the television series The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969). He appeared in Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–69) with Palin, Eric Idle and David Jason. He wrote for The Frost Report and several other David Frost programmes on British television. Along with Palin, he wrote lyrics for the 1968 Barry Booth album "Diversions".

Early on, Jones was interested in devising a fresh format for the Python TV shows, and it was largely he who developed the stream-of-consciousness style which abandoned punchlines and encouraged the fluid movement of one sketch into another, allowing the troupe's conceptual humour the space to “breathe”. Jones took a keen interest in the direction of the show. As demonstrated in many of his sketches with Palin, Jones was interested in making comedy that was visually impressive, feeling that interesting settings augmented, rather than detracted from, the humour. His methods encouraged many future television comedians to break away from conventional studio-bound shooting styles, as demonstrated by shows such as Green Wing, Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen.

Of Jones' contributions as a performer, his depictions of middle-aged women are among the most memorable. His humour, in collaboration with Palin, tends to be conceptual in nature. A typical Palin/Jones sketch draws its humour from the absurdity of the scenario. For example, in the “Summarise Proust Competition”, Jones plays a cheesy game show host who gives contestants 15 seconds to condense Marcel Proust's lengthy work À la recherche du temps perdu. Jones was also noted for his gifts as a Chaplinesque physical comedian. His performance in the "Undressing in Public" sketch, for instance, is done is total silence.

Directorial work[link]

Jones co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Terry Gilliam, and was sole director on two further Monty Python movies, Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. As a film director, Jones finally gained fuller control of the projects and devised a visual style that complemented the humour. His later films include Erik the Viking (1989) and The Wind in the Willows (1996). In 2008, Jones wrote and directed an opera titled Evil Machines.^[5] In 2011, he was commissioned to direct and write the libretto for another opera, entitled The Doctor's Tale.^[6]

On the commentary track of the 2004 "2 Disc Special Edition" DVD for the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Terry Jones stated that to his knowledge Ireland had banned only four movies, three of which he had directed: The Meaning of Life, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Personal Services.

Animation[link]

He was the creator and co-producer of the animated television program Blazing Dragons, which ran for two seasons.^{[citation needed]} Set in a fantasy medieval setting, the series' protagonists are dragons who are beset by evil humans, reversing a common story convention. When the series was broadcast on US television, several episodes were censored due to minor cursing and the implied sexuality of an overtly effeminate character named "Sir Blaze".^{[citation needed]} It was turned into a game for the Sega Saturn in 1994, which starred Jones's voice.^{[citation needed]}

As an author[link]

He co-wrote Ripping Yarns with Palin, and wrote the screenplay for Labyrinth (1986), although his draft went through several rewrites and several other writers before being filmed; much of the finished film wasn't written by Jones at all. He has also written numerous works for children, including Fantastic Stories, The Beast with a Thousand Teeth, and a collection of Comic Verse called The Curse of the Vampire's Socks.

He has written books and presented television documentaries on medieval and ancient history and the history of numeral systems. His series often challenge popular views of history: for example, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004) (for which he received a 2004 Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming") argues that the Middle Ages was a more sophisticated period than is popularly thought, and Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006) presents the cultural achievements of peoples conquered by the Roman Empire in a more positive light than Roman historians typically have, while criticizing the Romans as the true "barbarians" who exploited and destroyed higher civilizations.

He has written numerous editorials for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Observer condemning the Iraq war. Many of these editorials were published in a paperback collection titled Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror.

Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary (1980) offers an alternative take on the historical view of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Knight's Tale as being a paragon of Christian virtue. Jones asserts that, after closer examination of historical rather than literary context, the Knight is actually a typical mercenary and a potentially cold-blooded killer.

His most recent book, "Evil Machines", was launched by the online publishing house Unbound at the Adam Street Club in London on 4 November 2011. Evil Machines is the world's first book to be published by a crowd funding website dedicated solely to books. Jones provided significant support to Unbound as they developed their publishing concept.

He is also a member of the UK Poetry Society and his poems have appeared in Poetry Review.

Working with musicians[link]

Jones has performed with The Carnival Band and appears on their 2007 CD Ringing the changes (Park Records PRKCD98).

In January 2008, the Teatro São Luiz, in Lisbon, Portugal, premiered Evil Machines – a musical play, written by Jones (based on his book) and with original music by Portuguese composer Luis Tinoco. Jones was invited by the Teatro São Luiz to write and direct the play, after a very successful run of Contos Fantásticos, a short play based on Jones' Fantastic Stories, also with music by Luis Tinoco.

In January 2012, it was announced that Jones is working with songwriter/producer Jim Steinman on a heavy metal version of "The Nutcracker."^[7]

As performer[link]

Apart from a cameo in Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky and a memorable minor role as a drunken vicar in BBC sitcom The Young Ones, Jones has rarely appeared in work outside of his own projects. Since January 2009, however, he has provided narration for The Legend of Dick and Dom, a CBBC fantasy series set in the Middle Ages.

In 2009 Jones took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history.

Personal life[link]

Jones married Alison Telfer in 1970, and they have two children together, Sally (born in 1974), and Bill (born in 1976). The marriage broke down after he admitted to falling in love with 26-year-old student Anna Söderström.

On 21 October 2006, it was reported in The Daily Mirror that Jones had been diagnosed with bowel cancer.^[8] Another article dated three days later, also by The Mirror, indicated that the exploratory surgery performed on Jones had good results.^[9] It was reported in the British media on 27 April 2009 that Jones was due to become a father for the third time in the autumn of 2009, by way of Söderström. But he remained married to Telfer.^[10] Jones's daughter Siri was born in early September 2009.^[11]

Selected bibliography[link]

Fiction[link]

• Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic (1997), ISBN 0-330-35446-9 – a novel based on the computer game of the same name by Douglas Adams. (Jones claims to have written the entire book while in the nude.)
• Evil Machines (2011), ISBN 978-1-908717-01-6

Illustrated by Michael Foreman

• Fairy Tales (1981), ISBN 0-907516-03-3
• The Saga of Erik the Viking (1983), ISBN 0-907516-23-8 – Children's Book Award 1984
• Nicobobinus (1985), ISBN 1-85145-000-9
• The Curse of the Vampire's Socks and Other Doggerel (1988), ISBN 1-85145-233-8 – poetry
• Fantastic Stories (1992), ISBN 1-85145-957-X
• The Beast with a Thousand Teeth (1993), ISBN 1-85793-070-3
• A Fish of the World (1993), ISBN 1-85793-075-4
• The Sea Tiger (1994), ISBN 1-85793-085-1
• The Fly-by-Night (1994), ISBN 1-85793-090-8
• The Knight and the Squire (1997), ISBN 1-86205-044-9
• The Lady and the Squire (2000), ISBN 1-86205-417-7 – nominated for a Whitbread Award
• Bedtime Stories (2002), ISBN 1-86205-276-X – with Nanette Newman

Illustrated by Brian Froud

• Goblins of the Labyrinth (1986), ISBN 1-85145-058-0
  • The Goblin Companion: A Field Guide to Goblins (1996), ISBN 1-85793-795-3 – an abridged re-release, in a smaller format, with the colour plates missing
• Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (1994), ISBN 1-85793-336-2
• Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells: Quentin Cottington's Journal of Faery Research (1996), ISBN 0-684-83206-2
• Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Journal (1998), ISBN 1-86205-024-4
• Lady Cottington's Fairy Album (2002), ISBN 1-86205-559-9

Illustrated by Martin Honeysett and Lolly Honeysett

• Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls with Michael Palin (1974) ISBN 0-413-32740-X

Non-fiction[link]

• Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary (1980), ISBN 0-297-77566-9; rev. ed. (1994), ISBN 0-413-69140-3
• Who Murdered Chaucer?: A Medieval Mystery (2003), ISBN 0-413-75910-5 – with Robert Yeager, Terry Dolan, Alan Fletcher and Juliette Dor
• Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror (2005), ISBN 1-56025-653-2

With Alan Ereira

• Crusades (1994), ISBN 0-563-37007-6
• Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004), ISBN 0-563-48793-3
• Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006), ISBN 0-563-49318-6

Screenplays[link]

• And Now for Something Completely Different (1972) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
• Secrets (1973) – for TV, with Michael Palin
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
• Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
• Labyrinth (1986)
• Erik the Viking (1989) – includes a notice in the credits specifically disclaiming any link with Jones's earlier novel ("although he hopes it will help the sales")
• The Wind in the Willows (1996)

Documentary series[link]

• Crusades (1995)
• Ancient Inventions – directed by Phil Grabsky and Daniel Percival (1998)
• The Surprising History of Egypt (USA, 2002) a.k.a. The Hidden History of Egypt (UK, 2003) – directed by Phil Grabsky
• The Surprising History of Rome (USA, 2002) a.k.a. The Hidden History of Rome (UK, 2003) – directed by Phil Grabsky
• The Surprising History of Sex and Love (2002) – directed by Alan Ereira and Phil Grabsky
• Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004)
• The Story of 1 (2005)
• Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006)
• Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery (2008)

Political articles[link]

Jones has published a number of articles on political and social commentary, principally in newspapers The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Observer. Many of these articles criticized the war on terror, belittling it as "declaring war on an abstract noun" and comparing it to attempting to "annihilate mockery".^[12]

Collaborations[link]

	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	Monty Python's Life of Brian	Monty Python's The Meaning of Life	Erik the Viking	The Wind in the Willows
Graham Chapman	Y	Y	Y
John Cleese	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Carol Cleveland	Y	Y	Y
Terry Gilliam	Y	Y	Y
Eric Idle	Y	Y	Y		Y
Neil Innes	Y	Y
Terry Jones	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Charles McKeown		Y		Y
Michael Palin	Y	Y	Y		Y
John Young	Y	Y

Jones and Gavin Scott have been working for years on a script for a "sci-fi farce combining CGI and live action" tentatively called Absolutely Anything;^[13] the film is expected to begin principal photography in spring 2012,^[13] with Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, and Michael Palin agreeing to "provide voices for a group of aliens".^[14]

Miscellany[link]

• An asteroid, 9622 Terryjones, is named in his honour. When asked during a webchat if this were the greatest honour he has received, Jones replied, "I didn't realise it was an honour to have a barren lump of rock named after one."^{[citation needed]}

Further reading[link]

• Wilmut, Roger (1980). From Fringe to Flying Circus: Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy, 1960–1980. London: Eyre Methuen. ISBN 0-413-46950-6. 

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Terry Jones

• Terry Jones on twitter
• Terry Jones at the Internet Movie Database
• Terry Jones at the BBC Guide to Comedy
• Terry Jones at the Comedy Zone
• MP3 audio interview with Jones from The Sound of Young America public radio program and podcast
• Interview with Terry Jones by Jeff Fleischer in Mother Jones. He talks about his politics columns.
• Text interview with Jones from Wisconsin Public Television. Jones talks about Monty Python's legacy and his more current work.

Dennis Quaid
Quaid in 1991
Born	Dennis William Quaid (1954-04-09) April 9, 1954 (age 58) Houston, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1975–present
Spouse	P. J. Soles (1978–1983) Meg Ryan (1991–2001) Kimberly Buffington (2004–present)
Children	Jack Henry Quaid Thomas Boone Quaid Zoe Grace Quaid
Relatives	Randy Quaid (brother)

Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder. Some of his notable credits include Jaws 3-D, The Right Stuff, Enemy Mine, Great Balls of Fire!, The Big Easy, Far from Heaven, The Rookie, The Day After Tomorrow, Vantage Point, Footloose, The Parent Trap, Soul Surfer and Innerspace.

Early life[link]

Quaid was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Juanita Bonniedale "Nita" (née Jordan), a real estate agent, and William Rudy Quaid (November 21, 1923 – February 8, 1987), an electrician and a third cousin of performer Gene Autry.^[1] He is the younger brother of actor Randy Quaid. The Quaid brothers grew up in Bellaire, Texas, which is a small city surrounded by Houston, and in southwest Houston. Quaid has English, Irish, and Cajun (French) ancestry.^[2] He attended Paul W. Horn Elementary School in Bellaire and Pershing Middle School in Houston. He studied Mandarin and dance at Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas, and later in college, at the University of Houston, under drama coach Cecil Pickett, who had previously taught at Bellaire High and whose daughter is actress Cindy Pickett. It was during his time at Bellaire High School that he developed the nickname 'Dennis Quand', (a combination of 'Quaid' and 'Bond') in relation to his obsession with the 007 movie character and was regularly referred to by this name.

Career[link]

After his brother, Randy, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Last Detail (1973), Quaid dropped out of the University of Houston before graduating and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career of his own.^[2] He initially had trouble finding work but began to gain notice when he appeared in Breaking Away (1979) and earned good reviews for his role in The Right Stuff (1983).^[2]

Known for his grin,^[3] Quaid has appeared in both comedic and dramatic roles.^[2] Quaid had starring roles in the films Enemy Mine (1985) and Innerspace (1987). He also achieved acclaim for his portrayal of Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire! (1989).^[2] In 1989, he also appeared throughout the Bonnie Raitt music video for the song "Thing Called Love."^[4]

Quaid's career lost steam in the early 1990s, after he fought anorexia nervosa and kicked a cocaine addiction.^[2] He continued to garner positive reviews in a variety of films, however, such as Doc Holliday in Wyatt Earp (1994).^[2] Quaid was also the guest star of a season 2 episode of Muppets Tonight (1997). He starred in the remake of The Parent Trap (1998), playing the part of the twins' father, and as an aging pro football quarterback in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday (1999). Some of Quaid's more recent film credits include Frequency (2000), The Rookie (2002), Far From Heaven (2002), Cold Creek Manor (2003), The Flight of the Phoenix (2004), In Good Company (2004), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Yours, Mine and Ours (2005), Vantage Point (2008), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), and Pandorum (2009).

In 2009, Quaid guest starred in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, playing Mr. Krabs' grandfather, Captain Redbeard.

He portrayed U.S. President Bill Clinton, alongside Michael Sheen as Tony Blair and Hope Davis as Hillary Clinton, in the 2010 film The Special Relationship.

Awards[link]

For his role in Far from Heaven (2002) he won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He received nominations for Best Supporting Actor from the Golden Globe Awards, the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Personal life[link]

Quaid golfing in 2006.

Relationships and children[link]

Quaid and actress P. J. Soles were married on November 25, 1978. The couple were divorced on January 23, 1983.

On February 14, 1991, he and Meg Ryan were married. Quaid and Ryan have a son, Jack Henry (born April 24, 1992), who played Marvel in the movie The Hunger Games. They were divorced on July 16, 2001. In a 2008 interview with Insight, Ryan stated, "Dennis was not faithful to me for a very long time, and that was very painful. I found out more about that after I was divorced."^[5]

Quaid dated Shanna Moakler in 2001. They were together when she was approached by Playboy, and they discussed it before she posed nude in the magazine.^[6] The relationship lasted for eight months.^[7]

Quaid married Kimberly Buffington, an Austin, Texas real-estate agent, on July 4, 2004 at his ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana.^[8] The couple had twins, born via a gestational carrier, on November 8, 2007, in Santa Monica, California. Their son Thomas Boone was born first at 8:26 A.M. and weighed six pounds, twelve ounces (3.06 kg). Daughter Zoe Grace was born two minutes later, weighing five pounds, nine ounces (2.52 kg).^[9][10]

On November 18, 2007, hospital staff mistakenly gave Quaid's ten-day-old twins a dosage of heparin 1,000 times the common dosage for infants.^[11][12] Their attorney said the newborns will "be fine now," but Quaid filed a lawsuit against the drug manufacturer, Baxter Healthcare, claiming that packaging for the two doses of heparin are not different enough.^[13] In May 2008, the Quaids testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking U.S. Congress not to preempt the right to sue drug manufacturers for negligence under state law.^[14]

Buffington filed for divorce from Quaid in March 2012. According to the divorce petition, the marriage had "become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities."^[15] Buffington's attorney withdrew the divorce papers on April 26, 2012.^[16]

Interests[link]

Quaid was raised in the Baptist faith.^[17][18]

In addition to acting, Quaid is a musician and plays with his band, the Sharks. Quaid also has a pilot's license and is a five-handicap golfer. In 2005, he was named as the top golfer among the "Hollywood set" by Golf Digest.

After the filming of The Express: The Ernie Davis Story, Quaid went to Cleveland Browns Stadium to dedicate Davis's jersey.

Substance use[link]

There have been extensive stories about Quaid's past abuse of cocaine. In a candid 2002 interview with Larry King on his talk show, after King asked about his motives for using drugs, Quaid responded, "Well, you got to put it in context. Back in the late '60s, early '70s. That was back during the time where, you know, drugs were going to expand our minds and everybody was experimenting and everything. We were really getting high, we didn't know it. And cocaine at that time was considered harmless. You know. I remember magazine articles in 'People' Magazine of doctors saying, it is not addicting. It is just—alcohol is worse. So I think we all fell into that. But that's not the way it was."

When asked if he believed he had ever been addicted to the drug, he responded, "It was a gradual thing. But it got to the point where I couldn't have any fun unless I had it. Which is a bad place to be." Later in the interview he said, "But I saw myself being dead in about five years if I didn't stop."^[19]

In April 2011, while promoting his film, Soul Surfer, Quaid was very candid when it came to questions regarding his past drug abuse. He blamed his sudden thrust into the Hollywood scene for his trouble with cocaine. He said, "Coming from where I came from - lower-middle-class life, from Houston into Hollywood - and all of a sudden this success starts happening to you, I just didn't know how to handle that." Quaid also made bold accusations about the American film industry in the 1970s, claiming, "Cocaine was even in the budgets of movies, thinly disguised.... It was petty cash, you know? It was supplied, basically, on movie sets because everyone was doing it." On his addiction, Quaid said, "I'd wake up, snort a line, and swear I wasn't going to do it again that day ... but then four o'clock rolled around, and I'd be right back down the same road like a little squirrel on one of those treadmills."^[20]

In October 2009, Dennis Quaid narrowly avoided being arrested for DUI, when a police officer managed to persuade him to get out of his car and get a cab.^[21]

Charities[link]

Quaid lends his name to the annual "Dennis Quaid Charity Weekend" (formerly the "Jiffy Lube/Dennis Quaid Charity Classic") in Austin. The golf tournament attracts numerous celebrities with the proceeds split among local children's charities. He is a member of the Bel-Air Country Club in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California, and tries to stay at homes on private courses when he is on the road.

Quaid works with the International Hospital for Children in New Orleans, Louisiana. He makes trips to Central America to help build medical clinics and transport sick children back to the U.S. for treatment they cannot get locally.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Silver, Murray, 2005. When Elvis Meets the Dalai Lama, (Bonaventure Books, Savannah), in which the author describes Quaid's participation in the film Great Balls of Fire.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dennis Quaid

• Dennis Quaid at the Internet Movie Database
• Dennis Quaid at AllRovi
• Dennis Quaid at Emmys.com

David Paymer (born August 30, 1954) is an American actor and television director, seen in such films as Quiz Show, Searching for Bobby Fischer, City Slickers, Crazy People, State and Main, Payback, Get Shorty, Carpool, The American President, Ocean's Thirteen, and Drag Me to Hell. Paymer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1992 for Mr. Saturday Night. He played the lead role as the Boss in Bartleby, an adaptation of Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener." He played a mob boss in the short-lived series Line of Fire.

Personal life[link]

Paymer was born in Oceanside, New York, the son of Sylvia, a travel agent, and Marvin Paymer, a pianist and musical director^[1] who originally worked in the scrap metal business. The two divorced in 1973.^[2] Paymer is Jewish; his mother was born in Belgium and left for the United States because of the Nazi occupation.^[3] Paymer has a brother, Steve, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in theater and psychology. Paymer is married to Liz Georges, with whom he has two children.

Career[link]