Author: Ale Russian / Source: PEOPLE.com
Dennis Quaid has lived a colorful life.
Since his breakthrough role in the 1979 cycling film Breaking Away, Quaid, 63, has worked steadily in Hollywood, starring in movies such as Innerspace (1987) Great Balls of Fire! (1989) and The Parent Trap (1998). But the actor has also faced his fair share of adversity and has publicly struggled through divorces and drug addictions.
Read on for the highs and lows of Quaid’s public and private life.
Cocaine addiction and rehab
The actor has been open about his struggle with cocaine addiction in the past and recently opened up with Megyn Kelly TODAY about how bad his problem was before he sought help. The star said that he grew up in the ’60s and ’70s when “there was a completely different attitude” and cocaine use was allegedly the norm.
“I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the ’80s,” he admitted. “I spent many, many a night screaming at God to ‘Please take this away from me and I’ll never do it again, cause I’ve only got an hour before I have to be at work.’ Then at 4 o’clock in the afternoon I’d go, ‘Oh it’s not so bad.’ ”
The actor said he decided to get help when he had a vision of what his life would look like if he continued.
“I had what I call a white light experience where I saw myself either dead or losing everything that meant anything to me,” he said.
Quaid went to rehab in 1990 while engaged to Meg Ryan.
His split from Meg Ryan
Quaid and Ryan fell in love while filming the 1988 movie D.O.A., five years after the actor divorced his first wife, actress P.J. Soles. Though they had starred together in 1987’s Innerspace, they didn’t start dating until D.O.A. and married in 1991. They separated in June 2000 after welcoming son Jack Quaid in 1992.
Even though their marriage ended almost two decades ago, Quaid recently said Ryan, now 56, was “the most successful relationship of my life.”
“When we met I was the big deal,” Quaid continued, adding that his career later stalled while hers skyrocketed in the ’90s. “We’d go out on the…
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