John Quade
About
Biography
Biography
Best known as the bumbling bad guy, Cholla, in the Clint Eastwood/orangutan action-comedy "Every Which Way But Loose," character actor John Quade worked as an aerospace engineer before breaking into television with a string of one-off roles in the late 1960s. Quade proved prolific in his new career, balancing film and TV work and appearing in 108 productions over three decades. It was in 1973, during production on Eastwood's Western thriller "High Plains Drifter," that Quade first encountered the iconic movie cowboy. Three years later, the pair reunited in the Oscar-nominated Western "The Outlaw Josey Wales," in which Quade once again had a small part. Finally in 1978, he faced off with Eastwood and Clyde the orangutan in "Every Which Way But Loose." He reprised the role two years later in the romp's sequel, "Any Which Way You Can." After this, much of the established character actor's work came in the form of television one-offs, though he did costar in the daffy family-comedy feature "And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird," which centered on brothers whose robot is haunted by the ghost of their father. After a long and colorful career, Quade hung up his spurs in 1993, retiring after appearing in one last Western, the short-lived sitcom "Lucky Luke." Quade spent his later years as an activist, speaking out about his Christian beliefs and his concerns that modern politics had strayed too far from the founding fathers' intentions. The aerospace-engineer-cum-actor-cum-activist died in 2009.