with his rugged facial features and gravelly voice, quinn was elmo, a cook in the 1985 movie "vision quest" with matthew modine. the downtrodden elmo gives his "that six minutes" speech (about the meaning all events have in the grand scheme of life), which inspires modine's character, louden swain, to pursue his vision quest. quinn's television credits include appearances on "cagney and lacey", "miami vice", "quantum leap", "dawson's creek", and "cheers".