ST. ALBANS, Vt. — Actor Randy Quaid and his wife were ordered held on $500,000 bail each in Vermont on Monday on charges that they skipped out of the country five years ago after being charged with vandalism in California.

The Quaids were detained at the Canadian border Friday night while trying to re-enter the United States after Canadian officials granted Evi Quaid citizenship but denied Randy Quaid permanent residence and said he would be deported.

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi Quaid, are being detained in Vermont after trying to slip across the border into the United States on Friday night. The Associated Press

They’re wanted in Santa Barbara, California, to face felony charges filed in 2010 after they were found in a guesthouse of a home they previously owned.

Court papers said the Quaids damaged or destroyed furniture, a fireplace and a mirror in the guesthouse. They’re charged with occupying the property illegally and failure to appear for court dates. Evi Quaid also is charged with impeding Santa Barbara sheriff’s deputies.

The Quaids had separate court appearances Monday – she in Burlington, near the state women’s prison where she is being held, and he 28 miles north in St. Albans, near the men’s prison where he is locked up.

In St. Albans, the “Independence Day” actor argued unsuccessfully for lower bail, saying his legal problems were the fault of a bail bondsman who failed to notify him of a scheduled court appearance. “We heard about it through the Internet that we had missed this court appearance that we didn’t know anything about,” Quaid told Judge Alison Arms of the criminal division of Franklin Superior Court.

Randy Quaid won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson in “LBJ: The Early Years,” but he’s perhaps best known for his roles in the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” movies, “Independence Day” and “Kingpin.”

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