“The Mighty Quinn” is a 1989 American mystery/comedy starring Denzel Washington in the title role as Xavier Quinn, a police chief who tries to help a childhood friend after he becomes a murder suspect. The film takes its name from the Bob Dylan song of the same name.

If a film is ever made of the lives of John Rudolph Quinn, 69, and Katie Quinn, 59, longtime Roxborough residents who have been married for 29 years, it could certainly be called “The Mighty Quinns.” They are authors, opera singers, artist models, hospital “patients,” songwriters and playwrights. I have seen them perform with the Amici Opera Company and Delaware Valley Opera Company (DVOC), and their vocal power is thrilling.

“In addition to being fine singers and actors, they are very reliable and a pleasure to work with,” Amici Opera Company founder Ralph Tudisco, said in an earlier interview. Amici Opera Company is a nonprofit ensemble that performs throughout the region.

Katie Quinn wrote a science fiction opera, “Klorkhana: The Tyrant,” that was a hit when it was performed twice in the annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival last September. Another play by her, “Sephro: The Abduction,” will have a staged reading Sunday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m., at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. It is a science-fiction fantasy drama about courage, trauma, family and survival, 300 years in the future.

Quinn, a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for the Creative & Performing Arts, sang before she could talk, singing “Scarborough Fair” at age 2. She studied at the University of the Arts but left to form a rock band. She wrote songs, recorded a demo tape and developed a following when she did open mic performances at the now-defunct J.C. Dobbs at 3rd and South streets.

Katie Quinn has sung all types of music, from folk to opera, classical and even some jazz. She has sung many notable operatic roles, including Mimi in “La Boheme” by Puccini and Leonora in “Il Trovatore” by Verdi. She has sung spirituals from “Amazing Grace” to “Ave Maria” along with her own compositions of spirituals and songs, and she has been a voice teacher.

John Quinn studied music and theater at schools including Bucks County Community College. He has sung for 35 years for companies such as the Center Stage Opera Company in Harrisburg, Atlantic City Opera Theater and BucksMont Opera Company.

And he has written a novel, “Forgotten Legacy: Posthumous Reflections of John Augustus Stone.” Stone (1801-1834) was an actor who wrote 12 plays, including “Metamora” about the mistreatment of Native Americans but later drowned himself in the Schuylkill River. “Metamora” was last performed in Philadelphia in the 1880s. John Quinn’s novel is part biography, part historical fiction and part ghost story.

“I came upon Stone by accident,” he said, “in an Encyclopedia of the Theater. His story really grabbed me. He was very successful in his time, but he made very little money. His play made “Metamora” a symbol of heroic Native American resistance against colonial expansion. It became so popular that it inspired the name of several towns, townships and geographic sites across the United States.”

For more than 25 years, John Quinn’s main day job was to pose for students at local art schools — Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), Tyler (Temple University), the University of the Arts, Allens Lane Art Center, Fleisher Art Memorial and Main Line Art Center.

“You hold a pose stationary for 20 minutes,” he explained. “Then you take a break for five minutes and then pose again for 20 minutes.”

Katie Quinn did artist modeling at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and PAFA. She also was a “standardized patient” from 1999 to 2015, and John did it from 2003 to 2009 at Temple Medical School. Standardized patients are like actors who work with medical students, telling them they have certain symptoms so the students can diagnose their supposed ailments.

John Quinn has also done pet sitting and house cleaning. Katie Quinn has done singing telegrams, and getting dressed up as “Barney” in a purple costume, as well as the Cookie Monster and a clown.

She also has blogged about social issues like domestic abuse and the “Me Too” movement. She has her own YouTube channel (“Hazel Kate Quinn”) with videos about mental health, domestic violence and social commentary.

The couple also made a film, “Sammy Blood Moon,” a paranormal romance that was seen virtually in the Unnamed Film Festival in 2020 and is currently available on the My Utah Channel. Katie Quinn, using the pen name Deuana Kerridwen has also written sci-fi novels taken from Celtic myth, which are available on amazon.com.

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.