by Bryant Manning, Special to The Chicago Sun-Times , Chicago Sun Times

Where: Music Box Theatre,

3733 N. Southport

Tickets: $20 in advance; $24 at the door; "2001" on Sunday, $12 advance; $15 at the door

Info: (773) 871-6607 or online at

www.ticketweb.com

Whether it's his sober portrayal of Dr. Frank Poole in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" or his deadpan depiction of Lt. Gary Mitchell in the original "Star Trek" pilot, the hilariously feisty Gary Lockwood betrays his two famous expressionless on-screen icons. As a well-read "cowboy-jock," the 72-year-old cult figure loves retirement and scribbling the occasional autograph. He will entertain swooning "Odyssites" (which, he claims, are way cooler than "Trekkies") for the 3rd Annual Sci-Fi Spectacular this weekend at the Music Box.

So let's blast off:

Q. That's a much better phone connection, and your voice is fuller.

A. That's because I'm doing my movie-star voice for you.

Q. Are you at home in Malibu?

A. As they say in "Pulp Fiction," "Correcto-mundo."

Q. Tell us about your role at the Sci-Fi Spectacular this weekend.

A. [Festival organizer] Rusty Nails and I made a deal, but I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. I do this around the world because "2001" is sort of an iconic movie.

Q. So I hear. Do you like doing

these things without your co-star,

Keir Dullea?

A. Doesn't matter to me. He's a good pal of mine. The only thing I don't like doing is flying. I hate waiting in the goddamn airport. I enjoy the money, since I'm retired, but I hate flying. I get frightened in the airplane, but I've learned to grin and bear it. When there's turbulence, everyone tells me to read. I'm like, "read?" How can you read when you're uptight? Look at John Madden, he's the same way.

Q. Speaking of football, you played for UCLA.

A. I came in as a quarterback but didn't stay one. In those days, UCLA had been beaten in the Rose Bowl by a lightweight MSU team. So they started recruiting QBs and halfbacks and converting them into all sorts of positions. I played with Ronnie Knox. I've only seen two really great passers in my lifetime: Knox and Joe Namath. Knox was the best passer I've ever seen at UCLA.

Q. Ahem. Troy Aikman?

A. Troy Aikman was great, but he wasn't Knox.

Q. Gunnar Hansen of the original "Texas Chainsaw Masscre," said he fears his gravestone will read, "Here lies Gunnar Hansen, he was Leatherface." Do you fear being remembered only for your role as Frank Poole?

A. I don't even give a s---. Hey, look, son, you're talking to a cowboy jock here who happens to be literate. That kinda stuff is for you press people to invent.

Q. As his stand-in, you were a dead ringer for Anthony Perkins when you were just 20.

A. Not in the legs, dude. He was a pencil, and I was 185 pounds. Now I'm an old fat man. And I wasn't a stand-in, I was just a double. I did cowboy stunt work. People don't know the difference. Stand-in just watches a rehearsal and carries his own jock. Usually he's a real dips- ----. A stunt man is a glory guy who everybody watches. I was one of those guys.

Q. Are movie audiences any dumber today? "2001" is unusually abstract, and I wonder how it would be embraced today.

A. That's a difficult question. When my wife and I pull up to a cineplex, there's nothing for movie buffs. Two chick flicks. Two cheap horror movies. Next are two computer games ...

Q. Exactly! So much sci-fi seems like glorified video games these days.

A. That stuff really bores me. But we love seeing Indian Bollywood movies. Epics are always great. "Australia" nobody liked, but my wife and I just loved the photography. It's not a great story, but it was fun to see the various lenses used.

Q. How on earth was your dizzying first shot in "2001" filmed?

A. That was so difficult! There's a centrifuge about 65 feet high up in Manchester. It was made in two halves and had a hub that could be entered from the outside. So when I'm running and sit down and eat, Keir comes in and climbs down the hub and walks to me, I was with the camera. Watch: I'm eating, he comes in, climbs down the ladder, and the minute he climbs down and steps forward, the wheel turns. I was strapped upside down with the camera and was just instructed to act cool. That took three or four days to get correctly.

Q. You're still very proud of the film.

A. Because it's a masterpiece. Today, with all the sophisticated computer graphics, no one realizes how great the film was. If young kids today don't like it, it's because they're stupid [laughs].

Q. You wrote a book called An Actor's Odyssey.

A. It's not that good. I wrote it with another guy in a hotel for three days. I'd do it over if I could. Here's the problem with the book business: If you're an actor, they only want you to talk about all the women you conquered, and all the fights you won in bars. They don't want you to talk about anything of relevance. However, I did write this line in the book, which nicely sums up my personality: "I wasn't put on this earth to save the tiger, I came to ride the sonuvabitch."

Bryant Manning is a locally based free-lance critic and writer.

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