In Science Fiction, outside of the ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Alien’ franchises, probably the most books on a film belongs to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. As I reviewed Dan Richter’s book ‘Moonwatcher’s Memoir: A Diary Of 2001: A Space Odyssey’ a couple years back and still looking around for anything I missed, I came across this one, ‘2001 Memories: An Actor’s Odyssey’ by Gary Lockwood, released in 2001. An anniversary connection. It looks like it was transcribed by R.A. Jones. Quite who I should blame for the odd spelling mistake is on the centrifuge, but they were easy to spot.
Fellow actor Keir Dullea gives the introduction and notes that he and Lockwood are far apart in many respects but got on fine during filming and when they met many years later at their first convention together. Before you ask, I did check and Dullea hasn’t done a book. Considering he was probably the cast member there the longest, that’s a shame. Lockwood was only there 10 months.
What we have here is Lockwood going over his career and interjecting him meeting Stanley Kubrick in New York, before coming to the UK for a year for filming. He had high regard for Kubrick and would have been in any film he was offered by him. It just so happened he was in ‘2001’.
Reading his time in school, where even Lockwood admits to being rash and reckless, he was also precocious and asking questions a lot. That I do recognise as something akin to me, only I didn’t curb my curiosity.
Lockwood admits to not collecting anything, although he does admit to having a 2001 poster. Judging by his recall of events and people, I suspect he collects memories, even if he couldn’t remember Richter’s name but it looks like he never met him which is likely way his way remember people. Certainly, looking over his early life, he certainly collected a lot of skills and read a lot of books.
Something that doesn’t come out in the other books is how much he and Dullea contributed to the script and how much Kubrick was prepared to let them go over night and come up with something better, as witnessed by the pod scene, although neither actor came up with how HAL would know they were planning to disconnect him. He thinks it was Victor Lyndon. Looking him up, he was one of Kubrick’s production managers. As I said, Lockwood remembers who he’s met. There we have a long list and a lot of people, including that Presley chap that he passes details on.
For the ‘Star Trek’ folk amongst you, he does include a lot of detail about his time on the second pilot episode, even if he didn’t follow the series at the time. There’s more than enough to read here about his life without me going too spoiler.
His take on life is interesting as an analysis of an American who had gambled and even taken drugs and survived, mostly because he didn’t get addicted. He was 63 when he did this book and now 85 and still going which shows his own longevity.
I’m not a regular reader of autobiographies, but this is readable and made me interested in seeing Lockwood in a couple of his westerns to see him playing the heavy. The fact that he acted in the most significant Science Fiction films and the second pilot for the original ‘Star Trek’ puts him in a unique position. This book takes a bit of finding but does turn up from time to time at a reasonable price if you want to seek a copy out.
GF Willmetts
September 2026
(pub: Cowboy Press, 2001. 208 page illustrated medium softcover. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-9307094-0)
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