Catching Up with Sally Kellerman & Gary Lockwood

Sally Kellerman is an Oscar-nominated actress best known for her performance as Hot Lips Houlihan in the Robert Altman film classic M*A*S*H, while Gary Lockwood earned some major legend cred himself as Dr. Frank Poole in Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey. Before either M*A*S*H or 2001: A Space Odyssey, however, Kellerman and Lockwood joined forces to create a bit of Star Trek history, though – truth be told -- neither thought particularly much of it at the time. It was 1968, and the two guest-starred together – he as Kirk’s pal, Commander Gary Mitchell, and she as a psychologist, Dr. Elizabeth Dehner – in the TOS episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” The episode was the second TOS pilot shot, but didn’t air first; it premiered on September 22, 1966, following “The Man Trap” and “Charlie X.” StarTrek.com recently sat down with Kellerman and Lockwood for a rare joint interview – at their booth in the dealers’ room at Creation Entertainment’s 2010 Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas -- during which they recounted making “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and updated us on what they’re doing now.

Back when you shot “Where No Man Has Gone Before” it was really just another job, right?

Lockwood:  Yeah, absolutely.

Kellerman:  Completely. We had no idea we’d be talking about it 44 years later, but it’s really great. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving. We really had nothing to do with it. We just happened to be in the episode.

Lockwood: It’s like the fairy tale I remember from when I was a kid, the one about the pitcher of milk that never runs out.

Kellerman: The what? I don’t remember that.

Lockwood: Well, you’re from Arkansas. They don’t have stories like that down there.

Kellerman: I’m not from Arkansas. I’m from L.A.!

Lockwood: Close enough. I know she’s from L.A. I just do that to have fun with her.

When was the last time you actually saw the episode?

Lockwood: I only saw it once, many years ago. We did see some clips that they showed before our appearance on stage. In the words of some Yankees catcher, it was déjà vu all over again.

Kellerman: That was the first time I’d seen it. Gary was really cute. I don’t think I’d appreciated that enough at the time.

Lockwood: I’ve had four wives; come on.

You could have been one of Gary’s wives…

Kellerman: No, no. We actually hardly spoke, though we ended up doing three jobs together over the years.

Lockwood: What did we do when?

Kellerman: We did one before Star Trek and another after Star Trek.

Lockwood: The one we did that was really kind of good was the jazz one…

Kellerman: We did an episode of The Kraft Suspense Theatre (entitled “Connery’s Hands,” which aired in 1965).

Lockwood: It was the last episode of The Kraft Suspense Theatre ever made, and it was good. We were good, too.

Let’s go back to “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” When the fans ask you about the episode, what do they want to know?

Lockwood: They ask “Did the eyes hurt?”

Did they?

Lockwood: Yes.

Sally, you’ve been posing for photos here holding the actual phaser rifle from the episode. How did you wind up in possession of that?

Lockwood: The prop man gave it to her.

Kellerman: That’s true.

So, catch us up. What are you both working on these days? Ladies first…

Kellerman: I just finished a film called Night Club. I play an Alzheimer’s patient. I’ve also been on the road singing. I have a new CD called “Sally.” All during my film career my passion for music wouldn’t die. I’ve recorded whenever I could and have turned down movies to put together a band and tour. I’m very proud of “Sally” and feel like I’ve finally come into my own in terms of the freedom and the fun that I have in singing. SallyKellerman.com; please, spread the word. The response to the CD has been wonderful, and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to act again, but then the offer for Night Club came in and I had to do it. I was scared. I did all this research about Alzheimer’s and I thought, “Why did I say yes? I haven’t been acting. How am I going to do this?” But I did it and it reinvigorated my interest in acting.

Lockwood: I live in Canada in the summer and Malibu in the winter. I don’t work. I retired 18 years ago. I’ve been remodeling my two houses, and that’s going on 10 years. I travel around the world. I do a lot of conventions. There were probably 200 people on Star Trek because of all the shows and films, but there were really only two of us – myself and Keir Dullea -- in 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I’m asked to do a lot of 2001 or sci-fi shows, as well as some Star Trek shows. I’ve been all over the country and, in the past few years, to Australia and Japan. So I’m happy being retired and just getting out there once in a while for these kinds of shows.