Gary Lockwood

**Gary Lockwood** (born *John Gary Yurosek* on **1937-02-21**) is an American actor whose career spans more than six decades, encompassing film, television, and even digital recreations in the 21st century. *Born in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California*, he grew up in a family of Polish descent and attended UCLA, where he lettered in football under legendary coach Red Sanders before turning his athletic discipline toward the performing arts. After brief work as a stuntman and a stand‑in for Anthony Perkins, Lockwood broke into credited roles with an uncredited bit in *Warlock* (1959) and gained early exposure on series such as *Follow the Sun* (1961‑62) and *Bus Stop* (1961). His first leading film role came in *The Magic Sword* (1962), and he quickly became a familiar face on TV, appearing in *Perry Mason*, *12 O'Clock High*, and the NBC drama *The Lieutenant* (1963‑64), a precursor to the modern sci‑fi franchise landscape.

The actor's most iconic performances arrived in the mid‑1960s when he portrayed Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell in the *Star Tre​k* pilot “*Where No Man Has Gone Before*” and astronaut Frank Poole in Stanley Kubrick’s seminal *2001: A Space Odyssey* (1968). These roles cemented his status as a cult‑science‑fiction star, a reputation he later reinforced with a lead in Jacques Demy’s *Model Shop* (1969) and numerous guest spots on series like *Hart to Hart*, *Murder, She Wrote*, and *MacGyver*. After a prolific period that yielded roughly forty theatrical features and eighty television appearances, Lockwood stepped back in 2004, only to resurface in the 2024 digital short *765874 – Unification*, which used cutting‑edge technology to resurrect his 1966 *Star Tre​k* persona. Throughout his personal life, he married actress Stefanie Powers in 1966 (divorced 1972) and later actress Denise DuBarry in 1982, with whom he shares a daughter, Samantha.*