Gary Lockwood

Lockwood worked as a stuntman and college athlete before transitioning into acting in the late 1950s, a physical background that gave him an unusual natural aptitude for the demanding zero-gravity sequences Kubrick's production required.

He played Frank Poole, whose death in the icy silence of open space remains one of the most quietly terrifying sequences ever filmed — no music, almost no sound at all. He brought a genuine physicality to the film's meticulously choreographed zero-gravity sequences.

He also starred in the original pilot for Star Trek around the same period, giving him ties to two of the era's most influential science fiction productions within just a few years of each other.