By TOM WEAVER

Chomping on a cigar. Leading a squad of soldiers on a daring mission. Riding the range with an outlaw gang. These are the mental pictures the average fan has of "tough guy" Gene Evans -- not the sort of actor you'd expect to find in science-fiction films of the 1950s. But on several occasions throughout his career, this "man of action" has impersonated men of science; Donning his own real-life glasses, the brawny Evans played the doctor who helped star Lew Ayres rescue Donovan's Brain from the damaged skull of a dying millionaire-despot; five years later, in 1958, he played the marine biologist leading the search for the rampaging prehistoric paleosaurus in the English-made The Giant Behemoth.

Hailing from Holbrook, Arizona, red-haired Evans worked and studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse before Uncle Sam made him a sergeant in the combat engineers during World War II (Evans won five campaign stars in battles all the way from the Normandy Invasion to Central Europe). He returned to stage work after the war, made his film debut in a Republic Western and worked plenty of odd jobs while making the rounds of Hollywood casting directors. His starring performance in Sam Fuller's The Steel Helmet (1951) won Evans lots of notice, jump-starting a film career and leading to dozens of sizable roles in Westerns, war dramas and untold numbers of TV episodes. Evans reflects here on the brain he heroically engaged during his enlistment in the creature features.

TOM WEAVER: Do you recollect how you got the co-starring part in Donovan's Brain?

GENE EVANS: They asked me to come in and talk to 'em about it. I went in and I met with Felix Feist, the director -- he knew [director] Sammy Fuller very well, and he figured if I could work with Fuller, I could work with anybody. He wanted me to play the role and I really was kind of anxious to do it; that piece has been done a number of times, but they were making a pretty fair effort. It wasn't what you would call a monster budget by any manner or means, but it also wasn't one of those real schlocky pictures that were being done. An outfit called Allan Dowling made it. I liked Lew Ayres and the idea he was playing the lead in it; I thought he was a good actor. He'd been out for a long time and he was kind of coming back into pictures with that. I never had a whole lot to do with Nancy {Davis Reagan], which pleased me enormously, because I didn't have a real high opinion of her ability. I had seen her in pictures, and I didn't understand what the big draw was there. I mean, I got along with her all right -- it's just that she kind of had a tendency to want to direct everything that was going on. And still does [laughs] -- she succeeded for a long time in Washington! Most everything was shot in the studio with (in my case) maybe two exceptions where we were outside the studio on location, on streets or something.

Q: What was the industry's attitude about Lew Ayres after his "conscientious objector" stance during World War II?

GENE: That may very well have been why he sat out for while, because that was not a popular stance. But, by God, I admired him for it, to be honest with you. If you're unhappy with things and you think it's wrong, by God, don't do it! Everybody's got a conscience. I think most of our problems today are due to the fact that people's consciences don't bother them anymore.

Q: Was he treated with respect on the set of Donovan's Brain? Was that old business just water under the bridge?

GENE: Oh, yeah. Well, he was a gentleman. And a very intelligent man. He was quiet and, as we say, "he was always on time and he knew his words."

Q: Curt Siodmak, who wrote the original novel, says that he was initially supposed to direct the film.

GENE: Yes, I know he was. I think that that probably was a money situation there, but I really don't know.

Q: You think he may have wanted too much money.

GENE: That may have been the situation. I know that they didn't have a lot of money. [Director] Felix Feist was very good -- very professional and easy to work with. He was good for actors.

Q: Had you ever read the book?

GENE: No, but I liked the story; I thought the script was pretty good; it was interesting, I was lookin' for a job right at that time, like I generally was. I never turned much down.

Q: In the movies you're best-known for, you played tough guys and no-nonsense characters. How did you like working in these "nonsense" movies like The Giant Behemoth and Donovan's Brain?

GENE: Oh, that was all right. Look, on the stage all I ever played was comedy, farce. And I have no idea how the hell I got into playing a tough guy! I did westerns and I did a lot of bits before The Steel Helmet came along -- The Steel Helmet was a tough guy, a soldier. I didn't really have the best management in the world, and as a result, just as often as they would offer me something, I would take it. A lot of them were war films. Had I known, I would have said, "Hey, this is a bad thing to do" -- you're better off to sit out and wait, and it'll work better for you. But the agency that I was with, the reason they had signed me was to please Samuel Fuller, who was their client. (A big client for them at that time.) I didn't realize I was just in on a pass.

Q: Do you think you were suited to play these eggheads you played in these science-fiction movies?

GENE: No. I don't think I was. But I could play anything, you know -- nothing was ever knock-me-dead in the way of a challenge. I had a very good background, and I was damn sure of myself. So I wasn't afraid to take anything. They'd say, "Do you ride?" I'd say, "I ride like the wind" -- I don't give a damn if I'd never seen a horse. I had ridden before, so I didn't have a problem there, but if it was anything, if it was deep-sea diving, "Oh, yeah. Hell yes, I can do that." Or bungee jumping -- whatever it was!

Q: You played the "identification figure" in Donovan's Brain, the doubting Thomas who, in every situation, says or does what the viewer would do.

GENE: Oh, yeah. He's John Q. Public.

Q: The glasses you wore helped.

GENE: Oh, yeah. Well, hell, I couldn't see. It was the only time in pictures where I ever got to wear 'em and, Jesus, it really threw me. I'd made 15 pictures or so before Donovan's Brain and, my God, all of a sudden I could see everything -- there were people around and talking to each other and whispering and all that. When I didn't wear my glasses, I didn't see have those distractions. So it kind of blew me away at the start!

Q: You made a lot of movies in the early 1950s. Was the money coming in pretty good, or were things touch and go?

GENE: Well, the money came in pretty good, yeah. But there were a lot of things I wanted. Later on, it came to me that, unless you were working for 20th Century-Fox, MGM -- one of the major studios -- you were never going to get any kind of award and you weren't going to be taken seriously. At first I was very serious about my work, and I never fiddled around when I was workin'. But I played a lot when I wasn't. As a result, I spent a lot of money and I blew a lot of money. I had a hell of a good time, though -- I think [laughs].