‘4th Choice’ : Dry Spell Is Over for Alan Arkin

The biggest thrill ride in Hollywood is the performer’s breathtaking swoops and plunges on the Big Screen roller coaster.

If they hang in long enough, they may rise and dive again in the never-ending peaks and valleys of one of the toughest jobs imaginable.

Alan Arkin, one of the screen’s most talented non-stars, is riding the crest once more with three movies to his credit this year--and more to come.

Arkin is starring in “The Rocketeer,” the biggest film Disney has ever made, to be released next summer. He will also be seen in “Havana,” with Robert Redford, and “Edward Scissorhands,” with Johnny Depp. Both films will be released on the same weekend this month.

Arkin, unsmiling, said, “This is the busiest year I’ve ever had in the business.”

Although he has given brilliant performances in “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming,” “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” both of which earned him Oscar nominations, “Popi,” “The In-Laws” and “Catch 22,” he has never attained superstar status.

Perhaps he never will. But the dark-visaged, astute Arkin is not concerned. He refuses to rely on motion picture acting as his only creative activity or sole source of income.

“Every actor depends on other people for work,” he said. “Agents, managers, casting directors and producers. But too many actors sit at home between roles and wait for the telephone to ring. That’s death.

“I like to play a variety of different parts. As a result of that I think people don’t know who I am or what I do. Even when I get a role, I’m usually the fourth choice for the part.

“That’s because I’m not typed, so I’m not the first actor to come to mind for a specific kind of character.

“My agent comes in after the producers have exhausted the first three possibilities for a role. She says, ‘What about Alan Arkin?’ They say, ‘Hey, that’s an interesting idea. Maybe he could do it.’ ”

In the past 20 years Arkin has directed about 20 successful plays on and off Broadway and several TV movies, including “Trying Times” for PBS, which won six Emmy Awards.

Dry movie spells don’t bother him now.

“Like all of life, there are ebbs and flows and cycles,” he said. “At the moment I’m grateful that I seem to be in demand. That could change next year or next week.”