He’s the $6-billion man

Tall and leonine and dressed head to toe in Johnny Cash black, Samuel L. Jackson sauntered into the penthouse suite of the St. Regis Hotel, pulled his armchair up to an ornate banquet table the size of a double-width garage door and got straight to the bottom line. “Have you seen the numbers?” Jackson wanted to know.

It’s an everyday question in Hollywood and one that could easily refer to the haul of his latest film, “Coach Carter,” which debuted at No. 1 at the box office last month.

But the actor was talking about the-numbers.com, a movie data-tracking website that crunched the grosses of 60 of his most recent films -- a body of work that has combined to earn a staggering $6 billion worldwide -- and crowned him Hollywood’s No. 1 box-office star.

“I am now the No. 1 box-office actor in the world,” Jackson said, turning his Kangol cap backward, delighted.

At 56, the Chattanooga, Tenn., native is in a good place: proud to have famously conquered a nasty cocaine habit in his 40s and survived decades of anonymous toil in off-Broadway plays and bit film roles (such as “gang member No. 2” in “Ragtime” and “black guy” in “Sea of Love”), to become the rare movie star who can be relied upon to help “open” a movie while also providing unimpeachable street credibility.

Jackson acknowledges that being the-numbers.com’s No. 1 is not without its qualifications.

“I’ve been fortunate to have been in ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Star Wars’ -- big things like that,” he said. “But it’s bulk too. I’m in a lot of things. Harrison was there, starring in 30 or 40 [films]. I was there in 80-something.”

Harrison, of course, is Harrison Ford, the also-ran whose movies combine to total only $5.7 billion worldwide on the website’s list.

“I needed $175 million to pass [Ford], and ‘The Incredibles’ did it,” Jackson said, citing Pixar Animation Studio’s blockbuster, for which he supplied his voice. “I was talking to George [Lucas] about it. He was like, ‘Once we do the new Indiana Jones movie, we’re gonna put you in it somewhere so Harrison can never pass you again.’ ” Jackson laughed.

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‘The epitome of cool’

Whether his filmography continues to rank as the most lucrative or not, he remains one of the most prolific actors on the A-list. He’s an in-demand team player, yet his governing ethos remains: “my way or the highway.”

Ever since his indelible performance as Jules Winnfield, the Jheri-curled, Scripture-quoting hit man in 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” (for which he received an Oscar nomination), the actor has cornered the market playing streetwise men of conviction -- characters who seem to share a stentorian ability to bark expletives and issue orders with crackling authority.

“Sam’s the epitome of cool,” said Lee Tamahori, who directed him in the upcoming “XXX: State of the Union,” the second in the “XXX” franchise. Jackson plays Augustus Gibbons, a butt-kicking government operative who conscripts outlaw alpha males -- Vin Diesel in the first “XXX” movie and now, Ice Cube -- as CIA super spies.

In terms of output, though, 2004 was a quiet year for Jackson: He shared a co-lead in Philip Kaufman’s little-seen “Twisted,” contributed a cameo for “Kill Bill Vol. 2” and took vocal odd-jobs on “The Incredibles” and the top-selling video game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.”

Output gets ratcheted up a notch in 2005: He is back with a varied slate that includes “Coach Carter,” “XXX,” the Eugene Levy comedy “The Man” and the final chapter in the “Star Wars” franchise, “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.”

Up next month is the apartheid drama “In My Country,” in which Jackson portrays a Washington Post reporter sent to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, a post-apartheid tribunal organized by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Jackson’s character falls into an extramarital affair with an Afrikaner radio journalist played by Juliette Binoche. And as they inventory the torture and abuses by both Afrikaners and Africans, the two find their senses of personal and racial identity shaken to the core.

Historical polemics aside, “Country” is the first film in which Jackson has clocked screen time as a romantic lead.

“It was totally fun!” he exclaimed.

Which begs the question: Why did it take some seven-dozen film roles for him to get around to playing the love interest?

“I just never see the ‘guy who gets the girl’ as a guy who’s interesting to me,” Jackson said. “Most times when I read those scripts, they just aren’t interesting. This one was.”

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Be prepared

Jackson is known in the industry for his on-set decorousness and strenuous preparation -- costars recall him memorizing all their lines in addition to his own. But according to some who have worked with him, Jackson’s commitment to craft can be unsettling.

“Sam can be quite intimidating,” said John Boorman, who directed Jackson in “In My Country.” “People are very wary of him because he’s very professional and expects everyone else to be that way. He is on top of everything and won’t suffer fools at all -- he caught me out a couple of times!”

For example? “One day on set, I told him to do something,” the director recalled. “And he said, ‘When we were rehearsing, you said quite the opposite.’ ”

Added Tamahori, “The glowering thing -- he’s got such a visage. He can make you melt from 30 paces away.”

“Some directors I trust. But sometimes, I just stand there and listen to a director say what he’s going to say,” Jackson admitted. “And when he says ‘Action!’ I just do what I was going to do anyways. By me not taking his direction, he should just know: It’s time to move on to the next thing.”

That kind of self-assurance nearly cost him the role of Gibbons in the first “XXX.”

“They were going to kill me and I was like, ‘You can’t kill me. [If you do,] I’m not gonna do the movie,’” he remembered, chuckling softly. A deal was struck. Now, Jackson will continue to play a key role to any subsequent sequels in the “XXX” franchise -- and his character will also have plenty of say over who gets the lead. “I get to make a decision on who’s going to be the badass in each particular movie.”

Knowing that “Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith” would be his swan song as Jedi Master Mace Windu -- Yoda’s right-hand man in the first and second episodes -- Jackson began petitioning Lucas in 2003 for his character to go out with a bang.

“George said that out of all the important characters that have been established in [episodes] I and II, the only important person he could kill was me,” the actor explained. “So he said, ‘Your wish for a spectacular death is going to come true.’”

That meant the actor had to master Japanese Kendo and fencing moves for a 102-movement light-saber battle across four rooms.

“It was very cool,” he said, shaking his head at the memory. “A whole ‘nother kind of ballet.”

At the Palm Springs International Film Festival last month, Jackson, who has been married to his wife LaTanya since 1980 and delivered a commencement address at his daughter Zoe’s graduation from Vassar College last May, was given the Career Achievement Award for Acting.

“It’s like, ‘Am I done?’ Isn’t that what you should get when you retire?” he exclaimed.

“But it’s cool,” Jackson continued, gazing out over West Los Angeles toward the Pacific. “When I’m done or gone, people can look back and say, ‘Wow, he had a career. He did it with style.’ I always like to think I did it my way.”