Gregory Harrison was already an accomplished actor when he was cast for the film “North Shore.”

He was a celebrity often surrounded by Hollywood elite. But it was the surf stars he was acting alongside on this movie – famous surfers such as Laird Hamilton and Gerry Lopez – that made him tongue-tied.

“They were my childhood heroes,” said Harrison, who played the fatherly Zen character of Chandler in the cult classic. “I don’t ever get that in professional acting, I don’t feel that way any more. But I’m still a kid when it comes to surfers.”

The 1987 film turns 30 this year, and Harrison will speak Thursday at the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach as part of the new “On the Couch” series, in which Peter “PT” Townend, professional surfing’s first world champion, hosts a dialogue with well-known surfers.

Harrison grew up on Catalina Island, where his grandfather migrated to start a glass-bottom boat company. His father ran the boats, and he was in line to take over the family business.

In 1959, however, a tourist came to the island with board in arm to ride waves on the south side of the small island, where only about 2,000 people lived.

“Someone had seen him surfing, and word spread in a little town like that in minutes,” Harrison said.

Some of the older men on the island got longboards, He was 9 when his dad took him and a few buddies to surf.

“I remember the first wave I bellied in on a board,” said Harrison, now 66. “I was hooked.”

At the same time, he was intrigued when film crews came to the island looking for a tropical setting. He quietly Betvole observed when the movie “The Glass Bottom Boat” with Doris Day was filmed on his family boat in 1965.

“I was 15 years old and I realized what they were doing wasn’t a magical process, it was something I could do,” he said.

Harrison moved to the mainland and made a name for himself in television shows such as “Logan’s Run” and “Centennial,” then the series “Trapper John, M.D.” Meanwhile, his passion remained strong for surfing, traveling to places such as Bali, Tahiti and Australia. He eventually bought a home just above the famous Rincon surf spot near Santa Barbara.

He was 37 when a friend brought him the script for the role of Chandler in “North Shore.”

“It seemed like a dream job. I was going to do what I loved to do already,” he said. “I had been surfing the North Shore for 20 years when I got cast in the movie. I was obviously right for it. It wasn’t a challenging role ... it was an aspect of myself that already exists.”

In the film, a young, ambitious surfer named Rick Kane, winner of a wave pool contest in Arizona, heads to Hawaii to take on big waves on the North Shore. Along the way, he meets pro surfers including Mark Occhilupo and comes up against his nemesis, played by Laird Hamilton, in a surf contest.

Chandler is Kane’s mentor, a soul surfer teaching him there’s more to surfing than just competition.

“I thought it captured the essence of what’s magical about the North Shore,” Harrison said. “The essence of the brotherhood of surfing and the majesty of it, the soulfulness of it is really captured in the film, which I take pride in. That it isn’t just a competitive sport, it’s a lifestyle and religion and it’s a number of things to different people. As silly as the plot is, the movie captures that and that’s why it continues to reverberate and have emotional weight.”

When the movie came out, it flopped in the theaters.

“It didn’t appeal to the mid-America audience,” he said. “I wasn’t disappointed in the film. I was disappointed it didn’t resonate with a wider audience.”

But then, even to Harrison’s surprise, it became a cult classic among surfers.

“When we shot it, we had no idea it would become an iconic film, that groms would memorize every word,” he said. “What we didn’t realize, the people who appreciated it loved it and revered it and became that cult audience, who loved it and still love it.”

In real life, Harrison is similar to the role he played in “North Shore.”

“To me, surfing has never been a competitive act – it’s a soulful, singular, focused, appreciative, natural moment,” he said. “It isn’t just about riding the wave, although that is a highlight. It’s about the ceremony – the ceremony of getting up in the morning; the anticipation of getting in our car and trying to go where it’s going to be best; changing into your wetsuit and waxing your board. It’s a ceremony.”

He said there’s no plans for a “North Shore” remake. About a decade ago, he and the film’s producers and directors tried to get rights to the script, but Universal didn’t want to release them, he said.

“They didn’t want to do it themselves, because it wasn’t successful by their standards, but they didn’t want someone else to make it successful. It’s pretty much standard Hollywood,” he said.

Harrison is still acting, with recent parts in the series “Rizzoli & Isles,” and he and his daughter Lily Anne are in a film called “Fair Haven” coming out in March.

And he still surfs as much as possible.

“It centers me and makes me more balanced in life,” he said. “More tolerant, less demanding, more satisfied, more mellow.”

Contact the writer: lconnelly@scng.com

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