`HAMMER'-ING HOME A POINT WITH `GANGSTAS' : WILLIAMSON BRINGS OLDER ACTORS, FILMGOERS BACK INTO THE FOLD.

Byline: Barry Koltnow Orange County Register

The barking dog that greets visitors to Fred Williamson's Beverly Hills home is a big disappointment.

Somehow, one assumes that a powerfully built, menacing-looking, cigar-chomping, movie-action hero and former professional football player nicknamed ``The Hammer'' would own something along the lines of a pit bull.

``I don't need a pit bull in this house,'' a smiling, soft-spoken Williamson said as he gently stroked the back of his pint-sized shih tzu. ``I am the pit bull in this house.''

Although 58, Williamson remains convincing as a tough guy. That's because he is a tough guy.

In fact, the 6-foot-3-inch actor maintains that the inspiration for his latest movie - ``Original Gangstas,'' which opened Friday - came from an actual incident in which he flexed his muscles.

According to Williamson, who also produced the new movie, his mother was being hassled by drug dealers who moved in across the street from her Gary, Ind., home.

``I flew home, dragged those guys out into the street and beat the (stuffings) out of them,'' Williamson said with no hint of remorse. ``A week later, they sold the house and moved out.

``Normally, I am more than willing to have a dialogue with people like that, but when you mess with my mama, the dialogue's over.''

Williamson said he was playing golf with a studio executive two years later when the executive turned to him and said he was looking for a good black action film. The actor thought back to that incident in his hometown and began making calls.

The calls were to old friends, who happened to represent most of the stars of the so-called blaxploitation films of the 1970s, including Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree and Ron O'Neal.

``Original Gangstas'' pretty much follows the scenario of Williamson's encounter with the real drug dealers, only more so. In the film, the older black stars band together to wipe out gangs that are terrorizing their hometown.

Williamson said he made the film almost as an audition tape to showcase the talents of himself and his friends.

``I wanted to show Hollywood that it is wrong to make all its films for the youth market,'' he explained. ``People my age no longer go to the movies because there are no more movies that interest them.

``Now they just sit at home and push their clickers. If I can get these couch potatoes out of the house by putting something on the screen they can identify with - mainly the personas of Jim Brown and the rest of us - then we can make more movies.

``I wanted Hollywood executives to see us in action again and to know that we've still got our stuff together. Pam is still a fox, and Jim and the rest of us still look good and can still handle ourselves. We're not over the hill.''

The actor said he made the movie for that reason and to entertain. He insists he did not make the movie to send a message. He says he is not trying to offer a solution to the urban gang problem.

``I don't make movies with messages,'' he said. ``I make movies that entertain you. Buy a big box of popcorn and enjoy yourself. If you're looking for a message, you're in the wrong theater.''

However, Williamson conceded after considerable prodding that there is at least a semblance of a message in his movie and that is that the only way to get rid of gangs is for the community to attack the problem as a unit.

``OK, I guess the movie does talk about that,'' he said. ``But I only offer that thought up for discussion. I'm not offering solutions to any problems. Nobody asks Charles Bronson about his message in `Death Wish.' Why do people want to know my message?''

Williamson left his native Gary to attend Northwestern University on a football scholarship. The star receiver was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1960, but they wanted him to play defensive back.

``I had never played defense and I didn't know how to run backward, so all the receivers just ran past me,'' he said.

``After a week of that, the coach came over to me and said I probably wasn't going to make the team. The next day, I decided I had nothing to lose, so I just started hitting the receivers before they could get downfield. For three days, none of them got past me and I must have gotten in two or three fights a day.

``Finally, the coach came over and said, ``OK, you made the team, now stop hammering the receivers and let them get downfield.'' That's how I got the nickname `The Hammer,' and it stuck.''

He was traded to the Oakland Raiders and then to the Kansas City Chiefs, for whom he played in the first Super Bowl.

Director Robert Altman cast him in the film ``MASH,'' in which he played the football ringer known as Spearchucker Jones, and he appeared in several more films until he formed his own production company. He has directed nine films under his own banner.

``I'm not going to lie to you,'' he said. ``I did this film because I want all of us to continue working as actors. We're not too old to do this, and I think the community needs us again.

``In the '70s, we were needed because the black community needed strong characters they could cheer for. They couldn't fight back in society, but we could fight back for them on the screen. I didn't care about winning Academy Awards; I was too busy building a persona. ``Stereotyping' is not a dirty word to me. I like being the same guy in every movie; there are no surprises with me.

``Now Wesley Snipes is a fine actor, and he likes surprising people. One movie he's doing karate kicks and the next he's wearing a dress. That's not for me; I'm Fred Williamson and people know what to expect from a Fred Williamson movie.''

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3 Photos

Photo: (1) Jim Brown, left, Ron O'Neal, Richard Roundtre e, Pam Grier and Fred Williamson star in ``Original Gangstas,'' which parallels Williamson's real-life encounter with drug dealers.

(2) Williamson, pictured with ``Gangstas'' co-star Grier, says he is not trying to offer a solution to the urban gang problem. ``I don't make movies with messages. I make movies that entertain you.''

(3) As part of the ``Gangstas'' story line, Princess (Dawn Stern, left) and gang leader Spyro (Christopher B. Duncan, center), confront Kenny (Timothy Lewis) after a basketball bet goes awry.