AFTER YEARS OF DENIAL, QUINLAN ADMITS SHE'S AN ACTRESS.

Byline: Luaine Lee Knight-Ridder Tribune News Service

All in all, she'd rather be surfing. Or horseback riding. Or rock climbing. The one thing that Kathleen Quinlan didn't want was to be was an actress. So there you have it.

You don't have to burn with ambition to earn an Academy Award nomination or to star opposite Kurt Russell in the wham! bang! action picture of the spring, ``Breakdown,'' which was No. 1 at the box office this week.

Quinlan says her dad started her scuba diving when she was 10. She was always heavily into athletics. A surfing veteran of 15 years, she's now perfecting her horseback riding. All these things considered, Quinlan seems just too normal to be an actress.

She figured that, too. In fact, she resisted the process for years. ``I didn't think I was an actor and fought it for a long time. Nobody paid for that but me,'' she says. She quit fighting after she'd done such movies as ``American Graffiti,'' ``Lifeguard'' and ``I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.''

``Finally it was the realization that's what I was. I AM an actor. That's the way it goes,'' she shrugs. ``Some people are born gardeners, some are politicians. I was an actor. I remember it took a great deal of pain before I figured that out. The trouble was, I didn't relate to most of it. I like to go to openings when I'm in it, or friends are in it. But I don't need 10 houses and 50 cars and all that. I have a nice home, a nice car, a great family, and I feel pretty lucky.''

She was never consumed by a career, she says. ``The great thing was that my agent was ambitious for me. But going out and chasing it? No, I'd rather work in my vegetable garden or play with my kid. I guess I'm kind of boring, I imagine.''

More people in Hollywood should be so boring.

This laissez-faire actress was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role as astronaut Jim Lovell's wife, Marilyn, in ``Apollo 13.''

But Quinlan wasn't haunting the haute couture shops and borrowing jewels from Harry Winston the night before the Academy Awards.

``I was doing `Zeus and Roxanne,' which I adore. I did it for the kids, so my son could see something I've actually done,'' she says.

Originally she wanted to be a marine biologist, so the opportunity to work with dolphins in the water was a dream come true.

``I was filming underwater for two days in the open ocean with dolphins ... I finished the day, grabbed my bag and my dress, flew from the Bahamas to Beverly Hills, spent the night with my husband, got up, got ready for the Academy Awards - already feeling lucky I'm nominated,'' she says.

``To me, it's like you put five paintings in a room and you say, `Which is best?' It's according to your reactions to the painting. I don't think like that. When Mira (Sorvino) won, and I saw her father, I thought that night was supposed to happen for them. Then I went back to the Bahamas, put on my wet suit and went back into the water.''

That was her glamorous entry into the world of Oscar glitter. But Quinlan says, ``Being nominated is definitely the Gold Card. It doesn't matter that I didn't win. Don't ask me the mystery of whole thing, but I'm grateful to have it, and it makes it much easier to work.''

She been working for a year straight with ``Event Horizon'' and ``Lawn Dogs'' (in which she plays a ``twisted mother''), due out soon.

Married for three years (they've been together for eight) to actor Bruce Abbott and the mother of a 6-year-old son, Quinlan says she swore she would never marry an actor.

``I broke my rule,'' she laughs. ``I'm glad I broke my own rule. He's a great father, a fine actor.''

While Quinlan insists that love scenes in movies are more like teeth extractions than prom nights, she recalls that she did kiss Abbott in ``Trapped,'' the USA movie on which they met.

Was it romantic or business? ``It was more business than I would've liked it to be,'' she admits.

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Photo: An Academy Award nominee for ``Apollo 13,'' Kathleen Quinlan is currently starring in ``Breakdown.''