"Rowdy" Roddy Piper, backstage at Monday Nitro and World Championship Wrestling Pay-Per-Views, hangs out away from the frolics of other wrestlers. Piper, his personal bodyguard Craig, and a spread of fruit (apples and organges) and drinks (colas and bottled water) are all that fill his private locker room, along with, of course, a couch and television. Piper is a loner by choice because -- believe it or not -- he is not comfortable among the masses. Most, thus, perceive Piper as aloof and arrogant, bordering on cocky. Yet that couldn't be any farther from the truth ... once you get to know him, that is. But Piper's close allies can be counted rather quickly.

Too bad the masses can't meet the real Roderick Piper, the humble father who loves his family, the man who plays the bagpipes, harmonica and piano, and the man who repeatedly apologizes for being 10 minutes late for an interview. Wrestling just happens to be one of Piper's many jobs, the one the world sees him in most often.

In 1995, Piper starred as a muscular policeman in Jungleground. He defended the city against a bunch of gangs in this direct-to-video action flick. After the film was shot, each of the then-19 to 23 year old thugs cornered Piper to extend their gratitude for the fatherly advice he offered. Each then signed a card for Piper, telling how they were sad that no one really ever gets to see the other side of Piper, the soft side.

It's a soft side that's been garnered through a life of hard knocks.

"Maybe that's the character, the person with the soft side, that I've been trying to find," Piper said.

Piper was wrestling in Los Angeles at the Olympic Auditorium in 1977, when a producer offered him a role in an upcoming movie. Piper, though, was not interested. Wrestling was his job, not acting. Piper eventually agreed to participate in The One and Only, a Carl Reiner directed film starring Henry Winkler.

And so was born, basically by accident, Piper's other full-time gig. "Acting was just something I happened upon," Piper said.

Fast forward about 10 years to a wrestling extraavaganza at the Pontiac, Michigan, Silverdome in front of 93,173 fans. Noted director John Carpenter was in attendance, and wanted to meet Piper. However, Piper was, again, reluctant since he had never heard of Carpenter. He eventually accepted the invitation and, in fact, the two went to dinner after the event. And quite a dinner conversation it was, per se: 'Hi ... how are you ... what's happening ... Pass the bread ... Wanna star in my next movie? Where's the butter?'

"John Carpenter saw something (in me) that was commercial," Piper said.

The result: They Live, the witty 1988 science-fiction spoof of yuppie culture. The same movie that was the number one box office hit the weekend it was released, beating U2: Rattle and Hum, among others.

"When I accepted that part, I did not realize what I had goteen myself into, so I went to acting school Monday through Thursday, from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. That gave me a great perspective for what actors really do ... and that's when I guess I got the bug," Piper said. "I'm not the kind of person who often opens up (to others); I often have a mask in front of me. I'm not comfortable with many people (around me). But for me, the cameras are no problem. I can do anything, even scratch my ear with my hind leg."

In They Live, Piper portrays a young wanderer who discovers a plot by aliens to control humans through TV advertising. The movie, also starring Keith David, has grow to Slap Shot status.

"I never anticipated it would be number one, nor that it would be the cult classic it has become. I was pretty naive going in; I didn't understand the Hollywood intellect," Piper said. "I was trying my heart out to do the best possible job I could do. Every minute of every day I was pouring my heart out into what I was doing."

The movie's highlight: a legendary, and lengthy, fight scene between Piper and his pal, David. For Carpenter, who insisted -- before the fight -- that Piper and David watch John Wayne in The Quiet Man, which also had a logn fight scene, arguably, the previous number one. Carpenter wanted to beat that fight length. So, Piper took David to Carpenter's backyard for three weeks of training.

"(David) was like a 220 pound dancer who hit like (former pro boxer) Ernie Sahvers. He had no idea how strong he was," Piper said.

To this day, Piper still lives -- on the screen -- through that fight scene and his distinctive glasses that he wore. And, unfortunately for him, it's no more baseball hat and glasses to avoid fans. They Live ruined that possibility.

Piper was also involved in another cult classic in 1987: Hell Comes to Frogtown, in which Piper (as Sam Hell), the only potent male on post-nuclear-holocaust Earth, is assigned procreation duty, but only if he can rescue the woman from King Toady and his legion of mutant frogoids.

"I was the light-heavyweight champion of the world when I started in acting and I never thought I'd star in a movie that would be shown in some 50,000 movie theaters across the United States. That wasn't in my imagination. I didn't have a yen for that," Piper said. "I was a street kid, trying to make money. I'm not even sure if I had a bank account at the time. But I had my hands on something that was paying me money, so I stuck with it."

"Early in my life, I didn't have the luxury of sayng, 'This would be fun,' or, 'I would like to do that.' I just grabbed a hold of whatever came first, because I was desperate. I was just trying to get enough money for another Tommy's Special Hamburger."

Piper is the wrestling pioneer in the Hollywood industry and, with all due respect to Hulk Hogan, the premiere player from our world in theirs.

"Many, many wrestlers want to explore their talents in other ways, to see if they can survive in the acting field. It doesn't always happen," Piper said. "There is absolutely no correlation (between wrestling and acting), none at all. If anything, wrestling hinders acting. Everything is internal when you're acting; everything is from the soul, the heart. Wrestling, on the other hand, is violence. You'r letting your aggressions go out.

"One has nothing to do with the other."

Do they help each other?

"Acting doesn't make much of a fighter and wrestling doesn't make me much of an actor," said Piper.

"There are those people who watch wrestling only occasionally ... and they see limited wrestling (action), then hear the wrestlers shouting and screaming during interviews. Well, those people need to sit down and watch an entire Pay-Per-View, where all of the money is (made). If you then think pro wrestling is just acting, then you ought to jump in there with us. Go to the best acting coach in Hollywood and see how much -- or how little -- he can help you for a Pay-Per-View wrestling match."

Bottom line, pro wrestling is no longer in the days of Gorgeous George at the beauty parlor.

"In Hollywood, there is a black cloud over wrestling," Piper said. "They don't like wrestlers. They think wrestlers are just big, dumb blockheads and what you see them doing in the ring is all they can do. That (stereotype) definitely hinders you from getting you a job. I can't tell you how many times I've had people say to me, 'You could never play a doctor.' Well, my response to them is, 'Why of course I could play a doctor. Why couldn't I play a doctor?'

"There are many jocks who have tried acting, but how many of them have actually succeeded? That's a barrier that I ahve been breaking down for a long, long time. I've almost gotten it broken down. Not completely, but almost."

Piper's recent projects include The Bad Pack, in which he stars as part of a pack of elite mercenaries who reunite for one last mission to save a city from the grips of an extremist group; and Swept Away, in which he plays a former Navy SEAL and high-rated Coast Guard officer who chose to walk away from life in the "fast lane" and live the easy life as a charter boat captain, sailing the best and most beautiful boats around the world, but naturally life couldn't be that easy.

The Bad Pack also features Robert Davi (Showgirls, Christopher Columbus, Predator) and Ralf Moeller (Universal Soldier), among others. In Swept Away: Camilla More (In Search of the Serpent of Death), Trevor Goddard (Mortal Kombat), Juan Fernandez (Crocodile Dundee II) and Tawny Kitaen (Bachelor Party and Risky Business).

Plus, Piper will apear on upcoming episodes of Nash Bridges and Walker, Texas Ranger.

"It was my first love story, and that's good for me as an actor. It kind of kills the stereotype of roles I can do, or cannot do," Piper said of Swept Away. "I got a strong reaction to (my role) in it. Hey, I didn't get all of these kids without kissing. The movie showed a much more artistic side of Roddy Piper; that's what I'm pleased about.

"I haven't given an audience in (the acting world) my best performance yet. That I would like to be able to do and say when I'm eventually done, ready to retire."

Piper's dream role is part-Slingblade, part-Lenny from Of Mice & Men and part-Forrest Gump. Surprisingly, it is not the tough-guy role. Piper prefers characters "with many layers." And, of course, the underdog, "mainly because I am an underdog and always have been."

He also aspires to take part on Broadway someday.

"I have not had that 'perfect role' yet. But I will get it, at least I hope I will get it because I'm striving toward it daily," Piper said. "Of all the stuff I"ve done so far, if I had to rank it from 1 to 10, with 10 the tops, I consider myself a 3. Sure, I'm happy with the work I've put out so far, but I know it, and myself, can and will get better."