50 Fun Facts About Creature From the Black Lagoon

Which future star made his uncredited film debut as a lab technician in Revenge of the Creature?

Clint Eastwood won the tiny role of Jennings after a string of unsuccessful auditions, then played an unbilled squadron pilot in Tarantula.

Which star pities the Gill-man after watching Creature from the Black Lagoon in The Seven Year Itch?

Marilyn Monroe's character feels sorry for the Creature on the walk home, moments before a subway grate lifts her dress in the comedy's most famous scene.

Which Guillermo del Toro film grew out of his rejected pitch for a Creature from the Black Lagoon remake?

The Shape of Water gave del Toro the ending Universal had refused, with the amphibian man and the woman ending up together. It won the Oscar for Best Picture.

William Alland heard the legend behind Creature from the Black Lagoon while acting in which Orson Welles film?

Citizen Kane cast Alland as the faceless reporter Thompson, and at a 1941 dinner party a cinematographer told him of fish-men said to live in a South American river.

The stuntman who swam as the Gill-man in Creature from the Black Lagoon later co-created which sea-going franchise?

Flipper began when he saw his children glued to Lassie and imagined the same kind of story with a dolphin in place of the dog.

Which future composer of The Pink Panther theme co-wrote the score for Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Henry Mancini joined Universal's music department in 1952 and contributed to over 100 films in six years before his own hits arrived.

Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed in which format, a short-lived Hollywood craze of the early 1950s?

3D was already fading by early 1954, so many audiences saw the monster flat, with the 3D prints kept for big downtown theaters.

Which comedy duo met the Gill-man on live television to publicize Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954?

Abbott and Costello were hosting The Colgate Comedy Hour, where the Creature lurched into a haunted-house sketch after Frankenstein's Monster fainted at the sight of Lou.

The Black Lagoon in Creature from the Black Lagoon lies off a tributary of which South American river?

The Amazon seen on screen was largely Park Lake on the Universal back lot, where the boat scenes were filmed.

How did the swimmer playing the Gill-man get through long underwater takes in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Holding his breath for up to four minutes was the legend, though he later said two minutes was the limit when swimming hard or fighting.

What fossil does Dr. Carl Maia dig out of a riverbank at the start of Creature from the Black Lagoon?

A webbed hand of bare bone persuades the scientists they have found a direct link between land and sea animals, so they sail back to look for the rest of the skeleton.

The fossil in Creature from the Black Lagoon dates from which period, long before the first dinosaurs?

Devonian seas held so many kinds of fish that the period is called the Age of Fishes, and the first four-limbed animals appeared before it ended.

What is the name of the tramp steamer that carries the expedition in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Rita sails again in the sequel as the Rita II, under the same crusty captain, when the monster is hunted a second time.

What kind of scientist is Dr. David Reed, the diving hero of Creature from the Black Lagoon?

An ichthyologist studies fish, and Reed has been researching lungfish in Brazil when his old teacher turns up with a strange fossil.

Which money-minded expedition boss is killed underwater by the Gill-man in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Dr. Mark Williams, obsessed with bringing the monster back, tries to capture it single-handed while the others work to free the boat.

What does the Gill-man use to block the lagoon's exit and trap the boat in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Fallen logs piled into a makeshift dam show that the monster can plan, turning the scientists from hunters into prey.

Which animal does Captain Lucas blame for the deaths at the camp in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

A jaguar is the captain's guess, but the two camp assistants were killed by the Gill-man after they panicked and attacked it.

What does the Gill-man leave behind in the boat's net, proving it exists, in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

A claw torn off in the drag line is the first hard proof of the monster, found just after it had stalked Kay during her swim.

How do the survivors finally stop the Gill-man in its cavern lair in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

They shoot it in the chest, and the wounded monster wades back into the lagoon and sinks out of sight, which left room for a sequel.

What does Dr. Edwin Thompson smash against the escaping Gill-man in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

A lantern drives the monster off the boat, but Thompson, who had been guarding its cage, is left badly injured.

Which former Miss Little Rock played Kay Lawrence in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Julie Adams was billed as Julia, the name the studio picked for her; she never felt comfortable with it and later changed it herself.

Which star of It Came from Outer Space played the hero, Dr. David Reed, in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Richard Carlson held a master's degree from the University of Minnesota and was also a screenwriter and director, not only a leading man.

Which 6-foot-5 actor wore the Gill-man suit for the land scenes of Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Ben Chapman, a Marine veteran of the Korean War, went unbilled; he said the studio did not want the public to know the monster was a man in a suit.

Which water-show performer played the Gill-man underwater in all three Creature from the Black Lagoon films?

Ricou Browning was only meant to show the location scouts around a spring, but they asked him to swim for the camera and offered him the part days later.

Which character actor played Captain Lucas in both Creature from the Black Lagoon and Revenge of the Creature?

Nestor Paiva, the son of Portuguese immigrants, appeared in more than 400 films and played the innkeeper in Disney's Zorro series.

Which director of The Incredible Shrinking Man and Tarantula made Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Jack Arnold learned filmmaking in the Army Signal Corps during World War II, assisting the documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty.

Which former Disney animator designed the Gill-man's head for Creature from the Black Lagoon but long went uncredited?

Milicent Patrick was sent on a publicity tour for the film, then dismissed from Universal when her boss resented the attention she received.

Which make-up chief took sole credit for the Gill-man of Creature from the Black Lagoon for decades?

Bud Westmore came from Hollywood's Westmore make-up dynasty and ran the department; the true designer was widely recognised only half a century later.

Which actor, later the Governor on Hawaii Five-O, played the expedition's financier in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Richard Denning had been Lucille Ball's husband on the radio sitcom My Favorite Husband, the show that evolved into I Love Lucy.

Jack Kevan, who built the Gill-man bodysuit for Creature from the Black Lagoon, had worked on which 1939 MGM classic?

The Wizard of Oz was an early job for Kevan, who went on to make prosthetics for amputees during World War II before he built monsters.

The underwater scenes of Creature from the Black Lagoon were filmed in the clear springs of which US state?

Florida's Wakulla Springs, now a state park, gave the second unit water clear enough to film the monster swimming beneath Kay.

Why did the actor playing the Gill-man on land often rest in a studio lake during Creature from the Black Lagoon?

The suit overheated so easily that he also asked to be hosed down, and he could not sit in it during 14-hour days.

Which fairy tale did producer William Alland use as inspiration for the story of Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Beauty and the Beast shaped the notes he wrote a decade after first hearing the legend, and he pictured his monster as sad and beautiful.

Which jungle hero's films had earlier used the spring where Creature from the Black Lagoon was shot underwater?

Tarzan films of the early 1940s used the spring's clear water for their swimming scenes, about a decade before the Gill-man arrived.

The success of which 1953 Vincent Price hit led Universal to make Creature from the Black Lagoon in the same format?

House of Wax, itself a remake of a 1933 chiller, was the first colour feature of its kind from a major American studio.

Which real fish poison do the scientists use to drug the Gill-man in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Rotenone is a real poison, extracted from plant roots, that fisheries managers use to clear unwanted fish from lakes and ponds.

Which insurer covered the legs of Creature from the Black Lagoon's leading lady for $125,000 as a studio stunt?

Lloyd's of London wrote the policy purely for publicity, and the one-piece she wears in her famous swim was made exclusively for her.

Which silent-era Latin lover, once Greta Garbo's co-star, played Dr. Carl Maia in Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Antonio Moreno was born in Madrid and reached America at 14; by 1915 he was a matinee idol, years before Valentino made the type famous.

Creature from the Black Lagoon's swimming Gill-man later directed the underwater sequences of which James Bond film?

Thunderball climaxes in a mass underwater battle that he choreographed, and he returned to Bond for Never Say Never Again.

In Revenge of the Creature, where is the captured Gill-man chained up and put on public display?

An oceanarium called Ocean Harbor is his prison, and the scenes were shot at Marine Studios, a real tourist attraction of the day.

In which vast wetland do scientists hunt the escaped Gill-man at the start of The Creature Walks Among Us?

The Everglades hunt ends with the monster badly burned, and surgeons then turn him into an air-breathing land animal dressed in sailcloth.

Which cult TV comedy mocked Revenge of the Creature in 1997 as its first episode on the Sci-Fi Channel?

Mystery Science Theater 3000 had been cancelled by Comedy Central the year before; its new home kept it running for three more seasons.

Which former husband of Shirley Temple starred as the scientist hero of Revenge of the Creature?

John Agar had acted beside John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima before becoming a regular lead in 1950s B movies such as Tarantula.

Bally turned Creature from the Black Lagoon into which kind of arcade game, complete with a Gill-man hologram?

A pinball machine set at a 1959 drive-in cinema, it plays five hit songs of the fifties while the player chases the monster.

In which 1980s cult film do kids battle a redesigned Gill-man alongside Dracula, the Mummy and the Wolfman?

The Monster Squad could not copy Universal's design, so Stan Winston's team built a new fish-man suit, and its makers were then hired for Predator.

A fossil amphibian named after Creature from the Black Lagoon, Eucritta melanolimnetes, was discovered in which country?

Scotland's East Kirkton Quarry yielded the fossils, and palaeontologist Jenny Clack gave the animal a name meaning the true creature from the black lagoon.

Which Stephen King villain takes the form of the Creature from the Black Lagoon to kill a victim in a 1986 novel?

Pennywise, the monstrous clown of It, hunts the victim down while wearing the Gill-man's scales.

On which 1960s sitcom does Uncle Gilbert proudly introduce himself as the Creature from the Black Lagoon?

The Munsters gave the Gill-man a family in 1965: Uncle Gilbert ships the household a crate of Spanish gold doubloons before he turns up in person.

Which horror director was developing a Creature from the Black Lagoon remake at Universal in 1992 with Rick Baker?

John Carpenter never got the green light, and the remake later passed to Peter Jackson, Ivan Reitman and Guillermo del Toro without ever being made.

A cinematographer from which country told William Alland the legend that inspired Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Mexico's Gabriel Figueroa also told of a friend who vanished while filming a documentary about the rumoured fish-people.