"Even I, Lucas, have heard the legend of a man-fish. "

February 22, 2008 8:53 AM

Ben Chapman, who played the Gill Man in The Creature From the Black Lagoon, has passed on. Interviews with the actor/stuntman discussing his iconic role are here and here.
posted by hermitosis (18 comments total)

O
o
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posted by Gungho at 9:06 AM on February 22, 2008 [5 favorites]

Oh, how sad. The Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of my girlfriend and my favorite romantic movies. Seriously: in the first year we were together, we got to see an outdoor broadcast of it in 3D in downtown Fullerton. (I think it's a romantic movie even without my own sentimental attachment to it, but I'm kind of a weirdo, and I have family from Innsmouth, so I'm not sure if that's a "normal" reaction or not.)
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:24 AM on February 22, 2008

The costume is one of the masterpieces of American monster design. It's as iconic and distinctive today as when the film first came out.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:27 AM on February 22, 2008

___\@/___
posted by steef at 9:40 AM on February 22, 2008

The Creature from the Black Lagoon was the best sexually fired sci-fi film...EVAR! Lonely gill-man living the life of Riley. Sexy female human swims by in tight-fitting swimsuit and gill-man goes bonkers. The best scene is when the gill-man is swimming below the heroine
and it becomes a watery out-of-body seduction. Mr. Chapman, you swam well. Swim on
gill-man.
posted by doctorschlock at 9:41 AM on February 22, 2008

.

In 3-D!!!!
posted by jonp72 at 9:57 AM on February 22, 2008

.
One of my favorite Universal Horror movies and creatures of all time.
Heck, I'm so much of a fan I even like "Revenge of.." and "...Walks Among Us"

Such wonderful flicks.

PS. I'm pretty sure it as Ricou Browning who did the underwater sequences, while Chapman, due to his size, was the Creature on land.
posted by willmize at 10:16 AM on February 22, 2008

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posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 10:17 AM on February 22, 2008

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posted by prostyle at 10:23 AM on February 22, 2008

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posted by Faint of Butt at 10:24 AM on February 22, 2008

Definitely one of the truly iconic movie monsters of all time. I have very fond memories of the first issue of Famous Monsters with the image of the Creature on the cover. RIP, Mr. Chapman.
posted by dbiedny at 10:25 AM on February 22, 2008

Lucky enough, several years ago, to see Creature at a science fiction film festival... IN 3D!!! Hightlight of the whole event to be honest.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:52 AM on February 22, 2008

~~~~~~~~



        .
posted by shmegegge at 11:37 AM on February 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

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posted by brundlefly at 11:51 AM on February 22, 2008

I just watched that movie for the first time last night.

Last year I watched Blazing Saddles (not for the first time) and the next day I looked up who sang the title song (Frankie Laine). He had died just hours earlier.

Maybe I should watch a Linsay Lohan film or something.
posted by brassafrax at 12:20 PM on February 22, 2008

Didn't I read somewhere that Frank Darabont wanted to remake this?
posted by RavinDave at 12:24 PM on February 22, 2008

I wrote a little reminiscences about the creature back in October. Ricou Browning did the underwater scenes.

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posted by cephalopodcast at 8:30 PM on February 22, 2008

Don't know about Darabont, RavinDave, but Breck Eisner (son of Michael, and director of Sahara) is apparently working on one.

Also, during the 80s, John Carpenter, Joe Dante and John Landis all wanted to do one at differen points. Any one of those guys would have rocked the material, I think. Especially Dante.
posted by brundlefly at 2:15 PM on February 25, 2008