Creature from the Black Lagoon
1954
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A scientific expedition searching for fossils along the Amazon River discover a prehistoric Gill-Man in the legendary Black Lagoon. The explorers capture the mysterious creature, but it breaks free. The Gill-Man returns to kidnap the lovely Kay, fiancée of one of the expedition, with whom it has fallen in love.
Cast
Richard Carlson .... Dr. David Reed
Julie Adams .... Kay Lawrence
Richard Denning .... Dr. Mark Williams
Antonio Moreno .... Dr. Carl Maia
Nestor Paiva .... Lucas (captain of The Rita)
Whit Bissell .... Edwin Thompson
Bernie Gozier .... Zee (Rita crewman)
Henry A. Escalante .... Chico (Rita crewman)
Ricou Browning .... Gill-Man (in water)
Ben Chapman .... Gill-Man (out of water)
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Although born in the Hawkeye State, Betty May Adams grew up in Arkansas and made her acting debut in a third grade play, "Hansel and Gretel." Deciding to become an actress, she moved to California, where she worked three days a week as a secretary (to support herself) and spent the remainder of her time taking speech lessons and making the rounds at the various studios' casting departments. Her first movie role was playing a starlet, appropriately enough, in Paramount's "Red, Hot and Blue" (1949), followed by a leading role in the Lippert Western "The Dalton Gang." Over a period of five weeks, she appeared in six more quickie Lippert Westerns. Adams' first big show biz break was at Universal, when she appeared in a screen test opposite All American footballer Leon Hart, a Detroit Lions end. It was Hart who was being considered by the stuido, but the gridiron star flopped while Universal execs flipped over Adams. The studio changed her first name from Betty to Julia (and later to Julie).Universal cast Adams in mostly westerns early on, but in 1954 the studio starred her in its 3-D feature Creature from the Black Lagoon, the film for which Adams is best known. The year following that film's release, Adams married actor and fellow Universal contract player Ray Danton in 1955, with whom she starred in The Looters. Adams and husband Ray Danton worked together a number of times in film and on television. In addition to being in the films The Looters (1955) and Tarawa Beachhead (1958), Adams and Danton guest starred on a January 1972 episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery entitled The Miracle at Camafeo, and Ray Danton directed his wife in the 1975 horror flick Psychic Killer, written by Greydon Clark. Although the couple was married for many years, they divorced in 1981. Julie Adams was still in demand throughout the 1980s on television, and in 1987 accepted a recurring role on the CBS-TV series Murder, She Wrote. And today, Adams appears to have retired, making her last TV appearance on an episode of the now-defunct CBS series Family Law in April 2000.
Notes:Appears on sleeve of The Beatles' "Sgt
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.
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