Julie Adams, star of Universal’s beloved monster flick Creature From the Black Lagoon, has sadly passed away. She was 92 years old at the time of her death.
Videos by ComicBook.com
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Adams’ son Mitch Danton confirmed that his mother had indeed passed away on early Sunday morning. Reports regarding her passing started circulating in the middle of the day, but it wasn’t until later that anything was able to be officially confirmed.
Adams worked in film and television for the better part of six decades, appearing in numerous titles with some of the generation’s biggest names. She starred alongside Elvis Presley in Tickle Me in 1965, opposite Dennis Hopper in The Last Movie in 1971, and even with John Wayne in 1974’s McQ. Adams also appeared alongside Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote, where she played realtor Eve Simpson.
Of course, Adams’ biggest and most iconic role came back in 1954, when she played Kay Lawrence, the female lead in Creature From the Black Lagoon.
The craze surrounding all of Universal’s monsters was in full effect at the time, and the studio looked to Creature to be essentially an underwater take on Beauty and the Beast. Ben Chapman was cast to play Gill-Man, the titular creature who was misunderstood by the rest of society. The film followed a group of scientists who traveled to the Amazonian jungle in search of a strange beast. Kay was the fiance of one of the scientists on the expedition, and she quickly became the object of Gill-Man’s affection. the film also starred Richard Carlson, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, and Whit Bissell.
Originally, Adams didn’t want to take on the role in the film, thinking it would be a step down for her career.
“I thought, ‘The creature from what? What is this?’” Adams told Horror Society in 2013. “because I had been working with some major stars and so on. But I read it and said, ‘If I turn it down, I won’t get paid and I’ll be on suspension.’ And then I thought, ‘What the hay! It might be fun.’ And of course, indeed it was. It was a great pleasure to do the picture.”
Of course, the legacy of Adams’ performance, and the film as a whole, continue to leave a legacy on Hollywood today. Just last year, Guillermo del Toro won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his film The Shape of Water, which was heavily inspired by Creature From the Black Lagoon.
