‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ star Julie Adams has died at the age of 92.
The American actress – who was born Betty May Adams on October 17, 1926 – passed away on Sunday (03.02.19) in Los Angeles following her eight-decade spanning career which included her unforgettable performance as damsel in distress Kay Lawrence in Universal’s iconic 1954 monster movie.
‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ tells the story of a group of scientists who disturb a strange amphibious prehistoric beast lurking in the depths of the Amazonian jungle who they want to capture.
The creature – known as Gill-Man – embarks on a murder spree and attempts to kidnap Kay after falling in love with her but is repeatedly shot and fought off by the film’s heroes.
A post on her official Facebook page read: "We are sad to report that Julie Adams passed away Sunday, February 3rd in Los Angeles, CA at the age of 92. In a career that spanned eight decades, she appeared in fifty films and hundreds of television episodes. She also starred in more than a dozen plays. She was a wonderful actress, mother and grandmother. She cherished her fans and was delighted that so many were enchanted by her performance in CFTBL – and numerous other projects. Her book ‘The Lucky Southern Star’ is enjoyed by film enthusiasts around the world. She is in heaven with the angels now, and she will live in our hearts forever."
As well as her most famous role as a scream queen in ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, Adams was a regular on film and television with notable performances in ‘Crooked River’, ‘The Treasure of the Lost Canyon’, ‘Capitol’, ‘The Mississippi Gambler’, ‘The Private War of Major Benson’ and TV series ‘Murder, She Wrote’, in which she played Eve Simpson for 10 episodes over six years.
A major Hollywood pin-up at the height of her career, Universal Studios once declared Adams’ legs "the most perfectly symmetrical in the world" and insured them for $125,000 as a publicity stunt for their contracted star.
The legacy of ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ continues today as the flick was the inspiration for Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 four-time Oscar-winning film ‘The Shape of Water’, which told the love story between Sally Hawkins’ mute cleaner Elisa Esposito and the mysterious Amphibian Man who is being experimented on at a secret government laboratory.
The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker was obsessed with Jack Arnold’s creature feature as a child but unlike most viewers he always wanted Adams’ alter ego Kay Lawrence to fall in love with Gill-Man.
Previously speaking to BANG Showbiz, he said: "For me as a kid, at age six, I watched ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ and I always hoped they would get together. But that was impossible. So it has taken 57 years to remedy that!"
Creature from the Black Lagoon actress Julie Adams dies
