Horror legend dead at 93: Ricou Browning was ‘Creature from Black Lagoon’
nypost.comThe Hollywood Reporter.“He had a fabulous career in the film industry, providing wonderful entertainment for past and future generations,” she said.
Browning was born Feb. 16, 1930 in Fort Pierce, Florida, and attended Florida State University. As a teenager, he worked for Newt Perry, a stand-in for Johnny Weissmuller on “Tarzan” films, in underwater newsreels and as a water show performer at Florida tourist attraction Weeki Wachee Springs.
He was also on the U.S. Air Force swim team.He landed his gig as the terrifying Gill-Man when he was showing Universal location scouts the area of Wakulla Springs, Florida, and did some swim moves for them.The actor and stuntman was the last surviving actor of the original Universal Classic Monsters — a series of horror films by Universal Pictures from the 1930s to 1950s.Browning as Gill-Man in the underwater scenes of “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” the 3D classic that followed scientists on an expedition to the Amazon, was considered to be one of the most terrifying movie monsters of all time.Browning, who said he could routinely hold his breath for four minutes at a time, shared in a 2013 interview that his costume for the character “was cumbersome at first.
When I first put it on, it seemed awkward and clumsy,” he said. “But once I got into the movie, I forgot I had it on. I became the creature.”“The lips of the suit sat about a half-inch from my lips, and I put the air hose in my mouth to breathe,” he said in a 2019 interview with Halloween Daily News. “I would hold my breath and go do the scene, and I’d have other safety people with other air hoses to give me air if I needed it.
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